While these classes are to support the South Side community of The Buckeye ISA, they are free and open to the public so bring your friends and your questions. Families with children that want to grow their own food may be eligible to enroll in the Buckeye ISA and get materials and educational support.
Click HERE to print the flyer –> 2019 Spring Gardening SS ISA
Click HERE for more information about the Community Garden Grants
Click HERE to print the flyer –> CommunityGardenGrant
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The first round of workshops to support the Buckeye ISA program to teach families with children how to grow their own food has been approved for release. All of these classes are free and open to the public so bring your friends and your questions.
Click Here for a PDF of the flyer to download –> 2019 Ag Lit ISA Spring Workshops
It is not too late to plant a fall cover crop. Keeping the ground covered and alive over winter is one of the top soil health priorities for the backyard grower, community gardener and urban farmer. The recent spell of warm weather last week has kept soil temperatures fairly high for this time of year. Soil temperatures in central Ohio were around 63 degrees as of 10/14/18.
Click here for Central Ohio Soil Temperatures
There are several species of cover crops that can still be planted in central Ohio. What you want to plant depends on what outcome you are looking for. Cover crops are tools in your soil health toolbox, you use what is needed for the task and what will accomplish your goals.
A seedbed was created via tillage. This tillage can cause a loss of organic matter and disruption of the soil in the root zone but was done to create a seed bed to improve germination of cover crops seed. This is common for a backyard grower, community gardener or urban farmer. In agronomic systems, a no-till drill could be used to minimize soil disturbance.
Some cover crops will achieve a modest amount of growth and then will die when winter temperatures go below freezing. These still provide many soil health benefits, but do not provide as much organic matter in terms of biomass.
This cover crop mix contains Austrian winter peas and oats. It is not cold tolerant and will winter kill with deep freezes. It is a good choice for a grower who cannot manage a cover crop with implements or when an early season seedbed is desired for planting. These species could still be planted, but they might not achieve the level of biomass production to justify their expense at this late time in the season.
Some cover crops are cold tolerant and will persist through winter’s cold, starting regrowth once temperatures and sunlight increase in early spring. These have their own management challenges.
Species that do well in the cold and will likely over winter include winter rye, crimson clover, hairy vetch, and most brassicas.
It is important for the backyard grower, community gardener and urban farmer to prioritize soil health. Soil Health = Plant Health = People Health.
This mix has excellent biodiversity and will grow over the winter with excellent cold tolerance. It will have management challenges in the spring due to fast regrowth when warmer temperatures return.
Planting a cover crop now will increase your soil health, add organic matter, prevent erosion of nutrients and give your 2019 garden a jump start that will pay off with increased fresh, local produce.
The debris is fresh manure with hay and straw from the stalls after mucking added to the top. Lower levels may be more composted. The door is heavy and tricky to use, get assistance from staff to open and close the door if needed.
For the backyard grower, community gardener and urban farmer, there is still time to put seeds and plants in the ground. There are many choices available in vegetables and cover crops to take advantage of the cooler fall harvest weather and utilize the abundant rainfall and still optimal soil temperature, especially if the grower has the ability to utilize season extension.
Vegetables:
Those who followed the Fall Vegetable Planting timeline are harvesting basil, lettuce, radishes, green beans and summer squash now. Monitor for frost closely and be ready to use season extension to protect tender crops.
There are still some choices to direct seed, these will need season extension to allow harvest into November and later:
This arugula was started from seed under grow lights. It will be transplanted outdoors in a week. This was done to allow more time for flea beetles, a major pest of arugula, to finish its life cycle.
I still have several lettuce plugs from an earlier project that will be transplanted outside under row cover in a week.
There are several pests to continue to monitor for this time of year. Slugs will be numerous if organic matter levels are moderate to high. Deer are a serious threat due to decreasing amounts of fresh forage. They will consume nearly all fall planted vegetables without protection. The Cabbage White butterfly can persist in the environment deep into fall and their larvae can eat large amounts of foliage.
Spinach that will be grown overwinter in low tunnels under row cover should be planted withing the next couple weeks from direct seed. Check out this Growing Franklin post for a documentation of that process.
Cover Crops:
It is important to keep something growing all year long and avoid bare ground. This is especially critical over winter to avoid loss of fertility and organic matter from erosion. There are still several choices available including grasses such as rye or oats, legumes such as crimson clover or vetch and brassicas such as forage radishes. The choice of what to plant depends on what the goal is, what crop will follow and the grower’s ability to manage the crop in the spring.
This past weekend I prepared the area that had previously grown cucurbits into a seedbed.
I had used woven plastic landscape fabric as mulch and weed suppression for my winter squash and pumpkins. This was my first foray into using this method and I was impressed by how effective it was. The only drawback was that after removal the ground had reverted to its base state as a heavy clay soil. I think it is imperative that I cover crop following plasticulture to improve soil health going forward.
Note the bindweed seedling that persisted under black heavy weight landscape fabric. The fabric was placed in early June and temperatures were in the 90’s multiple times this season.
There is still time to plant cover crops. I planted a mix of winter rye, hairy vetch, crimson clover and forage radish. This mix will require intensive management in spring, but will persist over winter and provide multiple soil health benefits.
To find out about cover crops, fall vegetable planting as well as many other topics there will be a class on Fall Garden Projects to Benefit the Spring Garden at Grandview Heights Public Library on Tuesday October 16th, at 7pm.
There will be a class on projects that can be done in the fall that will make your spring garden easier to start and more productive during the season. Topics will include soil health, composting, garden expansion, cover crops, soil testing and more. Bring your friends and your questions to this free event presented in partnership with The Grandview Heights Public Library.
Click HERE for flyer to download and print –> GV Library Fall to Spring Garden
There will be a free class as well as a garden walk at The Friend’s Garden on Saturday September 22nd at 9;00 am. Come learn some new techniques to build soil health and incorporating organic matter into your garden.
Click HERE for flyer to download and print –> Hugelkultur and Lasagna Layering Flyer for 9/22/18
A garden walk is upcoming to address concerns and answer questions related to late summer production with an eye towards growing in fall and winter. It is free and open to the public.
Click here to download and print the flyer -> Summer Garden Walk Ag Lit #2
