How to Prepare Your Ohio Garden for Fall 🍂

While you’re soaking up the sun rays of long August days, there is a whole list of upcoming ways to prepare your garden for the Fall season. And let’s be real, by the end of August, most Ohio gardeners are just about done with the heavy hitting, humid heat that somehow manages to make you sweat within the first five minutes of your garden chores. Fret not, sweaty friends, crisp September mornings and chilly October nights are just around the corner. Follow our simple steps to get yourself ready for some of the most rewarding garden moments of the whole year.

First things first, lets talk seasons.

Central Ohio gardeners have four seasons we like to reference to when planning and planting out our gardens. These include two cool seasons (Spring and Fall), a warm season (Summer), and cold season (Winter). We like to see them as a continuous cycle to plan through to maximize food production and garden potential through the whole year.

In Ohio, we enter Cool Season #2 in Mid-August. While temperatures may still feel hot, Mid-August is the time to start planning and planting for harvests to last through January.

Two Dates to Know: Timing is everything in fall gardening, and there are two key milestones that shape what’s possible:

1) First Frost
This is when tender summer crops say their goodbyes. But lots of fall crops can handle a nip of frost, and most even taste sweeter after it. Growth slows, but plants don’t stop altogether.

2) Persephone Period
This one’s less obvious but just as important. Once we drop below 10 hours of daylight (usually mid-November around here), plants basically stop growing. If you’re fall crops are covered, they typically don’t die—they just hang out, waiting for the light to return.

The trick is to get your fall crops to maturity before this period begins. That means working backward from mid-November: if your spinach needs 50 days, you’ll want it seeded by early October at the latest. That way, your spinach is fully mature, just hanging out under it’s winter blankie, waiting for you to harvest it all through those colder months.

Don’t worry—we’ve done the math for you. Our planting calendar lays it all out! Download it on our resource page HERE. It tells you exactly what to seed and when. At this point, there are some crops you should really only plant by seedlings (rather than direct seed), like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, or cauliflower, and our planting calendar will help you parse all that out.

Bonus exception: garlic! Garlic actually gets planted after first frost, usually in October.

Before you seed, you gotta weed

Before you can dive into the fun of planning out your fall crops, you gotta do the dishes - AKA weed and clear out your garden beds. You know those spent and drooping eggplants, zucchini squash that are done producing, shriveled up snap peas from Spring, and maybe even a diseased tomato plant or two? Yep, all diseased, spent or just plain dead plants need to be pulled from your garden and lovingly tossed into the compost. Now is the time to clear the way and make space for delicious, cold hardy crops like arugula, radish, beets and kale to fill our beds. One of our favorite facts is that many of these crops taste even sweeter in the fall. While a frost might make your tomato plant turn into a slimy black blob, freezing temps actually turn starches in some vegetables into sugars. We often reminisce on a particularly sweet batch of dinosaur kale we harvested in December of 2025 — delicious!

Take some time to clean out your garden bed. We also suggest adding 1-2 inches of compost to your bed to add rich nutrients to bolster the growth of your next crop. If you decide to keep some plants in your beds through the fall, we suggest side dressing the compost around the base of your plant to provide extra nutrients.

What to Plant and When

This is arguably one of the most essential steps in a successful kitchen garden. Planting the right seed or start at the right time will yield the healthiest, most abundant plants for you to harvest from. For example, you wouldn’t want to plant a tomato start when there is still a risk of frost (hello slimy, frost burned leaves) , and you wouldn’t seed lettuce to mature in the peak of summer heat because it would quickly bolt and turn quite bitter (icky).

Luckily, we have run through the frustrations of gardening trial and error so you don’t have to. We have a season-long planting calendar, detailing the when, how, and why of over 50 fruits and veggies that can be grown right here in central Ohio. Through all four growing seasons, our planting calendar provides you with a list of what to grow, and details the characteristics of each plant to help you design a productive garden. Head over to our resource page HERE to get your free digital download. Our seasoned gardeners and clients both refer to this information rich resource throughout the season to keep their harvest baskets full. For all of you gardeners wanting to know what to plant in Mid-August, refer to our lists below. 👇

Fun Varieties for Fall Gardens

Time to dig in to the fun part — cool and delicious varieties to wow your taste buds this fall! When you feel like you’re drowning in radishes and kale, it’s time to break out the seed catalog and find some fresh inspiration on what to grow. Check out these 5 foods we love to grow in the fall for a pop of color and flavor in your kitchen.

Winter Sun Beet

Winter Sun beets have radiant golden flesh accented by delicate white rings and a naturally sweet, earthy flavor. Perfect for roasting, steaming, or grating raw into salads for a carrot-like crunch, these globe-shaped roots brighten your plate in the brown and grey months.

Chinese Pink Celery

Chinese Pink Celery offers bubblegum-pink, crunchy stalks with a subtly sweet flavor, making it as attractive as it is tasty. Easier to grow than European celery, it’s ideal for beginner gardeners and adds a splash of color to any garden or salad. Cool fall temps give you crisp, flavorful growth, providing both visual appeal and delicious stalks for your seasonal meals.

