We begin this week’s column by returning to last week’s column. In that column we suggested you plant a second garden then mentioned the first day of frost - as October 1st. Apparently this happened once in history.
Further in the Almanac we see the weather predictions.
This year they have predicted a warm Autumn with rain in November with snow possibly the week of Thanksgiving. This would give us enough time for some late season garden produce to go along with whatever we’ve been raising all year.
We note several nearly daily emails from Burpees and Gurneys (and others) with late season sales, along with reminders to get your fall planting done quite soon. And good sales in progress too.
We’ve already suggested making a mail order for some of the seeds you will need for next year’s garden. Seeds will usually last a few years if stored where its dry.
And we also have mentioned in the past come Spring there have been racks of leftover seeds from past years on sale for 10 cents a package.
One email each week lists what needs planting now to get the plants started in time for Winter. This includes fruit trees, berry bushes, flower bulbs and roots along with some food plants too - asparagus roots, horseradish and other.
You can do your planning on rainy days and then do the planting when the weather is nice and sunny.
We also need to mention this is October which will end on Halloween. Families with small kids will be thinking of Halloween costumes too.
In this writer’s history we had a costume day and party at school. Some years mother got busy to make me a Halloween costume which then became pajamas.
Some of the school Halloween parties were quite memorable too. One year we had an evening Halloween program with a play or two.
Be sure your household furnace is ready to go too. Change the furnace air filter among other things. Maybe check the fuel tank, too.
Until next week.
