Fall Gardening

A revised proposal has been submitted to the school district for the use of the Hector Campbell School grounds for a neighborhood community garden, we are waiting for their response. Ideally we would start working on the new garden this fall before the soil is too wet from winter rains; but if not, we will just have to wait until spring. Anyway, fall is a great time to learn new gardening techniques, plan for spring planing and next summers harvest, AND plant a winter garden!

Learn


Lettuce growing under plastic in January

Clackamas County Master Gardeners Fall Garden Fair: Saturday October 8th at the Milwaukie Center, 5440 SE Kellogg Creek Drive, from 9:30am to Noon. Attend "10 minute university" seminars, have your soil PH tested, and have questions answered by Master Gardeners. Click HERE for a complete schedule of the days events. And while you are there take a walk around the building and check out the Centers Community Garden beds.

Plan

Take time to think about what vegetables your family likes to eat, how much they eat, how you would prepare home grown veggies, and how you would store your harvest. Think about which plants you should grow from seed and which you should plan to buy as starts from the market. Take time to look through seed catalogs and study online resources like the OSU Extension Services results of their vegetable variety trials. 

Kale grows well through the winter.

Plant

Don't stop growing food just because summer is over! Our climate allows us to grow some things year round with just a little protection from the cold. Some edibles must be planted in the fall: October is the time to plant garlic to be harvested early next summer. See the OSU Extension publication "Fall and Winter Vegetable Gardening in the Pacific Northwest" for a good overview of winter gardening. Most of the crops will need time to establish themselves before the real cold weather sets in, so it may be a little late to start seeds, but veggie starts can be purchased at the farmers market or at the nursery.