Red Orach

Red Orach boasts striking purple-red leaves that can grow 4–10 feet tall, adding dramatic color to your garden. Mild and spinach-like in flavor, it’s nutrient-dense and versatile for both raw and cooked dishes. Frost-hardy and quick to mature in just 45 days, it’s perfect for a colorful and productive fall garden that keeps giving.

Brilliant Celeriac

Celeriac is a root vegetable with a taste similar to celery, but with a much longer shelf-life and meaty flesh that is a deliciously unique addition to soups, stews, and roasted vegetable dishes. This is a European celeriac producing round, sweet roots with a crisp texture. It’s slow-maturing (100–110 days) but you can always try to get it started in the fall and overwinter it with season-extension techniques (come to our Fall Gardening class this Sunday to learn how!)

Hon Tsai Tai

Think broccoli raab, but sweeter and more tender! Hon Tsai Tai grows gorgeous purple stems with delicate, flavorful leaves that are perfect raw in salads or quickly stir-fried. Fast-growing and loving cooler temps, this Asian green is a fall superstar—harvest crisp, flavorful stems and leaves just when you want a little extra color and nutrition at your dinner table

Is your mouth watering yet? 😋

Season Extension

Now that you are chomping at the bit to get going on your fall garden, it’s time to talk season extension.

Season extension is just a fancy way of saying: “let’s keep things growing a little longer than nature intended” or simply: Season extension is winter coats, for plants.

But there’s a lot of examples of season extension. To name a few:

• Starting tomatoes a few weeks early in a greenhouse

• Growing seeds in a plastic milk jug in the spring to create a mini greenhouse-effect

• Tossing a row cover over fall lettuces before a freeze.

One of our favorite ways to provide season extension into the fall months is with row cover.

Basically, we’re creating a microclimate—a little bubble of warmth that keeps plants happy when the outside world gets frosty. And why would you want to do this? Because fall and winter gardens are magical. The pressure of summer harvests drops away, bugs are mostly gone, and suddenly you’re tucking into sweet carrots, buttery lettuces, and earthy turnips when most folks think the gardening season is over. Imagine grabbing kale for your New Year’s lunch, or a handful of parsley from under the snow in February. It feels like cheating—but in the best way.

Row cover helps us tuck our plants away behind a layer of insulation, trapping heat and repelling frost. There are several brands that offer hoops and covers for your garden beds. We like to use steel hoops- example here, and row cover-example here, that is pinned down with garden staples to keep everything in place. Row cover acts like a blanket for your crops, keeping the nip of frost at bay while still allowing light through the material for plants to keep growing.

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With these straight forward steps, and the right preparation, Ohio fall gardens can be filled with fresh food, vibrant color, and many magical moments waiting to happen. Be sure to get your Planting Calendar to feel confident through Ohio’s growing seasons and to grow lots of delicious, healthy food this fall! Happy gardening!

How to Garden with Organic Fertilizer (with great results!)

Are you a veggie gardener looking to increase the production and abundance of your garden? Maybe you’ve read horror stories of over fertilizing your organic veggie garden and ruining your crop. Or maybe you’ve dabbled in using organic fertilizer but have never felt fully confident and sadly ended up with lack-luster results. In today’s blog, we are diving into these murky (and stinky) waters to provide you with the information you need to effectively nourish your soil to grow healthy, abundant food.

This heady topic could be a master class in itself, so we want to equip you with pertinent information to keep your garden beds productive.

Topics we’ll cover:

• Before Fertilizer: Nailing the Basics

• The Consequences of Over Fertilizing

• Why Use Organic Fertilizer?

• Soil Testing: Is It Necessary?

• Nutrients in Fertilizers

• Organic vs Synthetic

• Liquid vs Granular

• Our Recommended Liquid Fertilizer

• Benefits of Slow Release Fertilizer

• Home Made Fertilizer

Before Fertilizer: Nailing the Basics

We Can’t Out-Fertilize Not Nailing The Basics.

That’s why we prioritizes getting gardens set up for success before we even touch a bag or bottle of fertilizer. Here’s what this looks like:

• Making sure any veggie gardens are in full sun & close to the house for easy access and maintenance

• Investing in the soil— whether we’re adding in new premium blend soil for new raised garden bed builds or sheet mulching for an in-ground garden, we’re taking the time to make sure the soil is as excellent as we can get it and full of organic matter

• Planting within the season— cool weather veggies (root veggies, leafy greens, many herbs, etc) are planted in April(ish), and summer crops (tomatoes, peppers, beans, etc) in May. Planting arugula in June will likely still flop, bolt, and maybe not even germinate, regardless of how much fertilizer we put into the soil!

The Consequences of Over Fertilizing

Full disclosure here: We were once spooked by fertilizer! Years ago, we were scared silly by a horror story heard in a master gardener course of a gardener who over-fertilized their garden and completely ruined their soil. Over-fertilized soil can actually take years, sometimes even decades, to undo depending on the damage.

But, this is the nice thing about the low-level & low-numbered organic fertilizers we’ll talk about: Even if you botch the math a little, you can’t do too much damage, and the nutrients your plants actually receive will help them produce more.

