Keep those veggies growing well into winter

Fall is here and along with it, some warm weather that makes vegetable gardening easy. A quick trip to the nursery will reveal a plethora of fresh vegetable starts. You can easily keep your garden producing food until well into winter if you take advantage of the weather now. Here is what you can do to keep it going strong:

Sow seeds: The soil is still quite warm these days, which means it is ripe for sowing seeds. Carrots, beets, salad greens, spinach, green beans and the like will all sprout quickly.

Plant more: The summer vegetable garden wanes, but now is the time to beef up the soil with compost and natural fertilizers and plants starts like broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach and chard, salad greens and herbs.

Feed: Sun-warmed soil encourages plants to put on a fair amount of growth. Keep vegetables growing strong by applying a 4-4-4 natural fertilizer every four to six weeks until cold weather settles in.

Water: We are still in a dry season, so watering the vegetable garden and established berry plantings is crucial.

Mulch: Keeping the vegetable garden mulched with rice straw goes a long way in preventing weeds from overtaking. Weeding will be very light. Once the rains do arrive, the mulch will protect the soil and keep leafy vegetables free of mud spatters.

Terry Kramer is the site manager for the Humboldt Botanical Garden and a trained horticulturist and journalist. She has been writing a garden column for the Times-Standard since 1982. Contact her at terrykramer90@gmail.com.