THE FORGOTTEN SEASON By: Mick Blankenship

It is probably still quite hot as you are reading this article in early September, but the weather will soon be cooling down. You urban gardeners out there probably replaced your squash, zucchini and tomato plants from spring with okra, beans, and peppers three months ago. Your summer harvest is still thriving but will soon begin to die off. Many of you will hang up your gardening gloves and replace them with a shaker baring your favorite team’s colors as football season is upon us and who has time for the garden. Plus, winter is around the corner and all your plants will die anyway. I am here to convince you otherwise. Don’t forget the forgotten season. Fall is a great time for gardening. You may be asking yourself, “Well what grows in the fall?” The answer is, “a lot.” Fall is spring in reverse. The temperature range is the same and that is all plants care about. The only difference is that instead of your plants bailing out because of the heat, they may give up when it gets too cold. Additionally, if you left any of your spring crops in the garden that stopped fruiting in the heat of the summer, they may start fruiting again once temps drop a little.

Tomato plants often can survive through the summer, but won’t fruit because dealing with the heat stresses them too much to reproduce. Once temps drop below the mid 80’s, the plants are not stressed and will start putting out a second round of tomatoes. I usually plant my tomatoes in the late summer/early fall with the intention of keeping them through the winter. I plant them in five gallon buckets so I can easily bring them inside if temperatures get below 40 degrees. I usually get a decent fall harvest if I plant them early enough. But even if I don’t, they will be mature as soon as spring hits and start producing immediately. Those who wait until spring to plant their tomatoes won't get a harvest for the first couple of months while the plants mature. The plants will finally start to fruit about a month before it is too hot and they stop fruiting. You can get a much more bountiful harvest by starting them in the fall.

What else can you grow in the fall? If you do some research online, most recommendations for planting cruciferous and root vegetables say to do so mid-summer. But our mid-September is comparable to most of the country’s mid-summer. By mid-September, our weather is still hot and we are likely months away from a frost. This is a great time to plant cruciferous vegetables such as collard greens, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, bok choy, arugula, cauliflower, and radishes. These vegetables are high in fiber, micro-nutrients, and phytonutrients which may lower inflammation and reduce the risk of cancer. You can also plant root vegetables such as turnips, potatoes, carrots, onions, and garlic. They are high in fiber, potassium, and carotenoids which are naturally occurring pigments that are good for your eyes and may help reduce cancer. Cruciferous and root vegetables can handle below freezing temperatures which often improve their taste. However, you may still want to cover the plants if the temps are going to get below the upper 20s.

Winter squash is another great fall crop. There are multiple varieties of winter squash and they often grow on massive vines up to 30 feet long. Wherever you plant, be sure you have plenty of room. I grew a Seminole pumpkin plant last year that grew three 30ft vines. One wrapped around my deck, one wrapped around a raised bed, and the other ran along a fence. It produced over 20 large squash I think. I’m not sure because I lost count. I think a couple of squash even popped up in my neighbor’s yard. This was my first attempt. You know it’s a good crop for your environment and climate if you have that much success your first time. Winter squash can be cut in half, the insides cleaned out like a pumpkin, put in a ¼” of water, and baked. You can eat it as is, or puree it with seasonings and/or butter. I had so many Seminole pumpkins last year that I got creative. My favorite way to prepare it was to undercook it in the oven and then cut it into slices. I then fried/sautéed the slices in olive oil and seasoned. They came out much like sweet potato fries. YUM!

If you planted beans over the summer, this will be a great place to plant your fall crops. Whereas most plants deprive the soil of nitrogen, the most important plant nutrient for growth, legumes such as peas and beans add nitrogen to the soil. They take nitrogen from the air and convert it to ammonium nitrogen which is a form of nitrogen that plants can use. This is nature’s way of revitalizing the soil after a taxing summer, and proof that we are meant to garden year round.

I hope I have at least got you thinking about fall gardening. Another benefit of fall gardening is that it is no longer so hot you have a stroke every time you tend to your beds. Also, the bugs go away making it possible to go outside without a dousing of deet. I have to cover myself in Off if I’m going to be outside more than 5 seconds in the summer. Then my wife won’t come near me for the rest of evening because she hates the smell of bug repellant. It is for these reasons that I cannot wait to start fall gardening.