From our August Home and Garden publication: Plan now for your fall garden | News

The climate in Northern Illinois is not conducive to fall gardening, though. As summer began to turn to fall, everyone would rush to harvest what wasn’t yet ripe and ripen it indoors. Green tomatoes would be washed to remove debris that could cause rot, wiped with a clean dish towel and air dried before being placed in a box lined with newspaper with the stem side down and not touching any other tomatoes. More newspaper would cover the tomatoes to shield them from light. These boxes would then be stored in the basement and checked weekly for signs of decay. We often would have ripe tomatoes as part of our Thanksgiving feast! Potatoes were dug two weeks after the vines had died off, but before the rains came. This helped to thicken their skins for storage. They were set out to dry and stored in an open crate in the coolest (40 degrees) part of the basement. Winter squash were harvested before the first frost and stored on an upper shelf in the basement (50 degrees) away from a window well since they need to be in a dark and dry environment.

When I became an adult, I settled in Southern Wisconsin, started my career, bought a house and had my own garden where I grew vegetables for canning and winter storage in my basement. The concept of fall gardening was still unknown to me. I’d moved 70 miles north from where I was raised and fall came with the same vigor at my new city home as it did on the farm.

Then, I moved to Hood River! I was thrilled to live in an area with mountains in view, and next to a mighty river. Plus, the Pacific Ocean to the west and high plains desert to the east were an easy drive for a day’s excursion. All this gave me access to a wide variety of recreation that made me extremely happy. Toward the end of my first summer here I learned that the local climate allowed for fall gardening and began to seek out more information right away. I would have talked to Central Gorge Master Gardeners to learn more about this topic, but there was no Master Gardener program in Hood River at that time. It would be 15 years before the OSU Hood River County Extension Service started offering classes through the Central Gorge Master Gardener program. Still in search of information, I started talking to other gardeners to learn fall gardening techniques. I got a lot of conflicting information, some really wacky suggestions, and some good advice. Hmmm, this sounds a lot like going on YouTube these days.

What I figured out was that gardeners need to plant in mid-summer for a fall crop. If you’ve been planting seeds in succession throughout the summer, this could be your final succession planting of vegetables like lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard and peas. Since you’ll be harvesting these vegetables before the first frost comes, you may not need row covers. If you plant later in the summer or early fall, row covers, cold frames and cloches may need to be used to warm the air and protect your plants. If you live at a higher elevation, you know to plan on using these protective structures. A tip I’ve learned in my Master Gardener training is to plant when the soil temperature is still warm enough for the seeds to germinate and there is time for the plants to become sturdy so they can endure the fall rain. The OSU publication, “Fall Gardening in the Vegetable Patch,” offers a clear and informative view on this topic.

If you’d like to try some cool season crops that are a bit wilder than your usual kale, cabbage, broccoli and carrots, check out the “Growing Unique Winter Vegetables (Level Up Webinar)” video from the OSU Growing Oregon Gardners series with OSU Professor of Practice and Director/Founder of the Culinary Breeding Network Lane Selman. It’s a deeper dive into this subject and well worth the investment of an hour of your time.

With an abundance of great vegetables coming out of your garden, you’re sure to need some herbs for use in cooking them into tasty recipes. OSU Extension Service has you covered there too with their publication, “Five cold-hardy herbs to grow at home.”

The OSU Hood River County Extension Service has had a Master Gardener program in place since 2005 which allows you to learn gardening methods from trained local volunteers. Just in time for fall planting, Central Gorge Master Gardeners Jen Munroe and Anne Gehrig will be presenting a Garden Gathering workshop on Planning Your Fall Garden. Topics to be covered in this workshop include:

• Planning and planting for a fall harvest

• Extending the season and overwintering crops (including cover crops to nourish your soil over fall and winter)

• Protective measures (row covers, low hoop tunnels, etc.)

Two sessions of the workshop will be held at different times and locations. The same information will be offered at each session.

• Saturday, Aug. 10, 10-11:30 a.m. at Hood River County Extension, 2990 Experiment Station Drive, Hood River

• Tuesday, Aug. 13, 6-7:30 p.m. at the Hood River County Library, 502 State Street, Hood River

All are welcome to attend the Garden Gathering to learn how to extend the gardening season and enjoy fresh produce long after most gardens have been put to bed.

No registration is needed for this free workshop.

I hope that this article and the information in it has inspired you to learn how to extend your growing season in the varying elevations of the Central Gorge so that you can enjoy fresh vegetables well into the cooler months of fall. Perhaps you’ll be harvesting fresh vegetables from your fall garden to contribute to your Thanksgiving feast this year!

Central Gorge Master Gardener volunteers provide free beginning gardening classes and continuing education to home gardeners. For research-based information about specific gardening or pest questions, submit your concern online at extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/hoodriver or by phone at 541-386-3343. Home gardeners can also drop off plant or pest samples Monday through Thursday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the OSU Hood River County Extension Service, 2990 Experiment Station Drive, Hood River.

The Central Gorge Master Gardener program is a division of the OSU Hood River County Extension Service. OSU Extension Service prohibits discrimination in all its programs, services, activities, and materials.