Frugal Living with Pat Veretto

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Frugal Living

Frugal Garden and Yard Care

Get the most from your garden

Some folks hover over their gardens to the bitter end when the last tiny green tomato is mature enough to pick, or until the bean vines give up the ghost. It's part of frugal gardening to try to get every last drop - or seed or tomato - before you quit.

If you want to save your garden as long as you can and get as much out of is as possible, here are some general ways to keep it producing and to keep it from freezing.

Keep it producing

First, keep mature produce picked. Plants set fruit - as in tomatoes and bean pods - so that the species will survive. If you continually pick the seed containing fruit before the seed is ready to reproduce, the plant attempts over and over to make more seed.

When you quit picking green beans, for instance, the beans mature, the pods dry out and the plant dies. If you keep the green pods picked, the plant will continue to produce green beans. The same holds true with many plants.

For root vegetables, don't let them set seed at all. Once the seed pod begins to grow, energy is diverted from storage in the root to the seed. Most root vegetables are actually perennial plants, taking two seasons to mature. The first season, food that the plant has manufactured is stored in the root and the next year, this food/energy is used to produce growth and seeds. If a root crop goes to seed, the root usually becomes woody and inedible.

Keep it safe from freezing

Since root crops are underground, they are generally frost tolerant, so you don't have to worry about harvesting them early. As a matter of fact, many root crops are better if not harvested until after the first frost. When the tops are under stress or dying, the energy/food is driven into the root for winter storage - or for your dinner.

If a frost threatens before you're through with your garden, a sheet or light blanket is usually enough to save it. Drape it loosely over the plants, but secure the edges and corners. First frosts are usually light and, unless the temperature drops below freezing and stays there for any length of time, some plants will survive the first frost even without protection.

Extend the season

Many times, after the first frost of the season, warm weather stays around long enough for you to finish your harvest satisfactorily. If it isn't quite warm enough to encourage hot weather crops to keep growing, you can warm up the soil around them by laying black plastic around them. Worn out tires have been used for this purpose too, but are not practical in all situations.

Extending the harvest can include using greenhouses or plastic domes or even "walls of water," but these things can be expensive. You can use sheets of clear plastic instead (like those made to cover windows) to help keep the soil and plants warm. Even lightweight plastic bags will work to make individual plant covers. Leave plenty of room for the plants to breathe and use stakes to hold the plastic away from the leaves. Remember to remove the covers when the temperatures rise or your garden will bake.

You don't have to let the garden go until you get a real hard freeze... even then, parsnips and the like, will live on in the frozen soil. Read up on what you have and if you like, make plans to keep your garden going until the very end. You can decide for yourself if you want "just a little more," and choose just when to give it up.

Eat different parts of the plant

Radishes are an exception to most rules for root crops, as they reseed themselves as many times as allowed during a growing season. They must be used before they go to seed to keep them from becoming woody, but you have to be sure to pull them as soon as the roots are plump and ready. If you do miss a radish or two and they go to seed, you can sprout the seeds or eat them just the way they are.

Other than eating or sprouting radish seed, get more from your garden by doing these things:

• Eat carrot tops in stews or salads.
• Beet greens are good cooked like spinach.
• Cut off the tops of mature onions when you pull them - then chop and freeze them for soups or meatloaves.
• Sprout beans, peas and lentils that got too mature before you found them.

-- Pat Veretto