The summer weather is brutal here in Lower Alabama.
It’s in the mid-90s every day and the humidity is breathtaking. Walking outside in the morning is like walking into a steamy shower stall.
We are past the days of nice rows of beans and cabbages.
We are now in the days of bindweed-choked okra plants and dead tomato vines tied like Roman prisoners to leaning stakes in a sea of waist-high spiny amaranth.
Yet fall is coming. Here are some things you can do right now that will help you later.
1. Use the heat to kill weeds
If you cut down the weeds and tarp over them, the summer sun will do a good job of killing them off. We use professional nursery fabric for this, but we’ve seen others use silage tarps or thick black plastic. I prefer the nursery fabric because it lets water go through but keeps the weeds from coming up. It’s also easy to measure out, cut, and pin down with landscape staples – and it lasts a long, long time. We pull it up when we aren’t killing weeds so we can reuse it year after year. You can see how it works in this video.
2. Gather seeds
A lot of plants are going to seed right now. We have been gathering dry beans, marigold seeds, seeds from fruit and more. If you can catch them now, you’ll have them for next year. We are almost ready to start harvesting true yam bulbils and tubers, too. Almost.
3. Figure out what went wrong… and what went right
There are areas of our homestead where the weeds and brush completely won. We got busy, we left an area for too long, and now it’s descended into Heart of Darkness territory. If you pay attention to these problem areas now, when it’s too hot and you don’t want to clear them, you can give them extra attention later – and set up systems in spring to keep the same thing from happening. Also, if you have something that worked really well in the garden this year, double down on it next year. Now is a good time to assess.
Those are just a few tips. I was out bush hogging early this morning and got thinking about a few things that would be worth sharing.
In Other News
New observations show Tithonia diversifolia may eliminate nematodes.
We now have a new gardening shirt:
Daisy now has good Tramontina machetes in her online seed store along with some new plants.
This is the slowest season at Atmore Farm & Garden, so I’m working on some writing again. One of these days I’m going to finish my new food forest book. Stay tuned…