Why Use Organic Fertilizer?

Think of your soil like a bank: growing fruits and veggies means you’re “withdrawing” nutrients from this “bank”. So, we have a responsibility as gardeners to “deposit” nutrients back into that “bank” to keep the balance healthy.

At a minimum, many gardeners will add 1-3 inches of compost to their garden once or twice a year to add some nutrients back in. In our Columbus Foodscapes client gardens, we do this every Fall/Spring.

Fertilizer mixes, whether they’re homemade or store-bought, can help add nutrients back in too, and give any plants a great boost to grow even bigger and produce more fruit.

Soil Testing: Is It Necessary?

It’s likely you won’t know what exact nutrients your soil needs without a soil test-- if you’re chomping at the bit to check out your soil situation, we recommend grabbing a $17 soil test from The OSU Extension here. The extension can help you make sense of the results and it’s fun to explore.

However, we feel strongly that soil tests usually aren’t necessary to build great soil for the average home gardener. We’ve worked in hundreds of gardens in Central Ohio, with great success for our clients, and we’ve only had folks get a soil test in a couple situations: 1) if their soil potentially contains led, which is essential to know before growing, and 2) if they are having clear nutrient deficiency symptoms in their plants, like slow/no fruit, yellowing leaves, variegated discoloration in leaves, etc.

In almost all cases, if we’re adding compost, using raised beds/mounded beds, using gentle/slow release fertilizers, rotating/interplanting crops, and using other management techniques like using mulch, our soil should be in pretty good shape.

All said: get the soil test if you’re jazzed about the geeky science stuff, or if you are having issues in your garden. Otherwise, don’t feel the pressure, since it’s likely not necessary and most home gardens don’t need that level of precision.

Nutrients in Fertilizers

Store-bought fertilizers will have three numbers (e.g. “3-5-3”) on the front, and these indicate the quantities (percentage) of what are considered the three primary nutrients in fertilizers, in order: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium.

Each of the nutrients have different roles in the garden:

🧪 Nitrogen: Promotes fast, leafy growth. Often the nutrient we’re focused on replacing (compost is high in nitrogen!). Too much nitrogen can cause plants to grow too quickly, though, attracting pests and sometimes causing flowers to bloom sparsely.

🧪 Phosphorus: Supports early root growth, hastens blooming.

🧪 Potassium: General health, resistance to drought and disease, and can improve quality of seeds.

So, a fertilizer that is listed as “21-0-0” is 21% nitrogen, while a fertilizer with “0-46-0” is 46% phosphorus.

If a fertilizer has one nutrient that is super high (like the above examples), it’s highly likely it’s a synthetic nutrient, and is lab-made. We tend to avoid those in our company, primarily because in raised bed gardens we are able to start with already-good soil (unlike many farms!), and prefer organic fertilizers instead that have low percentages and release more slowly over time (think “3-5-3” instead of “5-20-5”).

Other nutrients, like sulfur, calcium, magnesium, and others are considered secondary nutrients (but still very important!).

While it’s nice to know the general role of these nutrients, we compare them to measuring, say, macronutrient consumption in people. Most of us raised bed veggie gardeners don’t need to get super-specific with the exact “N-P-K” numbers as long as we are seeing success in our spaces, using slow-release organic fertilizer, and building good soil through practices like adding compost and using mulch.

Organic vs Synthetic

A great stock photo we found online demonstrating the difference between organic & synthetic fertilizers- we bet you can tell which one is which!

🧪 Synthetic fertilizers:

• AKA inorganic fertilizers

• Are generally manufactured, water-soluble

• Often deliver a big boost of nutrients, very quickly; there are also slow-release versions though, too

• Have a higher potential to “burn” plants and greater potential to negative environmental impacts due to runoff, but highly effective at boosting specific nutrients if applied correctly

🌱 Organic Fertilizers:

• Derived from living organisms (like fish emulsion or blood meal)

• Are generally slow to release nutrients, offering plants fewer nutrients at once, but over a longer period of time

• Often are more expensive, pound for pound, than inorganic fertilizers

• Less likely to “burn” your plants

Liquid vs Granular

There are two main types of fertilizer compositions: Liquid and Granular.

Granular fertilizers, especially organic ones, are often designed to be more slow-release and will continue to offer nutrients weeks after application. They typically have a longer shelf-life than liquid fertilizers, and don’t require any special equipment to easily apply(we just use an old mug in our gardens to broadcast the granules!). They can be worked into the soil before planting, or applied as a “side-dressing” on the sides of plants— either way, an organic, slow-release fertilizer will offer plenty of nutrients! We use the Down To Earth Vegetable Garden 4-4-4 mix in our gardens, carefully measuring spaces and applying according to the square footage directions.

Liquid fertilizers are often diluted with water, and then used to “water” the soil; since plants take them up much more quickly, they are often applied once seedlings are already established. You’ll see some fertilizers will even advertise as a “foliar spray,” where application instructions include spraying the leaves of plants rather than the soil, where the roots are. They are also fairly easy to use, but might require some equipment like a fertilizer spray attachment nozzle for larger gardens (smaller ones can just use a watering can!). After doing our due research, we saw positive results using the Neptune Fish Fertilizer starting last year.

