As the nights grow colder and growth slows down it is time to think of fall chores and winter vegetables. We can harvest our gardens year round in this part of the world but it does require some planning. Leeks and brussel sprouts are great winter crops but they needed to be planted by June to reach a good size by late fall. Both taste better after a touch of frost. You can plant right now transplants of winter hardy broccoli and kale as well as winter cabbage. It is too late to grow them from seed but you can find plants at local nurseries. A member told me he found some nice plants at Thriftys and Art Knapps will have them. How well these will grow really depends on the type of winter we have. If it is very cold you could loose them but with some protection they will come through. It is the M word again. Mulch the soil around the plants with hay, straw, leaves, dry grass or whatever to a depth of around 4”. Do this before we get a hard frost to keep the soil from freezing. You want the slugs to have gone into hibernation rather than provide them with a good spot to spend the winter. Then make a poly tunnel for added protection. Drive 2ft lengths of r-bar along either side of the bed to a depth of one foot about 2ft apart. Make an arch of poly piping across the bed by pushing the pipe over the exposed end of the r-bar and arching it over. Old piping works fine. Get some clear poly sheeting that will cover your arch and attach with large bull dog clips to pipe. You can partially close off the ends of the tunnel but you do need to leave an opening for ventilation. This gives you a mini greenhouse which can be reused next spring to give you a head start with peas, greens, etc.

You can sow some greens for salads right now. Try some lambs lettuce, arugula and Winter Density lettuce which are all fairly cold tolerant. Winter mesclun blend also does well here in the fall but get it in now. Some Chinese greens such as Pac Choi and Mizuna are also worth trying. Check out the West Coast Seeds catalogue for more ideas. This is free and a great source of gardening information for this area.

Remember to leave some space for planting garlic and broad beans in October. Choose your biggest garlic bulbs to be broken up into cloves to plant for next year. Garlic is not a heavy feeder but you should add some fertilizer to the ground before you plant any of the above crops. Lime is also important to any of the brassicas. A handful of dolomite in each planting hole mixed into the soil is not too much to keep club root at bay.

Carrots and beets can be left in the soil until well into November and even all winter if mulched well. I have dug carrots when the ground is frozen around them. They taste so good on a cold January day.

When you harvest crops and have bare ground, sow some winter rye and pea mix. It will increase the humus content of the soil and fix nutrients to prevent leaching. Lime the soil at the same time. If you can find some seaweed to dig in first, so much the better.