SHORTY’S GARDEN & HOME offers area gardeners a variety of cover crop selections, including those shown here at the Ridgefield Shorty’s location. Photo courtesy of Viki Eierdam.
FALL IS A good time for area gardeners to consider applying lawn seed and performing other lawn care functions. Photo courtesy of Viki Eierdam.
Sept. 22 was the first day of fall, a time when many gardeners were putting their plots to bed for the winter. That may be a bit premature because, as the folks at Shorty’s Garden & Home can attest, there’s still at least two more months left in the growing season.
“By now, you’re probably better off with starts,” said Shorty’s employee Marianne Filbert, who also shared that vegetables like kale, lettuce, peas and salad greens planted now can be harvested in two to four weeks and will keep growing well into November.
Filbert added that “the best thing to be planting is garlic,” which can be harvested in late spring and then planted again in spring to be harvested for late fall.
There’s a plethora of cool-season vegetables for area gardeners to choose from that prefer fall and spring growing conditions as opposed to the heat of the summer.
Radishes can be grown from seeds or starts right now. Gardeners should allow approximately 70 days to harvest, which can offer a wonderful crisp, peppery treat to be picking in November. Onions and shallots are another crop to consider. If planted now, they can be harvested from November until it’s time to replant in the spring.
A gardener who’s motivated enough would do well to put mulch over plantings that will be in the ground through winter as added protection to keep in moisture and heat (it’s called “over wintering’’ in the garden world). Cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli round out the more popular vegetables that prefer cooler temperatures, but gardeners should be aware that these vegetables don’t play well together so the proper research should be done before planting them near each other.
Area residents should not forget herbs in their fall planting scheme. Chives, lavender, cilantro, parsley and thyme can be planted now and harvested two to four weeks from now through November, much like the vegetables mentioned earlier.
If the options available for a fall garden are still not enticing, area gardeners should consider thinking ahead to spring by purchasing cover crops like red and white clover or winter rye. These are, essentially, weeds to tide winter over.
Shorty’s employee Andrea Rudolph offers that “having a protective cover is good” to help fight erosion during rains common to Clark County. Before it starts to flower in the spring, till the protective cover into the garden soil and the cover crop becomes “nutrients for the soil” Rudolph said.
Another planting direction for this time of year is the ever-popular bulb. Daffodils, tulips, crocus and hyacinth are widely available and, again, through November is the magical window to put these tubers in the ground for a festival of color come spring.
Color spots are often a wonderful way to perk up a dreary fall day. In addition to pansies, violas and mums, there’s even ornamental cabbage and kale to choose from. A variety of kale called “Tuscan Black” does double duty as an ornamental and is edible.
When asked about fall’s potential for lawns, Rudolph offered that it is the “perfect combination of warm soil and rains” to plant a lawn or repair some damaged patches. While area residents enjoy much-needed rains for new grass in fall and spring, the soil is still warm in the fall from the heat through the summer as opposed to planting grass seed in the spring when the ground is quite cold from the winter months.
So, any area gardeners who haven’t been convinced to plant anything more for the season can still visit area nurseries such as Shorty’s Garden & Home. where they can still find a perfect place to spend a fall day hatching dreams for next year. Such a visit will provide the ability to see what plants flower well and grow well during the fall season.
“This is a good time to check out their fall color,” said Rudolph, referring to tree and shrub selection.
Shorty’s Garden & Home has two locations in Clark County – 705 NE 199th St., in Ridgefield, and 10006 Mill Plain Blvd., in Vancouver. For more information, visit www.shortysgardenandhome.com on the internet.
