After spending most of the summer in Sweden, my vegetable garden is a blank slate except for a few weeds. For me, August will be a month of planning and prepping, unless we get some cooler, wetter weather.  I don’t want to fight mother nature. 

I love planning for my Fall garden.  Checking my journal to see where I planted the vegetables last year and changing it up for this year. Checking the recommended vegetable varieties for our area and placing an order for seeds.

But first I needed to pull those weeds.  I had cleaned up the debris from the Spring garden before I left on my trip.  Next, I will spread three inches of organic matter on the garden.  I usually use grass clippings.  Not easy when you don’t need to mow the lawn because of the drought. Compost or leaves will work too.  Turn it into the soil two weeks before planting.  Adding fertilizer is the third step.  Horse or cattle manure may be substituted for commercial fertilizer.  Never use poultry manure on a Fall garden.  Then just before you plant, water your garden with a sprinkler for a couple hours and then let it dry out for several days. Then you will be ready to plant.

Enjoy the start of your Fall garden.