That is until yesterday evening as I ventured out into the backyard to take some photos. Then I noticed what looked like something had been digging in a couple of places in one of the raised beds, but I thought nothing of it until it finally hit me… “those are DEER TRACKS!”

A Disastrous Discovery in the Fall Vegetable Garden

From that moment everywhere I turned there were obvious signs that what looked like an entire herd of deer had been partying in the garden all night long! So much for my ideal growing conditions; deer have a quick way of ruining all that.

It wasn’t a dream, but I can still hope it was a fluke and that these deer were simply lost, got turned around and decided to check out the garden before returning to their usual feeding grounds. After all I am smack dab in the midst of a residential neighborhood!

Guess I’ll count my blessings that the damage wasn’t major and they even spared me the effort of pulling up a couple of beet roots. Seems like they were only interested in the beet leaves, Swiss Chard, and the pepper plants, but didn’t bother with much of anything else. Hopefully they won’t be returning anytime soon.

A Look at the Brighter Side of What’s Growing in the Fall Garden

It’s not all bad news in the garden as the following photos will show you that things are still green and growing in spite of the fact that the calendar shows November is only a few days away.

A few straggling blackberries continue to ripen despite the season and cool temperatures that have arrived in the fall garden.

A colorful and attractive mix of marigolds, nasturtiums, kale, parsnips, and Mexican Sage creates a nice backdrop between the raised beds and a perennial herb garden.

Ornamental kale and cabbage plants get better with age and as colder temps brighten their colors.

As hard as they tried, the deer were unable to eat all of the Swiss Chard, which continues to yield plenty of fresh, leafy greens.

Frost has spared the eggplants and peppers just long enough for me to collect one final harvest from an assortment of heirloom varieties.

I’ll wrap things up by saying once again that if you love veggie gardening but have never tried growing a fall vegetable garden; you are missing out on one of the absolute best times of the year to enjoy your garden!

The format change didn’t come without a few headaches and challenges, so if you are a subscriber who didn’t receive an issue during September check your spam filter or verify your subscription’s status by visiting the sign up page.

Your Feedback on the Revised Newsletter Format is Welcomed

Please let me know if you have any difficulty viewing the updated newsletter format, or if there is anything that I can do to make improvements. I plan to send the newsletter out on the 20th day of each month and this revised format should help me to meet that goal.

In September’s issue the featured topic explored the many advantages backyard gardeners can reap by including a few perennial vegetables and fruits in their gardens. There are also simple tips to help make raising these plants a breeze, along with a Top Ten Edible Perennials line-up that no garden should grow without.

Surprises Galore Waiting in the Backyard Vegetable Garden

George Washington Carver may have discovered hundreds of uses for the peanut, but even he may have been surprised by the way that some gardeners are utilizing ordinary sweet potato leaves. Lulu shares all the surprising details in the latest gardening secret to be exposed in the newsletter.

Less of secret and more of a shock is the best way to describe what Rebekah discovered when she opened her compost bin recently. A little bit of research turned her disturbing find from disgusting to delightful as she finally recognized the good composting fortune that she had stumbled upon! She explains the entire ordeal adds a link to an entertaining follow-up.

What’s Next for the Newsletter and Veggie Gardening Website

The current issue of the Gardening Secrets Newsletter ends with a peek at future plans for some fall gardening video and anticipated uses of Facebook and Twitter both here at Veggie Gardening Tips and with the newsletter.

So make sure your subscription to the Gardening Secrets Newsletter is active to stay informed of the latest organic gardening tips and ideas and all the upcoming happenings planned around these parts. And if you haven’t added your name to the list of over 15,000 satisfied readers, then it’s time to head on over to the sign up page and start your free subscription today.

Now Featured in the Organic Gardening Newsletter

The main focus this month is on growing sweet potatoes in the home garden. Rumors are put to rest about sweet potatoes being a difficult crop to grow. The newsletter also discusses the importance of keeping your seed stock disease free, and shares a new process that can clean-up sweet potato strains that have become infected.

The featured article also discloses that all sweet potatoes are not the same and that there’s a long list of heirloom varieties that you are not likely to have seen or tasted. Sources for quality sweet potato seed stock and tips for growing, curing, and storing the harvest are offered as well.

