Six Questions I Ask My Seattle Garden in October
An October walk through my Phinney Ridge beds, from what needs doing this week to what this year taught me.
A Seattle garden in October can look finished, and that is exactly when most people stop looking at it. Don't do that. October is the month when a few small decisions decide what you eat in February and how your beds come out of winter. The problem is that everything seems to need attention at the same time, and a simple fall cleanup turns into a list of twenty jobs very fast.
I don't work from a long list. I ask the garden six questions, always the same ones and always in the same order: what needs doing now, what comes next, what to plant, what to feed, what to protect, and what to harvest. They are the six headings of the written plan I send to my consultation clients. This week I used them on my own beds, and here is what came out.
1. What needs doing now?
Now means this week, and I keep it to three things at most. If your list for now has ten items on it, it is not a list anymore, it is a guilt trip.
My fall transplants went into the East and West beds at the end of September, and the smaller beds are planted with fall and winter brassicas too. So my now is all about them. New transplants need a look every few days in their first weeks, because this is when they either root in or sulk.
Most of mine settled in pretty well. The kale is establishing, and so are the onions and the celery. The Brussels sprouts were really small and didn't look good at first, but new green leaves are forming now. They are maybe a little bit behind, but they are fine. The kohlrabi and some of the cabbages were less lucky. They have caterpillar damage, and maybe a little bit of slug damage too, and a few of them didn't make it. I still have some cabbage transplants left, so I can fill the holes.
It is not raining this week, so I keep watering with rainwater, at least the transplants and the radishes I seeded.
The other job for now is the last of the summer plants. Cut them off at the soil line and leave the roots in the ground, because they hold the soil together through our winter rain. I left two tomato plants standing outside, because they are still producing.
2. What comes next?
Next is everything in the coming four to six weeks that I have to prepare, buy or build before I can do it. This question matters more than it looks, because these are the jobs that get missed. Nobody forgets to pick a ripe tomato. Plenty of people forget to order seed garlic.
My next list is short. Garlic goes in from mid October to mid November, once the soil has cooled down. It is not getting its own bed this year. The cloves go into the empty spots between the Brussels sprouts, the cabbages and the kale, wherever I find some space. I'm also thinking about planting some in the round planter.
The second item is a building project, and honestly, it is still on hold. I'm planning a new full-height raised bed or a seed bed on the south side of the house, where the flower planter is now. I will likely deal with it in winter, when the garden doesn't need that much time from me. It is on the list, it has a season, and that is enough for now.
3. What can I still plant?
In October this is the shortest answer of the six. Garlic, fava beans, spinach, mâche and arugula under cover, and any fall transplants that are still sitting in their pots. That's it. I wrote the full list, including what is already too late this year, in what to plant in October in Seattle.
If the honest answer for one of your beds is nothing, that is a perfectly good answer. Sow a cover crop before about October 10 (I explained which ones in cover crops in Seattle), or cover the bed with a few inches of fallen leaves and let it rest.
4. What does the soil need?
In fall the answer is almost never fertilizer. Plants are slowing down, and whatever they can't take up gets washed out by the winter rain. What the soil wants now is slow food: compost on top, leaves as mulch, and time. I explained the reasons in when to fertilize vegetables in Seattle, and when to stop.
The better version of this question is "what does this bed need", and you only get that answer from a soil test. Mine showed very low nitrogen, low boron in every single bed, and too much potassium in the East and West beds. I could not have seen any of that by looking at the plants. If you have never tested your soil, put it on your next list. I use MySoil, and if you sign up for their subscription list, you get 10% off your first soil test kit at checkout. I will write more about feeding the beds later this month.
5. What needs protecting?
Right now my protect list is about pests, not about cold. I'm seeing damage from slugs and cabbage worms on the young brassicas, not so much from wind or birds. So the job for this week is to look under the leaves of your young cabbages, kohlrabi and kale every few days and pick off what you find.
The cold is the part I still have to work out. Our first frost usually doesn't come until November, but it never sends a warning, and honestly, I have to find out which crops need a row cover or a cloche in our climate, and when. I will share what I learn. For now, find your row cover and your cloches while it is still pleasant to dig through the shed, so they are ready when you need them.
6. What can I still harvest, and what did this year teach me?
I'm still harvesting tomatoes, both from the greenhouse and from the two plants outside, and the tomatillos keep coming. I started picking the mixed lettuce, which has grown really, really well. The carrots are not ready yet, but the radicchio is almost there.
Harvest is also the question where I look back, because by January I will have forgotten half of it. This year's notes are honest ones. The Marketmore 76 cucumbers in the West bed were my best crop of the summer, and they stay on the plan. The Vienna Purple kohlrabi was a total failure, which is why Trek is getting its chance right now. My Lucca tomatoes were started too late and never caught up. And the tomatillos took over the entire greenhouse, so next year they get one pot, and they can discuss it among themselves.
Write your own version of this down this week, while the plants are still standing there to remind you. It takes ten minutes, and it is the most useful page of next year's plan.
Your Seattle garden in October, in six questions
Now: check the new transplants, fill the holes, cut down the summer plants that are done and leave the roots
Next: find the spots for your garlic, order what you need, give one project a season
Plant: garlic, fava beans, winter greens under cover, the last transplants
Feed: compost and leaves, no fertilizer, and a soil test if you never did one
Protect: check the young brassicas for slugs and cabbage worms, and find your row cover
Harvest: pick what is left and write down what worked and what didn't
My free October Planting Checklist has the planting part of this on one page.
Want these six questions answered for your own garden?
Asking the questions is the easy part. Knowing the answers for your beds, with your light and your soil, is where most people get stuck. In a Kitchen Garden Consultation I come to your garden for an hour, we walk it together, and within three business days I send you a written plan with exactly these six headings: now, next, plant, feed, protect, harvest. It is $175.
And if you would like to see the beds from this post first, Walk My Garden With Me is on Saturday, October 17, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm here in Phinney Ridge. It is free, small on purpose, and there is no pitch at the end. Save your spot here.
Happy fall gardening. Let me know if you need help, I'm here for you.
Jackie
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