Our Recommended Liquid Fertilizer

Once the plants are a few weeks old in their new home, we add Neptune’s Harvest Liquid Fertilizer (2-4-1) to the soil, also called a “soil drench application.” While you can add this fertilizer as often as weekly, we typically fertilize every 2-4 weeks. This might be a good time to share there’s no special sponsorship here, we just went down a research rabbit hole and were intrigued by one article, and then another, that had some really promising info that this specific organic fertilizer yields excellent results.

This fertilizer application really shines a few weeks after planting because too much nitrogen can actually prevent those fruiting plants (tomatoes, peppers, etc), from actually setting fruit. They’ll get big and bushy, maybe even flower, but with little actual fruit. The Neptune fertilizer is higher in phosphorus, which helps with seed and flower production.

Benefits of Slow Release Fertilizer

A big boost of nutrients, like what nonorganic fertilizers offer us, sounds amazing in theory right? Like a big superfood smoothie or something.

Maybe, but that big boost of growth can come at a cost. When plants are hyper-fertilized, like what often happen with inorganic fertilizer methods, they put on a lot of new growth very quickly. This new growth is often extra-delicious to pests like mites, aphids, and others.

Yep: too much fertilizing can actually attract pests to your garden.

To dig in more, check out this article from SARE, where they state, “Researchers have demonstrated that high nitrogen levels in plant tissue can decrease resistance and increase susceptibility to pest attacks.”

Slow release fertilizers might work more slowly, but they come with a big benefit of fewer pests.

Highly concentrated fertilizers, or over-applying fertilizer, can cause a big burst of growth in your plants, attracting pests like aphids.

Homemade Fertilizer

Homemade fertilizer can be made a variety of ways, but the simplest is to take weeds and plants (comfrey and purple nettle are among some of the most popular), mix them in a bucket with water (plus a handful of soil and some blackstrap molasses), and let it sit for a few weeks.

Another way is to take compost, or worm castings, and make what’s commonly known as “compost tea.” The concept is the same (compost + water + a drizzle of blackstrap molasses) and can give your plants a bigger nitrogen boost.

We know a few gardeners who really swear by and love this method: it’s free, using stuff you probably already have in your yard, and really does seem to add nutrients and minerals back to the soil. What’s not to love :)

Parting Notes:

Organic fertilizing in your veggie garden does NOT have to be a scary thing! Working with organic, slow release fertilizers, which are much less likely to “burn” your plants is an efficient way to give your soil the boost it needs to produce healthy, productive food.

Still looking for more guidance? We offer 1:1 garden consultation services where we can assess your space, trouble shoot challenges, and answer burning garden questions to help you grow food in a way that fits your budget and lifestyle. Learn more about this unique service in Central, Ohio HERE.

Wishing you happy fertilizing!

5 Steps to Plan Your Central Ohio Veggie Garden (#5 Gets Overlooked!)

February is the time for dreaming, planting ideas, researching and strengthening your roots for the coming year. While some folks assume the garden season in central Ohio comes to a dead halt in Winter, but this couldn’t be further from the truth at Columbus Foodscapes. We have been busily planning, designing, and fine tuning our methods to step into Spring stronger than ever! We’re guessing, you might be wondering how to plan your garden for Spring as too!

Now is the time to start planning your garden for Spring!

We’re here to provide steps on what you can do for your Ohio garden in the cold month of February. Maybe you’re dreaming of new veggies to grow, bright Summertime flowers, or the signature smell of fresh dirt in the Spring. While this all sounds beautiful, you might be asking where to start. In today’s blog, we’ll be discussing 5 steps to start planning your Central Ohio Garden in February. (Psst, if you’re already feeling overwhelmed, stay til the end of this article – we’ve got you covered with Garden Consultations) 

This is the perfect time to sit down with your favorite pen, mug of tea, and hash out exactly what you want this year.  Here are some steps to set up your Ohio veggie garden for success this year:

Step 1- Sun and Soil: 

• Sun: Determine which direction (NWSE) your yard is facing and start paying attention to where the sun is at its fullest. One really easy way to do this is by noticing where your snow melts on a sunny day and where it stays frozen. South facing gardens get the most sun, North facing get the least, East receive the morning sun and West soak in longer hours of afternoon sunlight. Other factors to consider include trees with large, shading foliage (Ex: Maple, Hackberry, Oak, etc.). These trees allow plenty of light through in the Winter, but shade an area in the Summer when their leaves are filled out. 

• Soil: While you can add compost and fertilizer to your soil throughout the year, Spring is a great time to work in a fresh layer of compost before planting for the season. Sourcing high quality sources of compost to work into your soil is important, and our personal favorite is Zoo Brew from Price Farm Organics. We recommend spreading a 2-3 inch layer of compost to the tops of your beds and working it into the soil a little with your hands, to allow the nutrients to break down and enrich the bed. Here’s a free compost calculator to determine how many bags you will need based on the size of your bed! Adding in compost helps with soil structure and moisture retention in the coming Spring. 

