Gardening Starts in the Fall

Gardening Starts in the Fall

Are you dreaming of harvesting your own juicy, homegrown tomatoes next summer? Tired of paying outrageous prices at the grocery store? Good news: fall is the best time to prepare your garden for success.

If I’ve learned one thing about organic gardening, it’s this: healthy soil = healthy plants. And there’s no better season than autumn to build a strong foundation for next year’s harvest.

Start Composting in the Fall

Fall leaves are gardening gold!

Instead of sending them to the landfill, add them to your compost pile. Mix dry leaves with kitchen scraps—like eggshells, coffee grounds, and banana peels—and you’ll have rich compost by spring.

Healthy compost improves soil structure, boosts nutrients, and helps your garden retain moisture during summer heat. If you don’t already have a compost bin, fall is the perfect time to start one.

Build New Garden Beds Before Spring

Looking to expand your garden? Fall is the ideal season to create new growing spaces. You’ll avoid the spring rush and be ready to plant as soon as the soil warms.

Whether you’re dreaming of a kitchen garden, raspberry patch, pollinator border, or raised beds for leafy greens, gather your materials now. Supplies sell out quickly in spring—and often cost more.

Tip: Raised beds need a lot of soil. Start sourcing or making it now so you’re not scrambling in April.

Do a Fall Seed Inventory

Seeds are often sold out by spring, so use fall to get organized. Go through your stash, toss old or expired packets, and make a list of what you’ll need for next year.

Ordering early ensures you get the varieties you want—and avoids that dreaded “out of stock” label when planting season arrives.

How to Save Tomato Seeds

One of the easiest fall gardening tasks is seed saving. Just one ripe tomato can provide enough seeds to grow a whole bed next year.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Scoop out seeds from a ripe tomato.
  2. Rinse and ferment them for a few days (to remove the gel coating).
  3. Dry thoroughly and store in a labeled envelope.

Plant Cool-Weather Crops in Fall

Want an early spring harvest? Try sowing spinach or lettuce in fall. These hardy greens can overwinter and sprout as soon as the snow melts—giving you fresh greens weeks before summer crops take off.

Most experts recommend planting by mid-August, but don’t be afraid to experiment. Weather patterns are shifting—this year we had 100° days in September with no frost by the end of the month! I’ll be sprinkling spinach seeds anyway to see what happens. Gardening rewards curiosity.

You can also save seeds from lettuce—just let a few plants bolt and go to seed. You’ll collect plenty for next year while feeding birds and beneficial insects in the fall. Here’s a great blog post from Megan Cain at the Creative Vegetable Gardener I think you’ll love!

Revisit Your Garden Goals

Fall isn’t just about cleanup—it’s a season for dreaming and planning. Take time to reflect on your garden goals and put one into action before winter sets in. Compost, build beds, save seeds, or plant fall crops—whatever you choose, your future self will thank you.

Question for you: What garden goal are you starting this fall? Share it in the comments!








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Bee a part of the solution | The Sustainability Project | Care Bellamy the beekeeping REALTOR®  who “Cares” | Florida

Bee a part of the solution | The Sustainability Project | Care Bellamy the beekeeping REALTOR® who “Cares” | Florida

I’m so excited I have a listener on the line who is going to share a ton of golden seeds! I talked to her before from Florida and she is going to share with us about her Sustainability Project! 1. Tell us a little about yourself. By day, I’m a REALTOR® and beekeeper. I’m also a 3rd generation farmer.  My grandparents owned a 100 acre wheat farm on the prairie in rural Dufresne, Manitoba. My family lived off the land, they grew their food seasonally in a 1 acre vegetable garden. After the local community collectively brought in the fall harvest, they would busily preserve and can their produce for storage in their root cellar. These people were a hardy bunch, they managed to survive the brutually harsh winters with minimal resources using a wood burning stove for heat, crude electric and no running water or indoor plumbing. They kept and cared for livestock and only took what they needed to survive, my ancestors practiced “The Tragedy of the Commons” method.  That’s how they managed to raise a family of 8 in rural Manitoba. And Manitoba is where people go to see the polar bears right? Yes Churchill Manitoba is where the polar bears are. Then you went to the opposite end of the continent practically to Florida. Yes I did I got hired to work for Disney at the Epcot Center back in the early 80s and that’s where I met my husband two weeks later and we’ve been here ever since! That’s so romantic! I always wanted to work for Disney, I tried to get a job or get into art school at the California Institute of Arts in LA. Well, they must have liked me! I managed to beat out 64 other people fro the job! So yay for me! And you worked there for a long time right? Yes 35 years! 2. Tell me about your first gardening experience? We used to visit the farm in the summer time every two years, however my mom! When my mother moved to the big city of Toronto, Ontario, she became a backyard farmer and composter carrying on her family farming tradition. I began helping my mother garden as a young child, she taught me valuable lessons in planting, harvesting and food preservation skills. All these years later I’ve been utilizing this and it’s been working out fantastic for me. Luckily for me, both my parents were award winning gardeners so pulling weeds or fresh carrots comes naturally. So then is it challenging down in Florida? Do you have to learn different practices to grow in that climate? Well, gardening is pretty much the same wherever you go. IT’s just the conditions and the climate. In Florida there is a sandy soil, where my parents lived it was a deep rich soil. You have to plant things things that grow...

7 Jan 201959min

Replay of 2018 Garden Goals Challenge from the Organic Gardener Podcast! 2019 challenge coming VERY SOON!

Replay of 2018 Garden Goals Challenge from the Organic Gardener Podcast! 2019 challenge coming VERY SOON!

I’m so close to wrapping up Free Garden Course.com and I know you are going to love the new one that will take place in a real google classroom! When it’s ready, we’ll have a new 2019 Garden Goals challenge and full color workbook I think you will love! Go ahead and listen to last year’s challenge. There’s a facebook group you can join and even access the google classroom with access code 75yju4. Do you want to save time in your garden? Do you want to grow a garden full of healthy vegetables but feel you don’t have time? Do you struggle to get all the weeds pulled and watering done in the heat of summer when your friends are all headed to the lake? Are you tired of paying the high cost of organic vegetables in the store but struggle to grow your own? Well, our 2018 Garden Goals Challenge will help you find success in your garden journey! Free Garden Course.com So, if you follow me you probably know that I created a Free Garden Course also known as Free Organic Garden Course over Christmas break! Days 1-8 2018GardenGoalsChallenge For the first 8 days of 2018 I’m going to walk you through the steps of planning your garden goals so you are growing awesome nutrient dense vegetables with the least amount of work and time. Now I’m not gonna fool you and say it’s all gonna be easy but I will say it will be worth it.  Day One is all about brainstorming!  You can  download the first 30 days here   while you’re waiting for it to come in the mail.  <img class="size-medium wp-image-4367 aligncenter" src="https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SailboatPeas-225x300.jpg" alt="boat of peas" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SailboatPeas-225x300.jpg 225w,...

3 Jan 201953min

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