Gardening Tips, Tricks, and Reader Contributions

Gardening tips covered in the newsletter include an idea for extending the broccoli harvest and producing multiple heads from each plant with almost no additional effort on the gardener’s part. I also reveal time and labor saving techniques used to make irrigating the veggie garden a less involved affair.

Reader’s contributed some great suggestions of their own this month, including one gardener that introduces a strategy to speed seed germination, even for some of those difficult to germinate varieties. P.J. our very own “At Home Gardener” shared a homemade remedy that he uses to successfully control Powdery Mildew disease in the backyard garden.

Questions addressed this month include one from a gardener in Georgia searching for a good organic fertilizer and organic mulch to help improve a red clay soil and make it more hospitable to plant growth. Another inquiry requested information on the differences between “walking onions” and “multiplier onions” and whether one is any better than the other.

Changes and Improvements to the Gardening Secrets Newsletter

If you haven’t subscribed yet, or missed the latest issue; now is a great time to head on over and subscribe to the Gardening Secrets Newsletter. I have a number of surprises, improvements, and new features planned and ready to go into effect during the next few months.

There are over 12,000 subscribers enjoying the newsletter and slightly fewer than 4,000 readers on this website’s RSS feed. Thank you all very much for your contributions, for supporting the site here at Veggie Gardening Tips, and for subscribing and reading the Gardening Secrets Newsletter!

If you still haven’t heeded my advice and planted at least a few stinkin’ cloves in your own garden then now’s a perfect time to read up on the subject and get your seed stock ordered to plant this fall. There’s a complete archive of garlic growing articles here including the following selection to help get you started:

Tips and Tricks for Raising Home Grown Gourmet Garlic

• Planting Fall Garlic in the Home Garden
• Locating and Purchasing Gourmet Garlic Seed Stock
• Favorite Gourmet Garlic Varieties
• Fun Facts and General Garlic Information

Now back to my latest garlic harvest. I dug up a sample clove a week or so ago because I needed a bulb for a new recipe and because I was curious to see exactly how the crop was progressing. The randomly selected garlic bulb turned out to be a whopper and I was all smiles about the prospects for the remainder of this season’s harvest.

An Untimely Delay in the Garlic Harvest

Then came the rains, which were welcomed and needed in the garden, but arrived at a bad time and interfered with digging up the garlic bed. The rain delay pushed the garlic harvest back by a week or two and very little in the way of green leaf growth was left by the time the bulbs were dug up.

Fortunately the garlic bulbs were still in great shape and only a few showed any signs of splitting out of their paper-like wrappers. Size wise it turns out that my random test bulb happened to fall towards the upper end of the spectrum, but most of the garlic was at least a few inches across and definitely larger than your typical store bought bulbs.

The crop was very productive with a growing bed about ten feet long by five foot wide yielding nearly a hundred bulbs of delicious gourmet garlic. Not to even mention how carefree it was to manage this garlic production from a fall planting.

The Ultimate Way to Savor Freshly Dug Garlic Cloves

The garlic has been hung to dry and cure for a few weeks with the exception of a few bulbs that were diverted straight to the kitchen! So what shall it be? Hmmm, fresh garlic bread, roasted garlic cloves, or maybe a garlicky pasta recipe?

No, I think I’ll be brave and enjoy the new harvest like a true garlic aficionado; uncooked in a dish that can handle the full flavor and heat of raw cloves! How about a little hummus, salsa, guacamole, or maybe a smorgasbord of all three? I know, I really should have been better prepared and organized, it’s not like I didn’t see this day coming.

Looks like I’m headed back out to the garden to pick a ripe heirloom tomato, some fresh basil and cilantro, and then I’ll have to run to the store for an avocado, tortilla chips, and a baguette of multi-grain bread. On the way out of the store I’ll try my best to resist swinging by the garlic bin to taunt those pathetic, puny, little, flavor deprived, no-fire, bulbs that pass for garlic in my local supermarket!

If you didn’t receive your copy, or have changed your e-mail address since the last issue, head on over and sign up for your free newsletter subscription right now while the June 2009 issue is still available.

Now Appearing in this Month’s Organic Gardening Newsletter

This month the newsletter details all the changes taking place in the Veggie Gardening Tips plot this spring including; new growing beds, the search for a rabbit proof fence, a perennial vegetable bed, the latest mushroom logs being  inoculated, and a few ornamental edible fruits that were recently planted.

