Preparing and Planting your Fall Garden

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You might not want to think about it just yet but if you want to get the most out of your fall garden, now is the time to start preparing for it.  Especially, if you want to have some great cool-weather produce.
When summer has waned, the first thing need to do is compost leaves, weeds and any vegetable plants that have stopped fruiting, helping to de-clutter your garden. One key thing: don’t put weeds that have already gone to seed into your compost, otherwise you’ll have weeds growing everywhere. 
You’ll also need to prepare your garden bed. Lightly turn the soil in the bed and rake in a composted organic material to give cool-season plants plenty of nutrients. Pick a location where there are no other veggie plants that might still be producing so that the new plants will have plenty of water and nutrients.
Before planting anything, make sure you know the first frost dates for the area. Then you’ll need to select seasonal vegetables to plant that have short growth durations, such as beets, spinach, kale and lettuce. All of these do very well in cool, pre-frost conditions.
If you really want your garden to produce as long as possible, make sure you add mulch around the sprouts of the vegetable so that they’re kept moist. You can also stagger the planting of your vegetables every two weeks, which ensures that you’ll have a continuous crop as long as the temperature remains somewhat warm.
Something else you might consider is to build a simple little portable greenhouse, which can really extend the growing period of your plants.
Following these simple steps will help you enjoy great vegetables from your garden well into the cooler months.

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