The garden tends to run rampant in July and August. The beans seem to grow another foot overnight, freshly cut grass looks unruly after a few days, and weeds mature and set seed at a frightening rate. Here’s a few tips for getting things under control in your fall garden:
Cut and cover those weeds: If your garden’s more weeds than plants at this point, I’d suggest cutting the weeds short and covering them with non-bleached, non-coated cardboard. On top, pile a few inches of compost, and then plant directly into the compost. For the best results, you’ll want to stick with plants with shallow root systems. Lettuces, for example, can survive in relatively little soil, while you’ll want to cut a hole in the cardboard for heavy feeders like broccoli. The hole will give the broccoli access to more nutrients, and will breach the cardboard barrier for late-summer runner weeds like Bermuda grass to come climbing into your new garden bed. I use this technique for spots with annuals I’ve neglected during the harried summer days. Exceptions for using the cut-and-cover method include areas with heavy pest or disease pressure. Burying this year’s adult flea beetles could result in an even bigger problem next year.
Stick to one plant or color: OK, you’ve got your garden bed refurbished for fall. What do you fill it with? Spring gardening is awash in an array of beautiful choices; fall gardening can be an overwhelming waterfall of too many options. If you’ve got decision fatigue, try picking one plant like coral bells (heuchera) or pansies and buying that one type of plant in different colors. You could also choose a color and buy plants that fit the bill. A friend’s rented house contains a small garden full of purple flowers. Because the plants bloom at different times, it took me a few weeks to notice the trend. Mexican petunias grew near an inch plant (tradescantia) near a dark red-purple Japanese maple. Now, I look forward to visiting, in part because I want to identify the next purple plant.
Buy seedlings: A pumpkin seed planted today won’t mature into a full-grown pumpkin by Halloween—there’s not enough time. Like pumpkins, it’s too late to seed some fall favorites in the ground. But area autumnal seedling sales are a great way to fill your garden with produce minus some stress. If you are still considering seeding, be sure to give the plants additional germination time. Packaged seeds’ information often includes the average days to germination. Depending on species and variety, you might see a four- or five-day difference as the number of daylight hours slowly decreases.
Watch out for diseases: Athens endured several rain-washed weeks lately. Heavy rainfall, combined with the heat and humidity, make conditions perfect for powdery mildew, botrytis and root rot. Powdery mildew looks like patches of powdered sugar covering your plant, often on the leaves. Georgia gardeners often find it on cucurbits, like cucumbers and melons. I trim leaves to make sure plants, like squash, have enough air flow. Giving plants enough space will allow them to dry out between rainstorms and curb mildew outbreaks.
Botrytis is a fungus also known as gray mold. Often, I see botrytis emerge from a decaying discarded leaf, fruit or flower before spreading to the main plant. Removing garden waste from close contact will help avoid such issues.
Root rot can be the hardest to diagnose, especially in the fall, because a stressed plant with yellowing, drooping leaves might be seen as an early autumnal display. Root rot can also be the hardest to fix, because it takes a lot of sand to improve the drainage of clay soil. I gave my olive tree a case of root rot when I decided to plant it in the ground last winter. After losing most of its leaves and looking sickly, I hauled it out of the ground. Many of its roots were black and broke off easily in my hand. Now, it’s back to dark green leaves and new shoots in its preferred sandy loam pot. The olive tree is an exception to my general rule of finding plants that can tolerate wet clay soil instead of attempting to change the soil texture.
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