Fall has arrived in the garden. The tomatoes are slowing down, the mornings are cool, and this is the season I like best for getting the garden ready for next year.

All my favorite nurseries are having their final open house of the season this weekend. Here in my part of the Willamette Valley in Oregon, we are blessed with many outstanding growers; dahlias, hydrangeas, roses, lavender, and many more.

This week we added a new picture book for the little gardeners in your life, a short fall to-do list, and a new guide to planning next year's garden while this year's is still fresh in your mind.

New Storybook for Children

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Ben's Year in the Vegetable Garden follows a little boy through one whole garden year, from seeds sprouting in a jar in late winter to tucking the garden in for the winter with mulch.

It's written for ages 4 to 7, with a watercolor picture on every page, and each scene ends with something a child can try at home.

Read it on screen, or print the 10-page picture book free for bedtime or the classroom.

If your little ones enjoy it, our first storybook, Charlotte and James' Garden Adventure, is written for beginning readers to sound out themselves.

Click link to access our first storybook found on the Child Vegetable Garden page of our website. child-vegetable-garden.html

Your Fall Garden Checklist

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Pick green tomatoes before the first frost. Most will finish ripening indoors.

Plant garlic in October. It's the easiest crop you'll ever grow: plant it now, mulch it, and forget it until summer.

Sow a cover crop on empty beds. Clover, oats, or cereal rye protect bare soil all winter and feed it when you turn them under in spring. Sow at least four weeks before your first hard frost.

Cover bare soil. Fallen leaves are free mulch. A few inches over the beds keeps the soil from washing away in winter rains. Keep greens going.

A simple cold frame keeps lettuce, spinach, and chard coming well into winter.

"What Can I Still Plant?"

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Wondering if it's too late to plant something?

Type your zip code into What Can I Still Plant? and it shows how many days you have before frost and which vegetables still have time to mature.

Plan Next Year's Garden Now

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Fall is the best time to plan next year's garden, while you still remember what worked and what didn't.

I've rebuilt our Basic Vegetable Garden Design guide from the ground up.

It now walks you through five layouts that work in real yards (the simple grid, the traditional row garden, the U-shape, the border garden along a fence, and freestanding island beds), with a watercolor chart for each one.

It also covers how wide to make your paths, whether raised beds or in-ground rows suit your yard, and the four-square rotation that keeps soil healthy year after year.

Here in rainy Oregon, our raised beds drain better than our clay soil and warm up earlier in spring, but your yard may call for something different, and the guide helps you choose.

Happy gardening,

Charlotte

www.vegetable-gardening-online.com

Growing Knowledge — Growing Your Garden since 2009

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