Now that you’ve laid a foundation for your garden beds, it’s time to get into the fun part of deciding what to grow! Below are steps we recommend to get the ball rolling in plant planning:

Step 2 - Food: Start a list of food that you both love and want to eat fresh from your garden this year.  What veggies do YOU like to eat? For example: While purple cabbages may look beautiful in your garden, maybe you just don’t like cooking with cabbage. (We promise, you’re not alone!)  Could it be replaced by something you DO like? A favorite type of pepper perhaps? To lend a hand in this process, we’ve created a handy dandy list of where to source plants & seeds. You can download it HERE. (If you didn’t know, we have a resource page on our site with oodles of free garden tips for you! Check it out here!) 

Step 3 - Spacing: Once you have your list of mouth watering food you want to grow, make a list of how much space each one needs. This can be a detailed process, and can even vary between species and cultivars.To lend a hand in this ticky tacky process, we’ve created a planting calendar, including dozens of plants you can grow in Ohio for your reference. Check it out HERE  to get the ball rolling in your planning process. At Columbus Foodscapes, we practice intensive planting. This means we fill garden beds with as much food as possible and use a variety of techniques including succession planting, vertical gardening, interplanting and square foot gardening to maximize the space available.

Pictured Above: A Columbus Foodscapes garden showcasing intensive planting with kale, calendula, perennial/annual herbs, squash, carrots and radishes. To further stretch the space, trellises are added to the fencing for climbing plants including tomatoes and cucumbers.

Step 4 - Companion Planting: Once you’ve decided which veggies you’re excited to grow, remember to add a few companion plants! In Central Ohio veggie gardens, companion plants are a great way to establish diversity, beauty and mutually beneficial relationships within your garden. While we believe that factors such as high quality soil, proper plant timing, appropriate sun exposure and attention are some of the most important features in your garden – companion plants can be the cherry on top to really make your garden bloom. Some classic companion plant combinations include:

• Basil & Tomato

• Cucumber & Dill

• Carrots & Onions

• Beets & Broccoli

While there are some research-based claims, many “companion plant” charts are widely based on anecdotes. If you’re a bit of a science nerd like us, check out Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden by Jessica Walliser and Dr. Jeff Gillman to dive deeper.

Step 5 - Mapping: Mapping out your vegetable garden can become a highly detailed process, but for the start of your season, we have two basic steps outlined on how to get started

Create Your Base Map: A base map is like a blank canvas for an Ohio veggie gardener. Generally set on a grid of 6 to 12 inch squares representing square feet, this is where you will sketch out the placement of your plants for the season. We recommend including the following details in your base map: 

• Raised beds and in-ground beds, to-scale, with dimensions (typically divided into 6 inch or 12 inch squares)

• The cardinal directions: North, East, West, South

• Any important perennials, both big and small: include trees, herbaceous plants, shrubs, everything!

• Garden structures: trellises, rain barrels, archways, etc. 

• Other important notes: is there a spot where the soil stays consistently wet? Is there more shade on this side of the raised bed because of a large maple tree? Do the dogs dig in this bed more than the others? Is there an entry point that you want to be especially beautiful when you walk in?

Pictured Above: You can hash out your garden plan on grid paper with pencils and markers, OR you can use software such as Canva to create grids to map out your space.

Place Your Plants: Quick reminder, placing your plants on a map is not set in stone. It is meant to be a quick foundation to reference as your garden continues to evolve and change through the season. Here’s the general order we like to go in when plotting plants on our map:

• First, we plot plants that need trellis space (cucumbers, tomatoes, peas). Trellis space is precious and we want to prioritize using it for those that need it!

• Plants that are tall that should go on the northern side of the garden, so as to not shade out others (like corn, okra)

• Plants that we prefer to sprawl out go in-ground in its own patch, if soil allows, or on the corners of raised beds so it can grow into the surrounding area without taking up more raised bed space.

• Medium-sized plants in the middle for easier harvesting (like peppers, eggplant, kale, collards, or brussel sprouts)

• Smaller plants on the outside: herbs, short flowers like marigolds, radishes, carrots, beets, spinach, lettuces, and others

• We recommend waiting until late March, when the soil is not frozen, before you start planting!

  Below is an example of one of our planting plans with each square representing 1 square foot with notes on details such as trellising, succesional planting, spacing and companion planting.

Pro tip: Your garden bed and plan will look different in each season as you successionally plant, harvest crops, and rotate out seasonally appropriate veggies. Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming blog posts about what to plant for each month in Ohio veggie gardens, on our site!

A phrase we like to say in central Ohio is “The Early Bird Gets the Garden!” Are you feeling overwhelmed by the crunch of Spring when dreaming up your Ohio veggie garden? Lucky for you, supporting Ohio gardeners is precisely what we center our work around at Columbus Foodscapes. By booking a Garden Consultation  with us, we can help you get on track, answer any questions you have, and get you set up with a plan to make your vegetable garden the most abundant yet.

So what is in a Garden Consultation? It’s an in-depth & in-person 60-90 minute session that offers foundational gardening knowledge, a site analysis, and a services proposal designed to fit your budget and needs. Curated for both established and new gardens, we come with the expertise and know-how to help you transform your space and grow a bounty of fresh, organic produce in Central Ohio.

