Fall Gardening Thoughts
By Bruce Lee Deuley - 10/8/03

It is time to put in your cool-season vegetables here in the hill country.

Leafy root crops such as carrots, turnips, beets etc.

It is also time to plant your fall Cole crops. Kale, cabbage, kohlrabi and broccoli are now ready to be planted.

Beds you do not intend to plant this fall should be over-seeded with a cool season “green manure” crop. These are seeded in the bed and allowed to grow for a few months then turned under to provide organic matter for the soil. Best choices here are clover, vetch , elbon rye and oats. The legumes such as clover, vetch or winter peas are also nitrogen-fixing plants and increase the available nitrogen in the soil for future plantings.

It is also a good time to fertilize all of your planting areas with a good organic fertilizer such as Texas Tee or Gardnerville 7-2-2. Distribute at 15 to 20 pounds for every 1,000 square feet of area. In addition, a fall foliar feeding of all of your established plants and lawn areas with a good liquid such as Garret Juice or Deuley’s’ Own Elixir is in order to help your plantings through the upcoming winter.

Brown patch is very common especially in St Augustine grass this year because of the early cool, damp weather. This problem can be eliminated by using a good foliar spray as mentioned above with an addition of skim milk of garlic juice or whole ground yellow corn meal distributed at 20lbs/1,000sq.ft. The webworms and tent caterpillars will be gone soon enough it the cool weather persist but if you can’t wait both can be taken care of by using a product containing Bacillus Thuringiensis. However, remember this bacteria is just as effective against the “good guys” that produce our Monarchs, Swallowtails and other beautiful butterflies so use it only when absolutely necessary.

If you have not seeded you wildflowers, already it is also time to get them out and on the ground for a good spring bloom. Be sure to get a selection of wildflowers seeds that are naturalized to our area. Wildseed Farms has an excellent mix for our area. They may be purchased at our local nurseries or you can go directly to the farm located a few miles outside of Fredericksburg.

Good Gardening!