Fall Vegetable Garden Care and Soil pH

October 10, 2023 hilary dahl

Amending soil in the Fall_Grow More Food — Amending vegetable garden beds with lime and compost in the Fall. Image from “**Grow More Food: A Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to The Biggest Harvest Possible**”

If you have an existing garden that has not been managed with an eye towards ongoing soil management, you likely have depleted some (or most) of the essential nutrients. You many also have an overly acidic or basic pH. Plants absorb significant quantities of nutrients from the soil each year, and unless you are actively replacing these nutrients, plant vigor and yield will decrease over time. Fortunately, it’s never too late to begin rebuilding garden soil and significant improvements can be made relatively quickly.

Fall Tomato Care

October 2, 2023 hilary dahl

Homegrown tomato plants supported by the Freyr garden trellis — *Tomato plants supported by vertical strings on a Freyr trellis.*

There are very few vegetable gardens without tomato plants. Unless you’re allergic, it’s hard to imagine why you wouldn’t want them. A healthy tomato plant is beautiful, bountiful and provides a quality of fruit that is virtually impossible to get from a store (although possible to get from a farm stand). Regardless of the length of your tomato harvest season, it’s always a priority to extend it as much as possible.

Green Tomatoes

October 20, 2022 hilary dahl

Even with an extended fall harvest season like we had this year, you're inevitably going to end up with some unripe fruit on the vine. Fortunately, there are a few simple techniques to help ripen up fruits at the end of the season.

Saving your flower seeds

October 6, 2022 hilary dahl

**Scabiosa seed** collected from a seed head that dried out on the plant.

Seed saving is the art of collecting the seed from your crop and using it in subsequent seasons to grow new plants. If you want to ease your way into seed saving, some of the simplest crops to save are annual flowers!

Freezing the harvest

September 20, 2022 hilary dahl

Freezing tomatoes — We mix a variety of tomatoes in our frozen sauce! Photo from our newest gardening book, Grow More Food!

There are many ways to process and store tomatoes, but freezing has become our preferred technique. Check out this tutorial for the easiest way to extend your home-grown tomato harvest!