It’s mid-fall in the USA. Maybe you’re still enjoying floods of warm sunshine, or maybe you’ve already been chilled by your first frost.
Wherever you are, if you’re an organic gardening enthusiast, you’re probably trying to decide what to do in your garden this month. We’ve got good news for you: there’s so much life waiting to grow in your eco organic garden in October!
Here’s what you can plant.
If you’re in the north, greenhouses and indoor gardening are your gardening rod and staff.
If you live where winters are long and icy, but you also aren’t willing to say goodbye to harvesting your own organically grown food this season, you should consider investing in a greenhouse. Many varieties of plants can be grown in greenhouses, but cool season veg (see below) are ideal for October, as they don’t need heating at night (not using that extra energy helps keep your greenhouse eco friendly).
Indoor gardening is another wonderful cold weather lifesaver. Stock up on garden pots like large terracotta pots or our biodegradable peat pots, plant them with a variety of seeds, and enjoy a bonus cold-weather crop.
If you live where it’s warmer, planting now means thinking ahead.
If you’re still basking in plenty of sunlight, there’s a lot you can plant in your outdoor permaculture garden. However, most of the plants you sow now will be harvested in spring.
You can plant cool season veg:
Spinach
Kale
Mache
Shallots
Lettuce (protect young plants with a cold frame)
Garlic
Radish
Arugula
Snow peas (these nitrogen fixers are natural fertilizers)
Spring onion
Collard greens
If you’d like to plant some beautiful blossoms for spring, go with bulbs, as they tend to last through the winter and will put on a gorgeous early show. There are loads of bulbs that also feed the bees and make a beneficial, eco-conscious addition to your garden.
Take your kids with you for some outdoor playtime when you’re gardening this month. Let them enjoy the glory of nature’s sights, smells and sounds in the fall. Or, get them involved in your indoor garden with this children’s gardening set.
Written by Rifke Hill
About the Author
Rifke Hill was raised on the sort of farm your grandparents told tales about – milking cows, gathering eggs, hoeing the soil, and building fires to heat water. She now spends part of her time copywriting online as a freelancer. The rest of it is spent nurturing and teaching her four energetic children, growing vegetables, baking bread, reading voraciously, having coffee with the neighbors, and enjoying the sunny slopes of the smallholding where she lives, in the Garden Route, South Africa.
