Most people associate gardens with spring and summer. Bounties of plump tomatoes, peppers and juicy watermelon can be found in Alabama soils during the warm weather months, but gardening does not have to end at the changing of the seasons.
Plant and environmental experts say August is the perfect time for Alabama gardeners to clear out the weeds and establish a hardy collection of fall and winter produce. For people who enjoy tending to plants all year long, a variety of leafy greens and vegetables can be put into the soil during late summer or early fall.
Nikole Sothers, Huntsville’s Green Team manager (and gardening enthusiast), advised now is the time to select seasonal plants and seeds. She suggested checking the seed packaging information to ensure vegetation will have enough time to mature before the possibility of frost comes to the Yellowhammer State in late October.
“Basically, you look at the seed pack, and it tells you how many days to maturity. Then, you count back from our frost date, and you can decide from there if you've got time or not to grow a plant,” she explained. “Depending on which variety that you grow, sometimes plants take more days than others.”
Green thumb experts relay a challenging aspect of preparing fall and winter gardens is the higher possibility of encountering plant pests and disease. Sothers said these factors are more common during the late summer, as pests have more time to multiply and eat away in the garden when the warmer weather of the year comes to Alabama.
“The hardest thing is getting these vegetables started, because the season has been going so long. So, the population of insects and diseases is a little higher than it would be in the spring,” she explained. “You have to be very vigilant in those early stages when you're getting these plants started.”
When it comes to picking which plants to put into the soil, Sothers said the best way is to start small and for gardeners to plant things they like to eat. She also advised that late August is the best time to start pulling weeds to better help fall and winter produce and vegetation thrive.
“Typically, what I'm trying to get ready for is the cool season stuff, because I know that I already have a lot of pests out there that are working on my squashes and my cucumbers and my beans. I try to clear all that out and get ready for my fall-winter garden,” she said. “I like to do things like carrots and cabbage and kale. I'm crazy about different onions, because I know whatever I'm cooking, I'm going to want some kind of onion.”
Cool season plants will tolerate some frost, and the harvest will continue for several weeks after frost. Depending on the weather, Sothers said she’s seen kale grow in her garden until the weather dropped into the teens in February.
Taking up gardening can be a fun and rewarding hobby. The fall and winter season brings the opportunity to grow things such as Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, onions and spinach. Planting and harvesting are also environmentally friendly ways to get produce, said Sothers.
“The other reason we are really promoting growing your own vegetables, is because we're really about sustainability. So, when you're growing your own vegetables, things aren't getting racked in plastic, and there's no driving back and forth,” she explained. “There's no fuel involved with picking up your grocery, so there's a real sustainable aspect to growing your own vegetables.”
More information and tips for preparing for fall and winter gardens can be found on the City of Huntsville website.
