Do THIS by the End of September

Finally, some of that summer heat is going away and I know I’m not the only one glad to see it fading. Though with it go the days of bright green gardens and bountiful tomatoes, you’ll be up and growing again in no time. Like the rest of your garden, it’s time to rest… a little bit.

Today, we’ll talk about what you should be doing to finish up your September and step into October like a pro. Let’s get started.

The Last Ten Days

You’ll see the fall equinox and settle back for the holiday to wonder just what you should be doing. Ten days before the end of the month, on the first day of fall, I strongly recommend taking stock of everything you still have left over from last year’s canning, freezing, and so on and so forth. It’s time to use up those supplies so you’ll have plenty of room to overwinter this year’s supplies.

Can’t possibly use all of it? This is a great time to go through your notes and reconsider all that you’ve used and perhaps cut back on some things that you don’t use as much of as you thought you may.

A good for instance is tomatoes. I honestly thought that we basically lived on tomato soup. Turns out that it’s used a lot more rarely than I thought it was. In fact, I’ve been using tomato soup and thickening it up then using a bunch of fresh herbs for spaghetti sauce just to get rid of it.

Related: 10 Canning Recipes From The Amish

This year, I cut my homemade tomato soup canning by over half because we just haven’t gone through it. Why keep things in a state you’re unlikely to use?

This is also an excellent time to go ahead and start culling off annuals who are getting crispy. If there aren’t seed heads still attached to these plants, feel free to toss them directly into your compost pile.

If you do have remaining seed heads and desire to dry them out and collect them, more power to you. This can be done by simply removing the seed head from the body of the plant (if fully developed) and then drying it indoors or outdoors.

There is no reason to leave a seed head attached to a plant to dry if the rest of the planet is already failing. It’s taken up all the nutrients it can get from its mother stalks and is likely in the process of rescinding its connections to that dying plant. Go ahead and help it do so.

The Last Five Days

So you’ve spent the last few days doing what we suggested above. You’re probably busy canning and proofing so many recipes at this point and, hopefully, the night’s air is just cool enough to let you have a steaming mug of tea on your porch outside. That, or maybe some fresh apple cider.

It’s time to go through your deep freezers. Why? Because you’re going to find a package of cabbage from three years ago hidden away in some dark, unloved corner that you’ve forgotten about.

And that corner is about to be needed for your hunting bounty. Whether you simply call your local processors and let them know that you’re interested in abandoned carcasses (which come fully processed, just the way you like it) or you’re out in the field yourself, any meat-eater will need extra space before the end of the fall.

Related: How To Preserve Food Without Electricity

In all honesty, we usually take this time to make up a few batches of homemade dog food toppers, too, with meat that’s been in there for longer than a year. And that’s easy enough to do: you just need a pot, some time, and some water. You think your dogs eat well now; wait until you see what happens when you whip out a wild hog and deer topper for their dinner. Mine go absolutely crazy for it.

Now that we’ve got your deep freezer in better order, remember to actually call your processors on the opening day of deer season. You don’t want to wait and miss your chance for a good place on their list.

The Last Three Days

As September fades and October starts to come into its own, you should take this time to go ahead and make plans to have your fields tilled by a professional- if you don’t do it yourself.

Though some people are passionately against tilling in the fall, I see no good reason to avoid it. You want those microbes to be exposed to the air and to bury themselves back down nice and deep for the winter. You want your fall leaves to create a good blanket over fresh earth, not dead foliage, if at all possible.

That said, I usually recommend discing very lightly. I don’t want a foot and a half of discing done, I want only a few inches of topsoil turned over. Why is that? Mostly because I don’t want the beneficial grubs and whatnot to have to rebury themselves. It takes a lot of fat out of their little bodies to do that and I want them to overwinter as easily as they can.

Related: Homesteading To Do’s: September

If you’re in an area where you’re still getting an abundant gathering from your garden during this period of time, I advise you to instead gather your year’s notes on your garden and look for problematic places.

Though you won’t see the fall and winter that the rest of the country likely will, you do still go through a brief cold season where growing isn’t ideal. Take that time to amend your garden and tear into it, but take this time, right now, to go through and make plans to do that. Amendments cost more every year. Give yourself time to afford them.

What are you doing during these last few weeks of September? Leave a note in the comments down below, we’d love to hear from you. And remember Happy Gardening. And Happy Fall, Y’all!

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