September Sunset over Lake Erie. Photo by Leah Wolfe.

It’s hard to believe summer is coming to an end, but shorter days are a welcome relief from the sultry dog days of summer for some of us. Others may experience an occasional pang of melancholy for the cold, dark days to come. Soon we’ll be able to slow down and enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of our labors long into the colder months. 

In the garden, things are slowing down: weeds, pests, plant growth, and garden tasks. As the light shifts and the goldenrod and asters bloom, plants, insects, and animals (including human animals) shift their energy toward getting through the darker days of winter. 

At this time of year, energy is focused in the kitchen for the vegetable gardener. Preservation of the harvest might be challenging. How to get all the canning, pickling, fermenting, freezing, and drying done before rot takes over!? 

To help you prepare for a nourishing winter, it might help to watch for seasonal indicators, prioritize garden tasks, and plant a few seeds for the autumn garden.

Seasonal Indicators

  • Autumn equinox: equal parts day and night (12 hrs) with day length continuing to decrease. This is the beginning of the period of time when the veil between "reality" and the spirit world is thin with the holidays of Halloween, Samhain, All Hallow's Eve, and Day of the Dead coming in the next months. 
  • Cooler days, and especially nights, with less humidity
  • Cool season plants starting to thrive again: kale, mustards, fall radish, other Brassica species; peas and fava beans; dandelions start blooming again
  • Fall wildflowers: goldenrods (did you know there are 30+ goldenrod species in NE Ohio?), New England asters, several species of white asters in fields, white snakeroot, horse balm, and large-leaved aster in the woods 
  • Seed and berry eating birds very active: goldfinches, cardinals, sparrows, cedar waxwings 
  • Beginning of deer mating season: look for tree rubbing, and be careful on the road - when hunters begin staking out their haunts, deer and other animals are more active and using unusual routes.
  • First leaves starting to turn red on tupelos and some maples, while others begin to bleach
  • Late summer edible mushrooms: chicken-of-the-woods (aka sulfur shelf), hen-of-the-woods (aka maitake), lion’s mane 


Chicken-of-the-woods mushroom on a downed log. Photo by Sarah Brower


Garden Tasks 

  • Harvest and preserve
  • Collect and clean seeds
  • Prepare garlic beds
  • Find a balance between mulching and leaving standing vegetation

Seeds to Direct Sow

  • Lettuce
  • Spinach
  • Arugula
  • Mustards
  • Dill
  • Cilantro

Read on for more info!