Comments

Episode-978- Fall Gardening Primer with Tips and Tricks for 2012 — 27 Comments

  1. About to listen, to me the MSB is worth the gardening episodes alone. I put a cold frame IN my greenhouse (Eliot Coleman) and seeded some Pak Choi. So with the cooler weather, they should be fine, even up here Jack…

    Ok, headphones on!

  2. Timely and EXCELLENT! I was just digging potatoes out yesterday, and preparing other beds for the fall garden. Looking forward to this episode.

    SEE YOU FRIDAY, Jack!

  3. Jack,

    Perhaps you touched on it in this episode, but I’m sure I’m not the only one that would like to hear about the status of your homestead search, and also how this future move is affecting what you do at your current place this fall.

    –RH

  4. Jack, I heat with wood and sometimes my stove goes cold, and I have in effect, charcoal, I would imagine I could use that as well. What in particular is special about hardwood?, I use spruce to heat my house primarily , as well as birch.

  5. Good episode wth lots of good advise. One comment though about garlic. It should be dug out when about 1/2 the leaves have died down which in central PA is usually in July. Waiting until fall to dig it will result in garlic that doesn’t have good wrapper leaves and it won’t store well. I dig my garlic out in July, cure it for 2-3 weeks and then store it until I replant it in September or October.

  6. Doesn’t adding wood ash raise the PH of the soil? I think that might be a problem where I live since the soil is typically alkaline.

    • Thanks for the info on biochar Jack. I’ll do more research on it before I decide to use it. Looks to have many uses and benefits but it’s possible it is not for everyone. According to wiki biochar will reduce acidity. I really don’t know enough about it and I don’t think what it actually does was discussed in the podcast. Maybe I need to use it with sulfur to balance it out.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

  7. THANK YOU! This is exactly what I needed. I am a beginner gardener, but highly motivated. My spring/summer garden was destroyed by local cats and I forlornly gave up for the year. Now I know how I can get my fall harvest in.

    • I can’t help it, 2 comments in a row. But I have to say this is so good! I am actually taking notes! I am so excited!

      • I have to ask you about your Sauerkraut recipe. Do you use salt, whey or a combo of both? I have only used salt in making sauerkraut before. Maybe you could just post your recipe? 🙂

  8. Not finished listening yet , but so far, you’re doing a great job. On the garlic, isn’t it the soft neck that also makes scapes which are wonderful with which to cook ?

  9. great show. my first garden is a fall garden. i didn’t get it done it time for a summer planting. i’ve got tons of seeds in the starter trays and will be planting them soon.

    one thing i used for starter trays are egg carton, specifically the lower half. we buy eggs that come in the really flimsy cardboard type holders and those are perfect. when it’s time to plant cut them out and they’ll break right now in the soil, similar to using newspaper pots.

  10. Jack,

    (1) Well, today you’re on fire again, but in a happy way! Very enjoyable.

    (2) Can you give any general sources or pointers for an overview of gardening? Or annual/veggie gardening at least. I’ve dug in deep on some aspects (re: water and permaculture, cover crops, etc) and do have some bigger plans in the works. However, I feel like I’m missing a lot of the basics (E.g. are there 2 plantings in a year, Spring and Fall, in general? Or is this just a convenient grouping?). Basically, I feel like I need a real overview… A lot of the stuff on the web is not clearly very Permie in its aspects, so it is hard to figure out what to concentrate on.
    -> Are there any books, podcasts, or videos (could watch as a family) you would recommend to get started besides yours?

    Thanks for everything,
    David

  11. Hey Jack,
    Every try roasting garlic then spreading it on french bread? Well, something not bread that is…

  12. Great episode. Too bad we just got first frost. It may be too late for a fall cover crop. One thing I’ll add to the free mulch and compost list; grape pomice. If any of you guys have a winery nearby, ask to haul their grape stems and pomice. Grape harvest starts soon here and I annually haul 12+ tons of grape stems and pomice home from our local winery. The stems make a great long lasting mulch and the pomice is awesome for compost. Pomice is the pressed-out grapes. It is the seeds and skins and still has a lot compost value. The best stuff is from white wine because they press the grapes while still on the stem so the pomice is still pretty juicy. Every year I build a 12-16 yard compost pile with the pomice, old wood chips and the fall garden stuff and it cooks through most of the winter. Some day I will use it to heat our greenhouse. Another great winery ‘waste’ is the leese which is the settled guck left in the bottom of the fermentation tanks and barrels after they transfer the wine. It contains the dead yeast and grape sediment. It looks like yogurt and is great for the compost pile too. It is a little awkward to apply it directly to the compost because it’s so gloppy, so I mix it with water in this contraption I made, add kelp meal, a little gypsum, and spray it on the compost pile using a 5 horse trash pump. Oh, and the deer love it. They seem to come from miles to stir it into the compost pile. It’s the only real work I get out those giant rodents!

  13. I trimmed a lot of trees last fall and made a pile 8 foot tall of small limbs. Called Home Depot about renting a shredder like Jack suggested. It was $175 for the day. Can’t justify that kind of cost. The limbs are still back there.
    I want to know where you can rent a shredder for the little amount he mentioned in the podcast. They are very expensive to rent.

      • That’s what I’m working on. Trying to get 3 or 4 of us to just have a good ole time chipping and shredding on some day.

    • Um try calling around last time we rented one from Lowes it was 35 or 40 bucks. Something in that range. Make sure you are not renting some giant over the top Asplundh special.

  14. Jack – I just had another idea about keeping your hoop house or mini greenhouse warm at night. If you heat with a wood stove have a few nice size rocks that are easily moveable heating up on the stove during the day. At night go and put them in the hoop house or green house to give off that heat to protect your plants.

    Rook – ” New York homestead soon”

  15. Can you recommend two or three kinds of garlic to plant and a source to buy it from? Thanks.