So you ARE getting ready for spring, right?   It’s almost mid-October!   Yes, we are cleaning up from last summer, harvesting fall veggies and getting bee hives ready for winter……

And starting spring planting.

Now is the time to start our big sweet red onions and Texas 1015s from seed.  It’s almost impossible to find organic onion starts in January, when we want to set them out in the field.   If you do find some, they are way too expensive for serious farming.   So we start our own from organic seed!  In October.

Now is the time to put out clover and wildflower seed for next spring’s clover honey harvest!  These need time to sprout and set down roots before our freezes drive them down for a while.  Then, in early spring, they’ll be back!  Some of the wildflowers need the winter cold to prepare them to germinate in February.  Plant them now.

Now is the time to plant strawberries!  Check out Highway 19 Produce and Berries on Facebook and see how they’re doing it.    Not all strawberries are started in the fall, so talk to a local nursery about which varieties do best in our climate and when to plant them.

Now is the time to put out elbon rye as a cover crop over ground that would otherwise be exposed.  This grass grows during the winter and when tilled gently in early spring, breaks down to add organic matter and nitrogen back to the soil.  In the process, it also fumigates the soil to help control the root-knot nematodes that challenge our tomatoes and okra in summer.

Now is the time to plant garlic!  We get the best crop when we plant next year’s crop in the fall, giving it more time for root development.    Don’t have any?  Try planting some cloves of organic garlic from a grocery store.   It’s easy to plant and fun to harvest – next May.

 Have fun carving your pumpkins and roasting your turkey.    And get ready for spring!  It’s just around the bend!