July and August are when the garden is in overdrive. Beans seem to grow another foot overnight, freshly cut grass looks unruly after a few days, and weeds mature and set seed at an alarming rate. Here are a few tips to help you get things under control in your fall garden:
Cut and cover the weeds: If your garden has more weeds than plants at this point, I would suggest cutting the weeds and covering them with unbleached, uncoated cardboard. On top, heap a few inches of compost and plant the plants directly into the compost. For best results, choose plants with shallow root systems. Lettuces, for example, can survive in relatively little soil, while for heavy feeders like broccoli, you should cut a hole in the cardboard. The hole gives the broccoli access to more nutrients and breaks the cardboard barrier to allow late-summer runner weeds like Bermuda grass to climb into your new garden bed. I use this technique for spots of annual plants that I’ve neglected during the busy days of summer. Exceptions to the cut-and-cover method are areas with heavy pest or disease pressure. Burying this year’s adult flea beetles could lead to an even bigger problem next year.
Stick with one plant or color: OK, you’ve got your garden bed ready for fall. What do you fill it with? In spring, the garden is full of beautiful choices; in fall, gardening can be an overwhelming waterfall of too many options. If you’re having decision fatigue, try choosing a plant like heuchera or pansies and buying that one type of plant in a variety of colors. You can also choose a color and buy plants that match it. A friend’s rental house has a small garden full of purple flowers. Because the plants bloom at different times, it took me a few weeks to notice the trend. Mexican petunias grew next to a 2.5-inch plant (Tradescantia) next to a dark red-purple Japanese maple. Now I look forward to visiting, in part because I want to identify the next purple plant.
Buy seedlings: A pumpkin seed planted today won’t mature into a full-grown pumpkin by Halloween—there’s not enough time for that. As with pumpkins, it’s too late to plant some fall favorites in the ground. But local fall seedling sales are a great way to fill your garden with produce without the stress. If you’re still thinking about sowing, be sure to give the plants extra germination time. The information on packaged seeds often includes the average germination time. Depending on the species and variety, there may be a difference of four or five days as the number of daylight hours slowly decreases.
Watch out for diseases: Athens has been through several rainy weeks recently. Heavy rains combined with heat and humidity create ideal conditions for powdery mildew, gray mold and root rot. Powdery mildew looks like powdered sugar spots covering your plant, often on the leaves. Gardeners in Georgia often find it on cucurbits like cucumbers and melons. I trim the leaves to ensure plants like pumpkins have enough air circulation. Giving plants enough space allows them to dry out between rain showers and curbs mildew outbreaks.
Botrytis is a fungus also known as grey mould. I often see botrytis developing from a rotting, dropped leaf, fruit or flower before spreading to the main plant. Removing garden debris from close contact will help prevent such problems.
Root rot is the hardest to diagnose, especially in the fall, because a stressed plant with yellowing, drooping leaves can be considered an early fall symptom. Root rot is also the hardest to fix because you need a lot of sand to improve drainage in clay soil. I gave my olive tree root rot when I tried to plant it in the ground last winter. After it lost most of its leaves and looked sickly, I pulled it out of the ground. Many of its roots were black and broke off easily in my hand. Now it has dark green leaves again and new growth in its favorite sandy clay pot. The olive tree is an exception to my general rule of finding plants that tolerate wet clay soil rather than trying to change soil conditions.
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