Preparing the Vegetable Garden for Fall Planting

Preparing for Fall Planting

When getting ready for a busy fall planting it's important to prepare the garden soil to the best of your ability before the future growing season. By using good compost manure to replenish the vegetable garden soil with the needed nutrients for crops you are able to ensure the soil is ready for fall planting.

Currently in the Vegetable Garden

Travis currently has his garden broken into 10 subplots to help make a better rotation of crops and manage the gardens better. In the first subplot, he has a warm-season cover crop Sorghum Sudangrass that provides excellent ground coverage throughout the garden. Instead of chopping it up and laying it on the soil, Travis is thinking about crimping it then using the silage tarp to cover it up. On the second subplot, he has a nice stand of jambalaya okra but they are not producing okra pods because we might be giving them to much fertilizer. When growing okra you have to be careful not to give them to much fertilizer, otherwise, you will get all vegetation and not a lot of okra production. On the third plot, we have four rows of peppers and two rows of eggplant throughout the garden area. They are supported using the Florida weave technique and are producing well in the heat as we continue to give them plenty of irrigation and fertilizer them about every two weeks. The two different eggplant varieties that are growing are Purple Shine and Striped Italian Eggplant. Then, as far as pepper growing we have a variety of hot and sweet varieties. Next, in plot number four we have tomatoes planted from the spring and took the advice from our viewers to use wheat straw mulch around the plants and till it into the soil to help add organic matter. Since planting tomatoes, Travis has come in the area and planted a cover crop of Sunn Hemp that has been growing fast and will help add nitrogen to restore the soils for fall planting in the area. In two more subplots of the vegetable garden, there are Millet and Buckwheat cover crops planted to help prepare the plots for fall planting. Then, in plot number seven this is the oldest plot we have in the dream garden and we have more okra growing that's around seven to eight-foot-tall. Instead of pulling the okra plants, Travis has decided to take his loppers and cut it clean to the soil so he can leave the root structure there and just cover crop on top of it. In a couple of other subplots in the vegetable garden is Lacinato Kale that is ready to harvest and Stonewall Cucumbers that did really well but ready to be cleaned from the area as well. Also, some flowers that were used to bring in pollinators in the area will just be mowed down before planting another cover crop to help prepare for fall planting even more. In plot number nine, Travis has an entire plot of Georgia Jet potatoes that has created a great dense mat of vegetation that will help prevent a lot of weed growth and allow the potatoes to thrive in the area. In the last plot of the dream garden, there is a crop of Tiger Collards that are still producing and two more rows of transplanted jambalaya okra to hopefully make up for the other okra that is not producing. Once the Tiger Collards are done producing he hopes to plant pole beans and maybe a fall crop of cucumbers in the entire plot.