As February rounds the corner to March, we are stepping towards the rush of Spring. We highly recommend booking with us before our schedule fills far ahead and you miss your chance to prepare for the coming season. We’d love to see you out there, and look forward to growing with you this year!

5 Resources to Help You Plan Your Garden that Aren’t the Internet

There’s tons of information online about the best ways to plan your garden and make planting plans, but often it can feel overwhelming to pour through pages of information and advice. Some of it might not even be applicable to your area or climate, some of it is contracting.

Making a planting plan in your garden can be key to your success: it can help you avoid mistakes like planting too early or too late, give you some structure to your season, and give you clarity around varieties, what to expect, and more.

This week, we wanted to share some of our favorite resources that can help you plan your garden that AREN’T the internet.

1. Our $9 Planting Calendar

Our planting calendar breaks down what to plant, month-by-month, and it’s specifically designed for Columbus and the greater Central Ohio area. It also features essential information for beginner gardeners like an overview of the seasons we have in Ohio and key information about 50 of the most popular fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. The calendar also uses a key to help guide you through some of the most important planting nuances, like what plants are frost-hardy, what plants need trellises, what we recommend direct seeding, and much more. You can get our planting calendar here.

2. Rodale’s All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening

If we could have only one gardening book on our shelf, this would be it! There’s tons of information about how to prepare new raised beds, how to make compost, and different vegetable crops you can plant in your garden. It’s thorough and also includes great information about non-edible crops, too.

3. The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food

We LOVE this book for vegetable gardeners, and frequently bring it along to Garden Coaching sessions to show off just how awesome we think it is. This book features important information about any vegetable and fruit you could possibly want to plant, separated by crop.

4. Seed Catalogues

Seed catalogues are a gardener’s best friend! They include tons of information about special traits of varieities- for example, something can be slow-bolting, pest resistant, long-blooming! The information in seed catalogues can help you plan a terrific year in your garden (also- check out our post about how to organize your seed ordering list!).

5. Farmer’s Markets

These are SO overlooked. Farmers are literally experts at growing fruits and vegetables in your area, and, speaking from experience here, most of them LOVE to talk about gardening and growing food.

Grab your cutest wicker basket, head to the farmer’s market, and ask local farmers about their favorite varieties, crops to grow, and general recommendations. Here in central Ohio, we have the Worthington Farmer’s Market that’s open year-round, and features some amazing local farmers.

Ready to Get Growing?

Reach out to get started today!

Ordering Seeds, a simple guide

If you struggle with knowing what seeds to order and planning your garden for the upcoming season, you’re not alone.

Many of us can spend hours drooling over all the gorgeous seed catalogues, but have a hard time knowing what we should really order, or what we’ll use, in our gardens.

Our advice- divide your seed ordering into 2 separate steps:

dreaming and organizing.

Dreaming

Want to order seeds like a pro, stay in your budget, and know exactly what you'll be planting in the Spring and Summer?

First, dream big, baby! Make yourself a steamy cup of coffee or tea and flip through your favorite seed catalogues. You can circle, write a list, whatever you need to do to mark your interest in that seed (try not to circle the whole catalogue- we know, it's hard).

Much like brainstorming, don't get caught up in the details or what's realistic- just grab your marker and go to town.

Organizing

Once you have your big dreams down, make a simple spreadsheet of all of those seeds that includes some basic information like:

🌱 the name of the seed/plant
🌱 what company you would order it from
🌱 how much it costs per seed packet
🌱 how many seed packets you want to order

Once you have all the information in a spreadsheet, take a good, hard look at what you want to order, and thin out your selection as needed. Here are some factors to consider:

• Budget- Seeds, compared to seedlings or starts, are relatively inexpensive, but any experienced gardener know the cost of seeds can add up quickly! Consider setting budget for your season.

• Space- how much room you have in your garden? Do you really want to plant 3 types of beans if you only have two raised beds to use? If you only have a raised bed garden, do you want to plant all the flowers you added to your list, or just pick a few so you leave room for vegetables, too?

• Plant preferences- Be honest with yourself about what you’ll use and won’t use during the season. Sure, the descriptions are mouth-watering and the photos are gorgeous, but if you don't usually eat leafy greens, maybe only start with one or two types to make sure you like them and know how to use them.

• Not all seeds are planted equally- some plants, like tomatoes, prefer to be started indoors, which is a process that requires special equipment like grow lights and heat mats. Others, like carrots and radishes, prefer to be direct seeded, or planted as seeds directly in the soil in spring. If you’re ordering plants like tomatoes that prefer to be started indoors, make sure you have a way to do so.

• Special instructions or considerations: Many seed packet descriptions will come with information about the variety. For example, “slow-bolting” cilantro, or “pest-resistant” squash. Feel free to take these into consideration, but remember that it’s better to focus on creating a healthy environment for your plants than selecting super-specific varieties that may fail no matter what if they’re planted in poor soil, don’t have enough sunlight, or are watered infrequently. Prevention is better than cure!

A Bonus Tip: waste not, want not.

