Ninja Gardening

Many of us just have small chunks of time these September days. But the weather is great for working outdoors. So let's think about Ninja Gardening--focused projects that knock out a priority job in a few minutes). Here are my top five:

Winterize: Get your perennials and fall crops ready for winter with seaweed. Besides potassium, seaweed contains plant hormones and sugars that increase hardiness. You can use dried kelp meal or soluble seaweed powder. These are easy and fast to apply—kelp meal can just be sprinkled around your plants. (To me, that means run by and throw some around.) Soluble seaweed powder is mixed into water (1 teaspoon to 4 gallons) and dumped around your plants. Both will help harden new growth and thicken the sap so that they don't freeze. Don't give nitrogen fertilizers from now on—they promote the kind of sappy growth that freezes easily.

Undersow: Most of us know that cover crops do good stuff, and most of us put planting off too long. This year, do it fast and early. It doesn't matter that your tomatoes or whatever are still in the ground. Throw seed for clover, vetch, or peas all around and under those tomatoes. Rake it in or cover with a light layer of straw. If you can rough up the ground and pull some weeds before you start, works even better. It's called undersowing, and it allows you to get those cover crops going while your summer crops are still in place. Takes about 8 minutes to do 100 sq ft. A real ninja move. 

Mildew Prevention: September is mildew month, when the air gets cooler and moister. You can't change the weather, but you can change the pH of your plants. You can also coat the leaves with mildew-eating microbes. Do both at once by spraying with compost tea or LAB (lactic acid bacteria--yogurt for plants.) You can find information on these probiotic brews in our How-To section here. Or if you're in a real hurry, mix 1 Tablespoon yogurt into 1 gallon water and spray that. Getting some good microbes into the fray is better than having no good microbes out there at all.

Bug of the Year: Suddenly everyone seems to have aphids. I find that the beneficial insects can keep the aphids under control IF you have a lot of small nectary flowers like alyssum, IF you don't spray poisons, and IF you prevent ants from carrying new aphids up your plants. So, aphid control is really ant control. The most effective control I've found is ant bait made from sugar and boric acid or Borax. It's easy to make--3 parts sugar to one part borax and enough hot water to make a syrup.  You can add a dollup of pancake syrup if you want. The hard part is finding a container the ants can easily access, but that excludes pets and rain. (Too much borax is bad for your plants, so don't allow overflow.) A jar with holes in the lid laid on its side works. Or you can buy commercial baits made from borax (Terro brand.) For larger plants, you can paint a band of sticky "tanglefoot" goo or a mixture of coconut oil and mint essential oil in a band on the trunk. Ants won't cross it, but you need to renew it weekly.

A Container Salad/Herb Garden: Winter is dark. Winter is muddy and might require a coat and boots for a foray into the garden. So even if you have beds full of winter veg, it's nice to have a container by the kitchen door for grabbing things for dinner (that you forgot to harvest until dinner was already underway.) I like to have salad stuff up out of the mud and near the lights of the house―lettuce, endive, mizuna, green onions. I like to have herbs like thyme and rosemary in pots, close enough that I can run out and grab them while dinner is on the stove. Pull out those dying petunias, work in compost and kelp meal, and plant winter lettuce. It will only take minutes. You'll be happy in December.


This is the first of two posts. You can also read Return of the Ninja.