“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” writes British poet John Keats in “To Autumn.” September marks a time of change — from the bustle of the summer garden to a time when the garden begins to recuperate and ready itself for next year’s activity. With the Vernal Equinox later in the month, September begins the transition from a season of abundance to one of rest. But Keats’s ode to this season is also a reminder that in this transition there is still much to celebrate, that this time of mellowing is intimately linked to fruitfulness, both now and in the seasons to come. Gardens, after all, so beautifully represents those moments of transience; it is in these transitions that we may find ourselves mourning the bursting that has passed, but we might also embrace the way that what is in-between might provide joy and life too.
The activity of the garden might be slowing, but we might remember that our gardens are part of an ongoing cycle, one where regeneration and rest go hand-in-hand. The summer’s harvest season is winding down, and as you enjoy that bounty (and perhaps freeze and preserve some of it for later), you might be thinking about what to do with the leftover plant material and your empty garden beds. You can of course fill that vacant bed space with fall garden vegetables, which Margo Dameier discussed in the August issue this year, and many types of vegetables will grow through the fall here in the Gorge, especially with some key interventions to extend your growing season.
But this transitional season could also be the perfect opportunity to nourish your beds for planting in spring by sowing cover crops now. Also known as “green manure,” cover crops include varieties of pea and grasses that can help fix nitrogen in your soil and give it the boost it will need to support your garden the following year. For more information about which cover crops might best suit your needs as well as how you might go about planting them, see this video by the OSU Master Gardener Program (featuring OSU Master Gardener Volunteer Dennis Brown). Or you can find more information in this helpful handout, “Cover Crops for Home Gardens East of the Cascades.” QR Codes that link to these materials are below.
Composting any garden (or kitchen) material can serve as a key way to take spent material and aid its transformation into rich soil that you can use in the garden. Even the novice home gardener can compost. It just takes preparation and patience. A compost pile needs to have four things: air, water, nitrogen, and carbon, and you have them all at your disposal already. By mixing “brown” (leaves, straw, cardboard, for instance) and “green” (plant trimmings, kitchen scraps, and grass clippings, among others) materials, and letting them break down over time, what was old can become new again. Those spent spindles of vegetable plantings can transform into the soil that holds and feeds your beans or greens the following year. For some particulars about how to compost, including different types of composting and the ratio of materials you would want to use, see “Do the rot thing—choosing and using a composting system” from the OSU Extension Service. See below for a QR code to link to that piece.
Finally, if you’re like me, you no sooner harvest tomatoes or summer squash than you start dreaming of the possibilities that the next gardening year might bring. While it might be too early to sow seeds indoors for your spring garden, fall is the perfect time to plant bulbs that spend the winter nestled underground and emerge as colorful spectacles for us and for hungry pollinators in the early months of the following year. Nothing cures the gloom of the socked-in grey skies, in my opinion, than the flush of yellows, whites, purples, and more that daffodils, tulips, snowdrops, and other spring flowering bulbs put on display.
Planting these bulbs in September or October is ideal, when the ground is still very workable and the air temps still comfortable. Like composting, the act of planting bulbs is an inherently optimistic act that harnesses the potential in the present and invests in the future. If you do not have the yard space for this planting, you can easily grow bulbs in pots for your porch, patio, or balcony. Amy Jo Detweiler has more information about planting spring bulbs in the ground here; or you can learn more about planting these bulbs in pots in this piece by Kym Pokorny and Heather Stovern (QR codes below).
The garden in fall is a garden of change. While it might be tempting to write off this season and its successor, winter, as perhaps a dead time in the garden, nothing could be further from the truth. This is a time of transition, from fecundity to rest, but I assure you, there is much life still there, and the promise of much life to be. We are moving simply from one form of things to another. In fact, if we think about our gardens as engaged in collaborative seasonal cycles, we can see how each season is absolutely integral to the others.
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.
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This story originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Columbia Gorge News' Home and Garden section.
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