A VIEW OF KIRBY’S GARDEN last week. (Photo by Joanna Kirby)

Spring cleaning, fall prepping

By Joanna Dunlap Kirby

Contributing gardening columnist,

Owner and operator of a cut flower farm in Garrard County

Last week I wrote extensively about saving the land. Today, let’s talk about cleaning out your spring garden plants.

As the summer heats up, many of our early vegetable plantings will begin to fall by the wayside and “give up the ghost.” I enjoyed many salads with fresh-picked lettuce, with buttercrunch and arugula being in top spots. Now those very plants have gone to seed, and I am in the process of pulling them up. My carrots and beets are still growing on, and I might have a chance at a blue ribbon with them at the local county fair. My sugar snap peas that were planted two weeks apart fell short of their glory.

With a drought earlier this spring, followed by frost and then heavy rains, they did not fare well. I picked just enough for one delicious meal and have pulled them up as well.

Now, I have several empty spots in my garden that I can sow with something that will love the heat of summer. Several squash seeds will be put in hills (a mound of soil with a flat area on top that you put your seeds in). I will also plant another tasty French climbing bean called Algarve. This bean is from Park Seed company (Parkseed.com), and the pods will grow about 8” long and have a flat body. It is delicious, and if picked early enough, it is tender and flavorful. If I have a few spots still left open, I will hold off on planting in them until later in July and August for a fall crop. Think lettuce, carrots, dill, kale, cucumbers, mustard greens and any other seeds with a short growing period.

The Woodford County Extension Service at the Ag Building in Falling Springs has a great booklet, “Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky,” on when to plant in Kentucky.

Our normal first frost is usually around the middle of October, but with the change in weather patterns, it could move either way. Once you have a packet of seeds, check the days to harvest and count back from the first frost date. You may have time to add more to your fall garden than you realize.

Since I am a cut flower farmer, I also prepare ground in late summer for my cool season annual flowers. I am now a firm believer in getting the beds ready early and having my seeds already in my hands. Some of my favorite flowers to plant in the fall are love-in-a-mist, bells of Ireland, bachelor’s button, larkspur, Bupleurum and many others. Trust me on this. If you plant these seeds in the fall, they will germinate and begin to grow before winter sets in. They will sit in the beds all winter, and once the weather begins to stabilize and warm up, they will take off. Try a small area and see what you think next spring.

I personally put off doing this for years, not thinking it would work, but it has proven to work well, and if you are like me, you will then be hooked on growing these cool-season plants. A must-have reference book on this subject is “Cool Flowers” by Lisa Mason Ziegler.

Keep a careful eye on your beans, squash and potatoes as they are like a buffet for bugs. If I must apply a dust, I do so early in the morning before the bees are working, and never once they are in bloom. Now is a good time to put down mulch to help keep the weeds down and the moisture in. The summer forecast is calling for hot and dry, so whatever mulch you use will be very beneficial to your plants. I mulch my garden paths with pine bark almost as fine as a soil conditioner (it breaks down during the season and adds nutrients to your soil).

In my large vegetable and flower gardens, I use straw purchased from local farmers. My dahlia beds have about 10” of straw on them all summer, and it has made a huge difference in the loose soil underneath it.

I hope you will take a few extra minutes to research cool season flowers and try your hand at growing them. Make sure any new plantings receive at least an inch of water a week.

You can always invest in soaker hoses, which, when hooked up to a regular garden hose, will emit water through their tiny pores. However, I always enjoy the mindless job of watering as I look out over what’s growing on.

Happy Gardening