Remember Summer Planting for Fall Harvest
If you thought it was time to sit back and enjoy the harvest, think again! You'd be missing out on the bounty of a fall garden. So while the weather is still blistering hot, turn your thoughts to what you'll be eating next fall.
There are three main types of sowings you can do during the summer heat:
Frequent Successions: You can sow successions of carrots, snap beans, lettuce, cilantro, and mustard greens throughout the summer. (See the full article for tips on getting these crops to germinate in hot weather.)
Cool-Season Main Crops: In June through September, sow your cool season main crops: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, beets, kale, spinach, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, rutabagas, green onions, and fall radishes (including daikons).
Warm-Season Main Crops: Don't forget to stretch the hot season by sowing successions of some summer main crops: summer squash, cucumbers, southern peas, and sweet corn can all be started as long as 80 to 90 frost free growing days remain.
Read our Summer Planting Recommendations >> |
 Last Chance for Garlic, Perennial Onions, Shallots, and more!
It's that time of year again! Our heirloom garlics and perennial onions are out of the field and drying down. We start shipping fall bulbs at the beginning of September and should have them all out the door by the first week of October, just in time for planting.
We have some lovely potato onions, but not as many as last year, so we expect supplies to run out unless one of our other growers has a fabulous year on their farm. We sell out every year, so be sure to place your order early to make sure you get your planting stock.
We ran into an interesting discussion about harvesting potato onions on a blog called Chiot’s Run: A chronicle of an organic garden. They had so many people talking about perennial vegetables, it made me want to go out and plant some onions and garlic right now.
Varieties in plentiful supply for 2012:
|
Homesteading Education Month this September
 Our friends at Mother Earth News and Grit are inviting everyone to celebrate International Homesteading Education Month this September.
From Mother Earth News:
We have created an online hub where anyone can register tours, workshops, open houses or other events. Our goal is to foster “Neighbors teaching neighbors — Building more self-reliant communities.”
Everyone is welcome to participate, so don’t be shy! Even if you’ve never done any public speaking, you can give a tour of an heirloom food garden, or explain how you produce lots of food from a small, urban lot. Events can be about country skills, food preservation, organic gardening, renewable energy systems, raising livestock, cooking, fiber arts or any other topic related to modern homesteading and wiser living.
Let Mother Earth News and Grit help you promote your events!
www.MotherEarthNews.com/Homesteading-Month .
|
Find us at these upcoming events!
|
 The Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello
HeritageHarvestFestival.com
Saturday, September 15, 2012
(preview events September 14)
Check out all the free programming, including workshops, chef demonstrations, vendor demonstrations and children's activities. Enter your name to win this month's Book Giveaway from Chelsea Green: The Holistic Orchard by Michael Phillips.
Stop by the Southern Exposure booth at the festival, we'll be selling limited quantities of some special garlic and perennial onion varieties, not available online. Ira Wallace will give her popular workshop on growing garlic and perennial onions. You can also catch our Ken Bezilla as he talks about the nuts and bolts, the joys and challenges, of fall and winter gardening. Don't forget to taste some of our tomatoes at the Tasting Tent!
|
 Mother Earth News Fair • Seven Springs, PA
September 21–23
(July 14-16: full weekend tickets to the Mother Earth News Fair are only $10 during this three day promotion!)
We're giving three workshops at the Seven Springs Mother Earth News Fair:
- Extending the Harvest - Learn how cool season vegetable gardening, in the spring and fall, can be just as prolific as the heart of growing season. Explore growing techniques and suggestions for extending your vegetable gardening season.
- Growing Great Garlic and Perennial Onions: Learn about different heirloom garlic and perennial onion varieties - planting, cultivation and harvest at home. Sample these tasty and hardy perennials raw and roasted.
- Herbs - Plain and Fancy: Come and enjoy an assortment of sweet and savory herbal delights then learn how to grow them in your garden, use them in your kitchen, save their seeds and increase your self sufficiency.
|
|
Events Calendar
See our events page for updates >>
| July 31 – August 2 • Allegheny Mountain School - The Highland Center • Highland, VA • Preserving Heirlooms and Seed Saving Workshop |
| Aug 3-4 • Louisa County Fair • Louisa, VA • Tomato Tasting, plus workshops: Seed Saving and Herbs – Plain and Fancy. |
| August 4 • 2012 Family Table Fredericksburg Farmers Market • Fredericksburg, VA |
| August 4 • Tomato Tasting at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello • Charlottesville, VA |
| August 11 • Edible Food Fest • Orange, VA • Seed Saving and Fall Gardening and Tomato Tasting |
| September 7 • National-International Urban and Small Farm Conference • Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| September 11–13 • National Heirloom Expo • Santa Rosa, CA |
| September 15 (preview events September 14) • The Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello • Charlottesville, VA |
September 21–23 • Mother Earth News Fair • Seven Springs, PA
(July 14-16: full weekend tickets to the Mother Earth News Fair are only $10 during this three day promotion!) |
|
|
 SouthernExposure.com
Please Contact Us with questions, concerns,
and garden photos!
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
P.O. Box 460, Mineral, VA 23117
Phone: 540-894-9480 Fax: 540-894-9481
|
|
|