* Dig up garlic that is ready to be harvested. You’ll know garlic plants are ready when the lower three leaves have turned brown. For now, keep the shoots and bulbs intact. Since many of the bulbs have clumps of moist earth on them, I lay the plants on the ground for a few hours to let the soil dry, making it easier to remove. Next, tie the plants in bundles and hang these out of direct sunlight in a shed or other location that is dry and airy for about a month to cure. Curing is essential if the bulbs are to be stored for any length of time. After curing, cut off the shoots, leaving a one-inch segment of stem attached to each bulb.
* Leave no vacant space in the vegetable garden! Once a crop is harvested, make second sowings of the same vegetable if the “days to harvest” listed on seed packets is 60 days or less. You need not worry about that time line for most other vegetable crops that are frost-tolerant. Alternatively, sow a cover crop of buckwheat, sorghum-sudangrass, annual ryegrass, daikon radish, or mustard. These will be winterkilled and are tilled under in spring a few weeks before planting crops. I will plant mustard in the area where garlic is to be planted in late October. Mustard is a bio-fumigant, meaning that it produces compounds that destroy pathogens in the soil. Mustard must be mowed down and tilled into the soil about two weeks prior to garlic planting.
* Divide bearded irises. Typically, they need dividing about every 3 years. After digging up the plants, cut away any soft or rotting portions of the rhizome (thick root-like structure) and then cut the remaining rhizome into sections, making sure each section has a leafy shoot. To make re-planting easier, some people like to cut back the sword-like foliage, leaving just a short fan of leaves. I prefer to cut back the leaves just a little since they are needed to produce food that the plants need to get re-established.
* Harvest green beans, a.k.a. bush, snap, or string beans, whether bush or pole, about every other day. Pick them when they are no thicker than a pencil. Frequent picking will prolong production of new pods. I find that French filet varieties, e.g. ‘Masai’, ‘Rolande’, yield for a much longer period than other types of green beans.
* Propagate woody herbs such as lavender, lemon verbena, rosemary, sage and thyme. Use a sharp knife (e.g., a box cutter), to cut 4 to 6-inch long shoot tips from these plants. Remove any flowers and all lower leaves on the cuttings. Dip cut ends of the shoots in a rooting hormone and stick the cuttings in a pot filled with moistened sand or a mix of peat and perlite. Cover the pot with a clear plastic bag and place it in bright but indirect light. In about 8 weeks, the cuttings will have rooted and can be transplanted to the garden.
* Continue to shop for and plant herbaceous perennials. One “must have” for the shopping list is bee balm (Monarda), especially a bright red variety such as ‘Jacob Cline’. Red flowering bee balm is a favorite of hummingbirds for its high nectar content.