Oftentimes, seed packets contain way more seeds than us as one backyard-gardener can handle, and they lose their germination rate, or their ability to sprout consistently, as the years go on. Consider sharing the seeds, and cost, with a gardener friend or two so you don’t waste any!

Plus, some of our favorite Seed Companies:

🌱 Seed Savers Exchange
🌱 Baker’s Creek Seeds
🌱 Johnny’s Select Seeds
🌱 Seed Keeping
🌱 Prairie Moon Nursery

Want help planning your garden?

Reach out to get started!

Planting Garlic

Garlic is typically the last thing we’ll plant in the garden, between Mid October- November. Planting a crop of garlic is simple, but there are a few things you’ll want to know before grabbing your garden trowel.

Photo by Rachel Joy Barhel Photography

When to Plant Garlic

In Ohio, we typically plant garlic sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving (feel free to plant a bit after Thanksgiving, too, we won’t tell anyone). Garlic is a crop that enjoys a process called stratification, which is a long period of cold, in order to produce well. That’s why we plant garlic in the fall, allow it to overwinter, and then harvest in the summer.

Types of Garlic and Where to Source

We recommend sourcing garlic for planting, also called Seed Garlic from an organic, local source (we got ours from Beechwold Farm Market in Clintonville!). We don’t recommend getting your seed garlic from the grocery store, as it has often been treated and may not produce the results you want.

There are two types of garlic: Hardneck garlic and softneck garlic. The seed garlic you purchase at your local nursery or garden center should have labels for the bulbs and additional descriptions for flavor, variety, etc.

Harneck garlic is hardier against extreme winters, has a stronger flavor, and produces garlic scapes.

Softneck garlic is better suited to places with mild winters, has a more mild flavor, and doesn’t produce garlic scapes. Softneck garlic can also be braided into those lovely braided garlic bunches you see at farmer’s markets.

We typically plant hardneck garlic because we love garlic scapes! Garlic scapes are the curly little stems that emerge from the garlic plant in the spring, and a best-kept farmer secret. These stems must be pruned back but- good news!- they’re edible and super delicious. We love to use them as a replacement for regular garlic or chives in recipes.

If you’re planting a large amount of garlic, we recommend laying out the cloves before planting.

How to Plant Garlic

Planting garlic is very easy and only requires 2 steps if you already have a sunny, well-draining raised bed or garden patch prepped:

1. Gently break apart your garlic bulbs into individual cloves. Avoid peeling the papery layers off of the bulb, as these help protect the clove from insects and critters during the winter.

2. Plant each clove in your garden bed or raised bed around 6 inches apart. Plant these little cloves deeply (at least 3 inches deep!) with the pointy end of the clove facing up towards the sky.

Seriously, it’s that simple!

Garlic Maintenance

Garlic do need that stratification period to produce, but they still benefit from a little protection from the harshest temperatures.

We recommend mulching your garlic patch with a thick layer of straw or mulch after planting to give them a little extra protection. No need to cover your garlic crop with row cover!

Be sure to water your garlic patch just as you would any of your other crops. Full sun and consistent watering practices will help your garlic grow into big, beautiful (and delicious) bulbs.

Harvesting Garlic

Garlic should be ready to harvest in the summer- a good rule of thumb is to wait until the leaves of the plant have started to turn yellow, but before the plant is totally dried up.

Gently dig the bulbs up (take care that you don’t nick them with your garden trowel or garden fork!) and place them somewhere to cure, or sit in a cool, dark, ventilated spot for a few weeks. This curing process, which also happens with sweet potatoes, potatoes, and other crops, helps improve flavor and prepares the bulb for storage better.

Garden Projects: The Short North Twin Garden

BEFORE

AFTER

Our client came to us in September to troubleshoot a potted garden on her patio, struggling with pests, pollination, and maintenance. She wanted a gardening space that would feel as warm and inviting as her beautifully-curated home and wanted to grow a bounty of organic produce (especially lettuces!) since she enjoys cooking fresh, garden-inspired meals.

We designed a garden that featured two wide-trimmed, identical cedar raised beds on legs for an elevated look on this gorgeous patio. The design maximizes the space, allowing her to grow as much food as possible, while still offering symmetry and functionality. In the spring , a large arch trellis will be added between the beds for vining crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, and peas.

Just after installing the garden, we worked alongside her to plan radishes, kale, parsley, kohlrabi, cabbage, a tender lettuce mix, arugula, and an array of edible flowers to garnish salads.

We can’t wait to see all of the amazing meals she creates with her new bounty of fresh, organic produce!

Growing After Frost: A Quick & Dirty Guide to Using Row Cover

It’s late October and we’re starting to get that autumn chill in the air!

Fall is hands-down my favorite time to garden: vegetables will get sweeter with cooler weather, it’s so enjoyable to work in the garden, and some of my favorite crops (like mustard greens and turnips) are at their peak in the autumn (psst- want to know what you should be planting in fall? Check out our month-by-month planting calendar).

Gardening in fall and into the winter is a blast, but you need a secret weapon to make it happen: Season Extension.

What is Season Extension?

