Back to Gardening Chapter 5, The Seasons of Gardening - Part C: Fall

This chapter lays out the key tasks that gardeners need to undertake in spring, summer, fall and winter.

Fall

Fall begins in the Northern hemisphere with an astronomical event called the autumnal equinox - which is the midpoint between the longest day of the year (summer solstice) and the shortest day of the year (winter solstice). This usually occurs around September 22nd-23rd. What makes this time of year important to gardeners is that there is sunlight for half the hours of the day, and a little less light every new day - so each day it gets a little colder, frosts start occurring with regularly, the ground may begin to freeze, and everything to die back and/or go dormant. Those cold nights place a time limit on harvest times. Some things must be done BEFORE the frost - and some should be done after - but everything has to get done before it gets too cold - or all that work will go to waste.

Growing food is all about getting plants to capture energy from the sun and then harvesting various parts of those plants for food. In the fall, the energy source (the sun) is gradually shutting down - so as a result, vegetables are simultaneously shutting down and giving up yields from all that energy capture. Fall is generally associated with harvests, but it’s also a great time to get other things done because it’s nice and cool, and there are no bugs outside. Fall is a very busy time in the garden.

Fall frosts mark the beginning of the end. One last push to get everything done and squared away before freeze-up. [source: https://pixabay.com/photos/leaves-macro-frost-garden-plant-7018017/]

Harvest

Fall is called “fall” because that is when leaves fall from trees - but this time of year means so much more to gardeners, and I also imagine it meant more to most people, many many years ago, when most people’s food was grown or found, rather than bought in stores. As indicated above, fall begins when then days start to become shorter - but thinking about this more broadly, it is when sun energy starts becoming less and less available each day. Spring and summer, by contrast, are periods of increasing and abundant sun energy. Therefore, it makes sense that fall is also a time of harvest, when we gather the many things that resulted from the abundance of energy that was present during the growing season. The important thing to remember when harvesting in the fall is that some things must be harvested before there is frost, and some things should be harvested after there has been frost. One must be constantly aware of the nighttime temperatures, and make decisions based on the risks posed to vegetables that are still in the garden. If a light frost is expected, some things - like tomatoes - can be covered for the night. But if a hard frost is expected, regardless of how long a day it was at work , it may be necessary to drop everything, get out in the garden, and pick everything that will be damaged by that frost and get it indoors and safe. This is simply a reality of gardening - but it’s ok because a little fresh air and exercise at the end of the day is sometimes good medicine for body and mind.

Frost-Sensitive

All plants that are frost sensitive need to be harvested before there is risk of frost. Here’s a shortlist of some very popular gardening vegetables that are frost sensitive:

For many of these vegetables, in the event of competing priorities, harvest can be delayed a few night by covering them with a tarp or blanket of some kind - but that sort of game can become risky if it is played enough times - and it is a real shame to lose the season’s bounty to one night of procrastination.

The key is to develop a sense of the rhythm of the seasons where you live, and how they play out at your specific location. Where I am, frosts tend to happen sometime in September, but sometimes they don’t happen until October. For this reason, I check the forecast every week, starting in September, and look at the predicted “lows” for each night. In early September the lows are in the teens and high singles. As September rolls along they start to get into the high and mid singles, and eventually they start getting in the low singles. When I see the low singles being predicted, I put the harvesting effort into high-gear and try to get all the frost-sensitive plants indoors.

Frost-Tolerant

Some frost-tolerant plants can be harvested before or after frost arrives. Some can only take light frost, while some can take a hard frost and even some light freezing. It is also the case the the flavor of some is actually improved by the frost. Here is a list of frost-tolerant vegetables:

Potatoes and cilantro have asterixis beside them because they can only take a very light frost, and in the case of potatoes, that is only because they are underground and/or under mulch. As soon as frost arrives these must be harvested right away. Most of the root vegetables above are improved by frost, as are most of the greens. Garlic is listed as frost tolerant, but it is usually harvested in mid summer, before it starts to break up and take root. Similarly, onions usually come out of the garden in late summer, before fall frosts, even thought they are frost tolerant.

Preserving and Storing

Whenever people see the size of my garden, one of the first questions they ask is whether I sell the things I grow. I typically respond by saying, “no, we use all of it”. This tends to result in very some very confused looks - because most people have no idea how to process and store vegetables.

The storage of vegetables is necessary in every case where there is a surplus. Since a successful garden often results in a surplus, all successful gardeners must eventually learn various techniques for the medium and long-term storage of produce. The vast majority of everything I grow that isn’t eaten immediately is stored for later use using one of the following techniques: