October Garden

I have rededicated Thursdays to my garden: I will re-envision, and plan next steps for creating a sanctuary here for nature and my family. This is also a day when I have both my grandsons, and I want to be sure to get them into the garden and into nature. 

The October garden is cooler and calmer. We've had some rainy days to refresh the green, and I can relax with the watering. I need to finish fall planting, garden clean-up, and prepare for winter.

This is the time of the waning crescent "balsamic moon" - the final yin phase, a pause that marks the end point in this cycle. Now we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work, renewal, and self-care.

 

Today:

1. October garden tasks

2. Planting

3. Next steps for my Wildlife Garden

3. This week's garden plan

4. Nature-culture flow and kid projects

1. October garden tasks:

The consistency of the 15-minute daily visit keeps me connected to my garden even when I don't accomplish much.

1. Harvest beans, tomatoes, beets, carrots, raspberries, rhubarb
2. Plant: Lettuce, bok choy, broccoli, onions, leeks, garlic
3. Seed Collecting and Saving: Look for native seeds.
4. Sow Cover Crops: Chop plants to the soil line then broadcast red clover and fava bean seed to enrich and protect soil through the winter.

2. Planting:

The second half of September is ideal for transplanting cool-tolerant fall crops. We are 2 weeks behind because my starts were stunted. We are pushing up on our first frost date - around October 20th - so I just hope plants will mature quickly.

I've begun to harden off my babies, and I have three beds prepared:

In the small bed near the rhubarb I'll plant Buttercrunch lettuce: It's in the Compositae (Aster) Family. It has grown wild since antiquity, and the ancient Egyptians were probably the first to cultivate it. Lettuce is one of the easiest vegetables to grow; the seeds are quick to germinate, and the leaves grow fast. The only thing I need to worry about is heavy rain - my plan is to pound in 4 stakes around the lettuce and then cover when heavy rain is expected.

In the back bed between the summer leeks and the beets, I'll plant Bok choy (Brassica rapa), a member of the mustard family, and is native to China, specifically the Yangtze River Delta area, where it was likely bred from native wild brassica species growing in the area around 3,500 years ago. It's a cool-weather crop that you can plant in the early spring and again in the fall.

Bok choy is vulnerable to lots of pests: aphids, cabbage worms and root maggots, flea beetles, slugs and whiteflies. Planting near onions can help deter cabbage maggots, so I'm planting also tiny onion starts all around these.

In the big middle bed I will plant Leeks (Allium porrum) - I'm digging a 5‐7” deep and wide trench along one side and will plant these into the bottom, 4‐5” apart, Leave the trench open (don't fill it in), and begin blanching as plants grow and thicken by piling soil or straw around the leeks inside the trench. This practice keeps the bottom of the leeks white and tender.

I'm leaving space in that big bed for a row of garlic, and the purple sprouting broccoli. 

3. Next steps for my Wildlife Garden:

Goals for this fall: I'm working on four main areas:

Street Planting Strip 

1. Remove ornamental iris and most daylily.
2. "Clean up" the snow berry so it looks less chaotic.
3. Transplant mystery plant from front window bed to prominent places.

• Wish list: Asters, Oregon iris seed from meeting (sow in November)

Rose garden / lawn:

1. Continue to remove invasive and nuisance weeds: Italian arum and creeping buttercup.

• Wish list: Golden rod 

Hugelkulture

• Wish list: Native violets (Viola unduko), red columbine, corral bells, goat's beard

Front patio bed

• Wish list: More checkermallow, fireweed, zinnias, salvia, and aster (all for swallowtails)

4. This week's garden plan:

The next two days will be west and cold - I'll need perseverance to complete garden tasks! 

• Th: Dig up mystery plant and put under hawthorn                         
• F: Duck care; bindweed eradication (clear pallet etc); pot up bleeding heart for Denise; mulch flower bed with leaves
• Sat: Plant lettuces, bok choy, leeks (cover the lettuce)
• Sun: Weed street bed; Remove ornamental iris and most daylily and "clean up" the snow berry so it looks less chaotic.
• M: Duck care; prune hedge
• T: Water fairy garden; weed neighbor bed; collect mulch for backyard 
• W: Duck care; plant garlic and broccoli?
• Th: Weed rose bed: Italian arum and creeping buttercup, feed the birds.

5. Nature-Culture flow and kid projects:

My garden chores and practices are deeply connected to my teaching, writing, artwork, and activism. Ideas-

• Th: Both boys day - Pumpkin book; feed the birds and squirrels;  
• F: Write about fall wildlife gardening;
• Sat: New moon retreat; New EC brochure - Theme: Resilience?
• Sun: Make an EC sample leaf; pickle my beets!
• M: Start watercolor bird/ flower studies 
• T: New bird cards, bird watching walk; collect acorns...
• W: ECEF call