The feature article covers some interesting statistics related to the rapid rise in the popularity of organic vegetable gardening and offers a little inspiration to proceed with that favorite backyard DIY project that you’ve been procrastinating on for far too long!

The Tips n’ Tricks section of the Gardening Secrets Newsletter includes some ideas to keep those varmints out of the garden and creative ways to turn those cold frames into a year round gardening device.

Reader contributions this month include one gardener’s success eliminating groundhogs with nothing more than a piece of bubble gum. Another reader shares his tip for arranging perfectly spaced seedlings in the raised bed garden, and a question is fielded concerning the best ingredients for constructing the perfect compost pile.

Thanks for All the Compliments Regarding the Newsletter

I would like to thank everyone for all of the appreciation, compliments, and inspiration that I received from subscribers letting me know just how much they enjoy and missed the newsletter. Here are a few of the kind words that I received:

“Thanks for the newsletter, happy to see it in my mailbox again. I had been wondering what happened to it. Lots of good info! I found you when I was searching for info on lamb’s quarters. Got what I needed from your site and subscribed to your newsletter right then. Thanks again for your wonderfully newsy newsletter. A welcome sight in my mailbox!” – Suz F.

“It is wonderful to know that the newsletter has been restarted. Motivation for us all to continue on. May it all go well for you in your new gardening adventures. And thanks for giving us a spurt on to get back into doing a good job ourselves.” – Wendy M.

“I love your website and the newsletter. Thanks for sharing.” – Joy N.

“I just discovered this website and all I’ve got to say is WOW! I subscribe to a lot of gardening newsletters and forums, and this one is very thorough and easy to navigate.” – Jane B.

“I received your Newsletter this week after quite a long time without getting it. I really enjoyed reading it again and it is quite inspirational. I live in Australia so we are in winter at the moment. Have been gardening full time (semi-self-sufficient) for about twenty years but still have a lot to learn. Keep sending the Newsletter. Just love to hear and see what others are doing.” – Elizabeth S.

I had so much fun working on this month’s Gardening Secrets Newsletter and the follow-up that I realized the readers weren’t the only ones who missed it. I’m committed to publishing the newsletter and getting it out to you on a much more regular basis. So if you enjoy this blog but still haven’t subscribed to the newsletter, or if you need to update your e-mail address now is the perfect time to sign up for the Gardening Secrets Newsletter.

Not that I’d ever be the one to complain about rain for the garden, I just want a break so that I can finish with my planting. There are plenty of new developments around the garden this season beginning with a few new raised beds that I have put in.

Stretching Out in the Veggie Garden

It seems like there’s never enough room for growing plants and my motivation for expanding the garden was to add a perennial vegetable bed that contains asparagus, blackberries, and rhubarb, provide space to do more cover cropping, and to raise more of the varieties that I’ve longed to grow but just couldn’t squeeze in.

My heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants were all planted about two weeks ago. I held off a bit with them and was glad that I did because the weather was so unsettled during May with cooler than normal temps, wet weather, and late frost in parts of Central PA.

New varieties in the garden that I’m looking forward to trialing this year include; Purple Smudge Tomato, Golden Marconi Peppers, Ma Zu Eggplant, Chocolate Amazon Tomato, Green Goddess Eggplant, and Matt’s Wild Cherry Tomato.

Let the Veggie Harvesting Begin

The early spring vegetables look great thanks to the cool weather and plentiful rainfall! Broccoli is ready to harvest and the greens are yielding plenty of leaves for salads and other kitchen uses. The kohl rabi and cabbages aren’t far behind either.

In addition to the usual harvest of spring greens like kale, collards, and chard, there are always wild edibles such as chickweed, lambs quarters, and dandelion greens available and free for the picking at this time of the year when production in the garden is somewhat limited.

I’m psyched about the maturing garlic as the plants look incredible and have started forming scapes which I always remove and use in recipes or by themselves for a burst of delicious garlic flavor.

A Look at the Garden’s Wild and Untamed Neighbors

A new fence is almost completed and will hopefully keep the garden off limits to the rabbit population that has exploded this year. There’s nothing like the frustration of planting and caring for tender young seedlings only to discover that they’ve been chewed to the ground by that not so cute bunny rabbit.

I also noticed a possum strolling alongside the garden early yesterday morning and was rudely awakened last night by the passing of a skunk that was obviously nearby, fortunately the skunks have been less common in the area but are a growing concern and nuisance in neighboring communities.

