Fall Gardening: 5 Tips From Good Earth Garden Center

Our friends at the Good Earth Garden Center at 15601 Cantrell Road in Little Rock have some advice to get your garden started and how to transition seamlessly.

From Good Earth horticulturist Jennifer Gibson:

1. Having healthy soil is the foundation for any garden. Good soil is the foundation for all plantings, including vegetable and herb gardens.  Many Arkansans struggle with heavy clay soils or the other extreme, sandy soils.  Neither one is optimal and both will benefit from adding several different kinds of compost — earthworm castings, peat moss, organic compost, vermiculite — as well as quality potting soil. In clay soils, also add some garden sand.  This will increase air circulation and water drainage of the soil.  
2. Keep garden elevated. It can be easier and more convenient to manage when the garden is up higher, so consider adding a raised garden or planting in containers. A container needs to be insulated from the cold weather so thin-walled plastic pots, concrete, heavy glazed pottery or whiskey barrels won’t work. Also, make sure the container has good drainage. Add several inches of drainage rock, then some weed fabric, which will keep the soil from washing down into the rock, and add quality potting soil, earthworm castings and some compost.  
3. There are plenty of herbs and veggies ideal for fall growing. Rosemary is a great option because it is evergreen and looks wonderful with pansies or violas planted around it.  Add in some ornamental or edible cool-season greens like cabbage, lettuce or kale and you will have a beautiful and tasty planter to harvest from. The pansy blooms are even edible and are a beautiful addition to salads. There is still time to start a garden by seed too. One good tip is to soak the seeds in water for 24 hours before planting. This will greatly reduce the germination time — the time it takes for the seed to sprout.  Radishes, broccoli, spinach and all sorts of veggies are available by seed.  Cilantro and parsley prefer cooler temperatures, so now is a great time to plant them either as transplants or by seed.
4. Trimming is just the trick. Summer can be hard on herbs, but often times if the herbs get a good trim, they will sprout out with new growth and give you another season. Mint is a great late-season reviver and can be perennial, too, depending on the weather. Don’t stop watering just because the nights are a little cooler; daytime temperatures are still high and small seedlings dry out fast. Plants do not like to freeze dry, so water well before severely cold weather unless there has been rain.
5. Fertilizer is the key to a healthy garden. When planting small seedlings, use a good starter fertilizer, such as Bio-Tone Starter Plus, which contains beneficial bacteria, humates and mycorrhizae for fast root establishment. Feed regularly with an organic fertilizer, such as Espoma Garden-Tone, and bi-weekly with a liquid fertilizer like LadyBug Natural Products John’s Recipe.  All of these are natural and formulated for optimum utilization by the plant.