EARLY FALL PLANTING

(Page 2 of 2)

September/October 1981
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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ZONE 9. Gardeners here will find things cooling a bit in the early fall, but that December 1 frost is still a long way off. Plant limas, snap beans, cukes, okra, blackeyed peas, and potatoes by September 15. Summer squash that's sown in the first few days of the month will mature, and there's a good chance that tomato, pepper, and eggplant transplants that go into the soil by the first week of October will crop well for you. Of course, you can also grow everything that your northern neighbors are hurrying into the ground: Just add about 15 days to their last planting dates.

RELATED CONTENT

ZONE 10. You folks are in the catbird seat, as your second (or third!) season in the garden comes up. Just add two weeks to the Zone 9 planting deadlines, and prepare to enjoy your nearly year-round vegetable plot.

GREEN MANURE

After the harvest ...that's the time to start planting! Yup, the last succession seeding of this year's garden is also the first crop of next year's. A fall cover of winter rye and hairy vetch will grow a bit this autumn, protect your garden against erosion during the winter, and then resume growth in those first warm days of spring (when it's still too wet to work the earth). By the time the soil is dry enough for filling, you'll have a fine stand of green manure: a nitrogen—rich legume (the vetch) and a good, bulky grass (the rye). Simply till the greenery under, and you'll have enriched soil and improved tilth.

We've found that one pound each of winter rye (not rye grass) and hairy vetch will seed 600 square feet nicely. Simply rake the empty garden beds smooth and—after inoculating the vetch with the bacteria that cause nitrogen-rich nodules fo form on the plants' roots—broadcast the seed, and water the plot well. The rye will germinate first, and serve as a nurse crop for the vetch.

You can purchase seed at many farmers' co-ops ...orby mailfrom Park Seeds, Dept. TMEN, P.O. Box 31, Greenwood, South Carolina 29647. The inoculant is Catalog No. 6206, and costs $1.25 (the regular bacteria you use on peas and beans won't, alas, work with vetch). Park also sells winter rye grain seed for $2.25 a pound (Catalog No. 5848), and hairy vetch seed for $2.70 a pound (Catalog No. 5849). Why not grow some fertilizer this fall?

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