The Garden Isn’t Finished Yet: What We’re Planting and Preparing in September 🍁

September can feel like the end of the garden, especially here in Massachusetts.

The tomato plants are looking tired. The cucumbers are slowing down. Some of the beds are empty, and others are completely overgrown because keeping up with everything in August was nearly impossible.

But the garden is not finished yet.

September is less about starting over and more about making the most of the growing time we have left. We are harvesting what is still producing, planting crops that can grow during the cooler weather and preparing the garden for the months ahead.

There Is Still Time to Plant

A lot of people assume that once summer ends, planting season is over. There are actually several vegetables that grow well during the cooler days of early fall.

I just planted everything for our fall garden last week. I started the plants in the hydroponic systems in our kitchen before moving them outside. This year I planted bok choy, cabbage, Swiss chard, kale and more herbs, including cilantro, basil, dill and parsley.

This summer has also been especially hot, so I am hoping the lingering heat does not make things more difficult for these cooler weather plants. Fall planting always involves a little bit of guessing here. The calendar may say September, but the weather does not always agree.

Hopefully, the temperatures begin cooling down enough for everything to settle in and grow before the first frost arrives.

The Hydroponics Made It Possible

The hydroponic systems have been priceless for me. They give me the ability to start healthy plants indoors instead of relying entirely on seeds planted directly in the garden.

Starting seeds outside can be unpredictable, especially when the weather, weeds and animals all seem to have plans of their own. Being able to move established plants into the garden gives them a much better start and gives me a better chance of actually getting a fall harvest.

I have actually never planted a true fall garden before.

By the end of summer, I am usually so overwhelmed by harvesting, preserving and everything else happening on the farm that I more or less give up on planting anything else.

I am really happy I did not do that this year, and I have to give most of the credit to the hydroponic systems. Being able to start everything early in the kitchen made a fall garden feel possible instead of like one more impossible job on my list.

I am honestly just happy that I managed to get everything planted this year.

In a Perfect World

In a perfect world, I would build covers for the beds just in case the first frost arrives before we have finished harvesting everything.

But time is difficult for us, just like it is for most people.

There is always another chore that suddenly becomes more important. Yesterday, all six of our pigs got out. We had to chase them down, get them back where they belonged and put up electric fencing to keep it from happening again.

Hopefully, we will have enough time to protect the fall garden before the frost arrives. If we do not, I am still glad we planted it.

It Is Almost Time for Garlic

Garlic is one of the last major things we plant each year.

We usually wait until later in the fall, after the weather has cooled but before the ground freezes. Planting too early can give the garlic too much time to grow above the soil. Planting too late can make it difficult for the roots to become established.

Before planting, we prepare the bed by clearing away old plants and weeds and adding compost if the soil needs it. We also choose the largest, healthiest cloves from our best garlic bulbs.

The cloves we plant this fall will become next summer’s garlic harvest. That is one of my favorite things about planting garlic. It feels like putting part of this year’s garden aside for the next one.

Clearing Beds Without Clearing Everything

September is also when we begin cleaning up the garden, but we do not tear everything out at once.

If a tomato plant is still producing, it stays. If the squash vines still have fruit developing, we give them more time. Plants that are diseased, completely finished or taking up space we need for fall crops are removed.

Healthy plant material can be composted. Anything showing signs of disease is kept out of the compost pile so we do not carry the same problems into next year’s garden.

We also try not to leave the soil completely bare. A layer of mulch, leaves or another natural covering helps protect the soil from erosion and keeps nutrients from washing away during fall and winter storms.

Watching the Nighttime Temperatures

Warm afternoons can make it easy to forget how quickly the nights are getting colder.

By September, we start paying closer attention to the nighttime forecast and thinking about the first frost. We gather row covers, sheets or anything else we may be able to use to protect crops for an extra night or two.

Some plants can handle cooler temperatures better than others. Kale, Swiss chard, cabbage and many other fall vegetables are much happier in cool weather than tomatoes or peppers.

There comes a point when covering half the garden every night is no longer worth it. But if one cold night is followed by another week of warmer weather, protecting a few plants can give us a little more time to harvest.

Preparing for Next Year

September is a good time to notice what worked and what did not.

It is easy to think we will remember all of this next spring, but we probably will not. Writing down a few notes now can save a lot of guessing when it is time to order seeds and plan the garden again.

We can also begin improving empty beds with compost, aged manure or cover crops. Whatever we do now gives the soil time to rest and helps us begin next season in a better place.

The Garden Is Changing, Not Ending

September does not have the same excitement as spring planting or the abundance of August. It is a quieter transition.

We are still harvesting, but we are also cleaning up. We are planting a few final crops while preparing beds for winter. We are enjoying what the garden gave us while already thinking about what we will do differently next year.

The garden is not finished yet.

It is simply moving into its next season, and so are we.