Is Your Garden Ready For Fall?
5 Steps to Get Your Garden Ready
Who’s ready for pumpkin bread, college football and brassicas, like broccoli, kale, cauliflower and bok choy in their garden? The Garden Girls love a fresh start and that is exactly what we have as temperatures start to cool down in Houston.
Remove Expired Plants and Prune
Your first step is to remove any plants that don’t look healthy. Summers are hot in Houston and our plants often need to be replaced with healthier ones at the end of summer. Remove any tomatoes you planted in Spring, diseased peppers, woody herbs and old flowers. You can normally keep your basil, eggplant and okra in your kitchen garden, but they probably need pruned. Trim any leaves that have holes or look yellow or brown. Just remember to never prune more than 1/3 of the plant at a time.
Add Organic Soil
Now, that you have removed the old plants, you will notice that your garden needs a top off of soil. We recommend buying soil from locally owned nurseries, like Wabash, Buchanan’s or Southwest Fertilizer. They can advise you on a great organic vegetable mix blend.
Check Irrigation
After you add soil, check your irrigation ensuring that the drip lines are not buried. This is also the perfect time to do a manual run on your garden irrigation to make sure all lines are properly working. You may also decide to reduce the number of days or amount of time that your irrigation is running now that temperatures are cooler.
Treat for Pests
If you notice a pest infestation, you should treat it before you plant new crops. The bugs that we see most often this time of year are ants, snails, squash bugs or pill bugs in gardens. For any insect that has an exoskeleton, we treat the garden with Diatomaceous Earth. Food-grade DE is safe for humans and found naturally in sedimentary rock. For ants, the Garden Girls use blackstrap molasses. Mix 1-2 Tablespoons with water, add a drop of Castile soap, shake well and apply the solution.
Make a Garden Plan for Fall and Plant
Now, comes the fun part!!! Look at what you can plant in fall in Houston and write down everything you want to plant. If you are a Garden Girl client, we provide a monthly guide on what to plant. There are so many choices- tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, kale, mustards, radish, carrots, beets, bush beans, lettuces and tons of herbs. Once you have your list of favorites, decide what plants need a lot of room or a trellis and be sure to save room for them. Tomatoes and Peppers need to be planted in early September, while lettuces should be planted closer to October.
Remember to have fun, experiment and enjoy!!!