Freezing Temperatures (around 30 F) can start to impact our plants’ abilities to survive, and many plants will stop growing and die when it starts to gets really cold. Season Extension is a way to literally “extend the season” and continue to enjoy the bounty of your garden well after frost has come.

Yep, that’s right. You can harvest Kale on Christmas. Turnips on New Year’s Day. Radishes on Thanksgiving…. you get the idea.

Season extension works by creating a mini micro-climate in your garden. The most common example of creating an intentional micro-climate is a greenhouse! The glass and plastic on greenhouses trap heat inside the space, making it warmer than the outside.

The good news? You don’t need a whole greenhouse to keep growing food into the winter! All you need is some row cover, wire hoops, and a little know-how.

How to Use Row Cover to Grow After Frost

Underneath a blanket of row cover!

There are different types of season extension methods you can use, like cold frames, hot beds, greenhouses, or high tunnels, but using row cover is by far the easiest and cheapest method.

Row cover is a large, fabricated blanket designed specifically to keep plants warm while still letting in as much sunlight as possible.

Row Cover Weights

There are different “weights” of Row Cover. The heavier the “weight,” the more protected your plants will be against frost, but the less sunlight will come through for your plants! We recommend getting 1-2 sheets of row cover for your plants in the mid-weight range (around 30-60%), plus a layer of plastic

Using Hoops with Row Cover

Gardeners use hoops to hold up row cover, so that the plants are in a little “tunnel” under the cover, rather than the cover touching the plants. There are lots of options for hoops- wire, pvc, or wooden frames are some of the most popular. We like to use wire hoops because they are the easiest to find and still very easy to use!

Row Cover Sizes

There are also different sizes of row cover. When you’re looking for row cover, be sure to select a size that will cover your entire area and account for the extra width created by the hoops. A good rule of thumb is to keep 2ft on all sides. For example, if you have a raised bed that is 10 ft long x 4 ft wide, you want to use a piece of row cover that is 14 ft long x 8 ft wide.

Using Plastic with Row Cover

You can use large sheets of plastic, laid over your row cover and hoops, in very low temperatures. Plastic will trap more of the heat inside and keep your plants better protected from extreme temperatures.

Use this basic guide to help you determine when to add row cover layers and plastic to your garden

When to Put Row Cover on Your Vegetable Garden

We recommend adding a mid-weight row cover to your garden before first frost, and taking it off when temperatures are above frost.

A super-simple guide on how to “install” row cover:

1. Add the wire hoops first by wedging the pointy ends into the soil, deep enough that they are standing up by themselves in the raised bed. Add a hoop every 3 feet or so, so that you are creating a little “mini-tunnel” over your vegetables

2. Gently drape your row cover over the hoops and raised bed, making sure every plant is covered and protected by the cover.

3. You can “tuck in” any extra row cover into the beds and use fist-sized rocks or bricks to weight it down, so it doesn’t blow away in the wind.

4. Row cover is permeable, meaning it will let in rain. However, you still want to be checking in on your garden to make sure your plants are still getting enough water through the cooler months!

Places to find Row Cover & Hoops in Columbus, Ohio:

• Beechwold Farm Market, run by Swainway Urban Farms (our personal favorite- the folks who run the shop will be able to answer any questions you have about what kind/size of row cover will best suite your needs!)

• City Folks Farm Shop

• Straders

• Oakland Nursery

Other tips & tricks to growing in the fall & winter:

• Use mulch and/or straw around plants to give them another layer of insulation around their roots

• Plants don’t need as much water in the fall and winter as they did in the summer, but we DO recommend watering deeply before a hard freeze. This helps protect the plants!

• Consider keeping a small thermometer in your raised bed(s) so you can keep an eye on how hot or cold your mini micro-climate is!

Preparing Your Raised Beds for a New Season: Step-by-step

Summer is coming to a close, you have your fall seed-to-harvest plans ready to rock and roll….. now what?

If you’re looking at your raised beds feeling overwhelmed with where to start, you’re not alone. We typically remove summer crops and put in fall crops in September.

Here’s our step-by-step guide for preparing your raised beds for a new season:

1. Remove all dead & diseased crops, or stuff that won’t survive the upcoming season

A new season is a chance to give your garden a fresh start. Start off by removing all dead & diseased plants and weeds. Next, take a look at the crops: will they survive the upcoming cool-season? Most summer crops, like tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers, won’t. When you’re ready to plant for the fall, it can be hard to take these plants out, especially if they look healthy. But just think of all the delicious fall crops you’ll get to harvest!

2. Amend Your Soil

Add 1-3 inches of compost over the entire garden (you can use this compost calculator to see how many bags you’ll need), use a pitchfork or garden trowel to mix it into the first 3 inches of topsoil or so. Adding compost will add much-needed nutrients to your soil and give your plants a boost in the coming season.

3. Plant!

Grab those seedlings, seeds, and your planting plans and get to work! It’s always a good idea to transplant your seedlings on an overcast day with mild-temperatures and to give your soil a soak before planting to reduce the risk of transplant-shock.

Ready to plant your garden for the fall? We’re here to help! Get started with one of our garden maintenance packages.