The soil dried out long enough earlier this week to give me a chance to finish preparing the new growing beds. I will soon plant my beans, okra, squash, melons, herbs, and other summer corps. They are going in a little later that I would have liked but some things are beyond a gardener’s control.

Overall things are shaping up nicely in the vegetable plot, I just hope that the plentiful spring rains don’t lead to a hot and dry summer growing season!

The program is called the Ridge to Reef Beneficial Farmer Training program because students are instructed in lessons of sustainability that consider the environment from the depths of the ocean to the lofty peaks of the mountains of their island habitat.

Priceless Investments in the Future of Organic Farming

These young, resident farmers in-training gained the knowledge and experience of what it takes to manage productive organic farm systems that yield sustainable food crops without creating negative impacts on neighboring ecosystems or watersheds.

The course of study is in-depth and comprehensive with instruction covering various aspects of organic crop production, renewable energy systems, permaculture design, composting, integrated pest management, bush skills, sustainable construction, agriculture economics, animal husbandry, and other sustainable agriculture related topics.

Instruction was offered in a variety of formats, from classroom style lectures and hands-on training, to field trips around the island, group assignments, guest speakers, and individual projects. While the sustainable education provided was detailed and intensive, it was clear that the students absolutely loved and cherished the skills and experiences they were cultivating!

Sustainable Connections Run Strong and Deep!

It was also evident that the lessons had really sunk in and that these sustainable scholars were viewing their environment from a fresh, new perspective that placed importance on factors that used to be of less significance. For example, one student commented on a making the trek all the way back to his cabana just to unplug an electronic device that was left charging, so as to conserve the draw on the farm’s solar energy supply.

When I met them with a little over a week remaining in their residency they were just beginning to reflect with remorse that the program was quickly winding down and coming to a conclusion. It was clear that they had developed close bonds with Ben, Nate, and all of the instructors and members of the Creque Dam Farm family.

They had also established contacts and built friendships with their fellow students and visitors to the farm that will endure long after their island time has ended. If you’re interested in a closer look at the Ridge to Reef experience check out Dez’s interesting chronicle over at “From Ridge to Reef and Back to the City.” I can’t express enough how talented, intelligent, motivated, and cool all of these gals and guys are!

Thanks and Well Wishes to Everyone from Ridge to Reef

It was inspiring and so much fun to meet and spend time with each of the Ridge to Reef students. A big Veggie Gardening Tips thank you goes out to Mere, Mandy, Ben, Marshall, Judith, Ashley, Patrick, Dez, James and Ryan! If your travels ever take you to Central Pennsylvania be sure to look me up and stop by.

Thanks for your interest and commitment to sustainable agriculture, congrats on completing the Ridge to Reef program, and best wishes in applying all of the skills, knowledge, and experiences that you have gained during your time at the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute!

Before you get too envious let me mention that the trip wasn’t exactly filled with rest and relaxation like a typical Caribbean getaway. Most of my time was spent far away from the usual tourist spots on the rather isolated Creque Dam Farm, home of the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute.

Bushskills Caribbean Rendezvous

I arrived at the organic farm community just in time to participate in the 3rd annual Bushskills Caribbean Rendezvous. This event featured a variety of workshops focused on preserving and sharing primitive outdoor skills such as plant fiber craft, edible weeds and bush medicines, fire making techniques, ancient fishing methods, palm weaving, basket making, and much more.

The trip also provided an opportunity to explore a whole new world of exotic fruits, vegetables, and organic farming practices of the Caribbean. Visiting St. Croix was a much different experience from last summer’s journey to forage for seaweeds off the San Juan Islands, but I realize how much I love island life, the climate, and hospitality that I’ve encountered on my visits.

Sights and Flavors of the Virgin Islands

There will be much more to share about what’s going on at the the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute and my experiences there as soon as I finish unpacking and catching up with the emails, voice messages, and texts that piled up while I was away. I also need to plan the spring garden, get some seeds started indoors, and revive my Gardening Secrets Newsletter.

Until the next post here are some sights from St. Croix to tease you and test your knowledge of tropical plants. Click on the photos for an enlarged view and identify them all if you can:

Just in case I made it sound like the trip was all business, I’ll admit there was a little time spent off farm engaging in pleasurable island activities such as snorkeling, playing, and soaking up the sunshine with new friends on some of St. Croix’s beautiful beaches!