Fall food gardening on Orcas

A Message from our Communication Leader, Kristin Tolle

As we gardeners know, Fall is a great time to be on Orcas. What my garden lacks in beautiful flowers—ignoring the rhododendrons—it makes up for in food production. Sometimes too much food production. 

Over the years I’ve learned what to plant less of (cucumbers and squash); I also learned what to plant more of (tomatoes and peppers). This year I grew 7 varieties of tomato and still feel a bit jilted. Meanwhile my plums that usually only produce bi-annually, provided me with another bumper crop this year in addition to last. 

It’s funny how surprised people who don’t plant food gardens react when I tell them, planting and protecting is the easy part. It’s the harvest when the real work starts. I find it to be challenging to keep ahead of the ripening fruit to make sure none of it goes to waste—even though I share liberally, like it or not, with the local fauna. 

This is why I love planting a Fall garden. It gives me a break from slicing and dehydrating apples and pears, chopping and freezing plums, and making dropoffs to the foodbank. To say nothing of the foisting the overabundance on friends.

We are lucky to live in such a temperate climate. I take advantage of that by planting winter hardy root vegetables: carrots, onions, potatoes, garlic, etc. If I really want these to come ripe in early summer, it’s best to get them in the ground now. I don’t water them—at all. I let our Fall rains do all the work. 

Pretty much any food plant that can winter over is fair game for putting in the ground now. I encourage you to give it a try!