What’s in the ground this week:

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we are only four weeks away from our first frost here in the northeast, our friends in the far north have even less time and our friends in the south may be breathing easy. But either way, fall is creeping in, which means that if you haven’t transplanted your greens, brocolli and potatoes, now is the time. It’s also time to seed your spinach, lettuce and root vegetables. Although the cold  weather seems like an end to our fresh veggies, if you time your seeds right, only water early in the day to let the sun work its magic and cover your crops with remay when it gets too cold, you’ll have veggies past thanksgiving. More on winter growing later in the season.

What’s going on in sustainability:

To lift your spirits after reminding us all that summer’s ending, it is still very possible to maintain your summer crop and thrive well into the fall. The problem many local gardeners run into is neglecting their harvesting duties. In the spring and early summer, everyone is energized to fill their beds, sometimes planting way too close together, just to get that abundant crop. But then, August roles around, and just when everything is producing, that’s when our neighborhoods suffer an apocolyptic-like abandonment as everyone takes off for their vacations. What’s left are veggies withering on plants, fruit rotting on the ground and a lot of food going to waste.

Now I’m not suggesting we all give up our vacations. The labor movement worked too damn hard to feel bad about taking off for a few weeks in the summer. However, when it comes to a sustainable garden, a little extra work is needed.

The life cycle of a plant is geared toward growing seed so it can die. This seed is either found in the fruit on the plant like a tomato or in the flowers that bloom like on lettuce. Once the plant produces its seed, it has served its purpose and dies peacfully. However, if you keep picking those leaves, or that fruit off, the plant never satisfies its seed production and keeps producing more seed and naturally, more crop. So, if you keep harvesting just as your crop ripens, the plant stays farther and farther away from death and as you keep eating, so will you.

Sadly, as I’ve seen in many community gardens, people can’t keep up with their crop. Sometimes like I said due to summer vacation, or other times because they are new to gardening and they don’t know what to do with all of the food they produce. So I offer three tips.

1. Before planting, do your best to calculate your yield. It will take the pressure off to manage crops and will leave more space for more variety.

2. Try your best to eat as seasonally as possible. You’re producing food, so in the summer take a break from the grocery store or resaurant.

3. If you do go away, look into a communtiy gleaning program where people can come and harvest your food, sometimes for personal use, sometimes for donation. If one does not exist in your town, hop on the internet and start one up.

There are plenty more ideas I’m sure, so if you have them, please write back and I’ll do my best to post. Until then, happy planting and I’ll see you all next week.