Preparing for the Growing Season Ahead

We are starting to feel the weather slowly change as we near the arrival of the Fall season. The beginning of the transition from Summer to Fall in East Tennessee is subtle. At first the changes are barely noticeable, but the vivid greens of Summer will soon fade into the fiery yellow, orange and red hues of Autumn.

With the weather shift on the horizon, the Blackberry Garden team is hard at work preparing the Garden for the upcoming season. Just a few weeks ago, the pumpkin patch was still hidden from sight, and now pumpkins are scattered over the ground in varying shapes and sizes – a sign of the harvest to come.

“Anything you do in the Spring, you do in the Fall, but it comes with greater benefits,” says Master Gardener John Coykendall. The Fall season allows for a gentle transition to cooler weather, giving the Garden team prime opportunity to plant Fall greens like lettuce, cabbage, kale, mixed greens, turnips and mustard greens. Everything that they plant in the mildness of Fall is frost tolerant and will survive the harsh cold of the Winter to come.

When sowing the rows is finished, the Garden team puts a heavy focus on seed saving through the Fall season, now through December. This year, they are saving milk and cider beans, field peas and numerous others to add to their collection. John loves participating in and continuing the tradition of seed saving every year because it allows him to pass on these seeds, and their stories, to future generations of farmers and gardeners.