By Tenley Nelson- Wood Frog Farm

I blinked and the month of September was over. Where did it go and how did it pass so dang quickly!?!

In Strelna, we did not have a killing frost until the end of the month which made for a steady harvest season.  Unlike last year, this fall the rains were moderate. I spent more than a few days in foul weather gear harvesting in the chilly wet, but we also had some beautiful dry days too. 

I started pulling the warm season crops out of the tunnels at the end of August as they matured. I finished up clearing out the tunnels by mid-September as the high humidity in the low tunnels had the plants molding.

The impending cold weather forced me to finish the greenhouse maintenance that had been on the to do list all season. I pulled all the trim off and reskinned the main structure with specialty greenhouse uv treated plastic. Some 2 by 4 supports were installed to improve the stovepipe structure and I still need to finish scribing the piece of metal roofing I am going to install to catch hot ember fallout from the stovepipe.

Greenhouse plastic is rated for 4 years, and I last reskinned this house in 2011 or 2012. It was way overdue! Even if it had not been full of holes from the years of using a metal leaf rake to scrape the snow off instead of the (totally awesome!) plastic snow rake I bought two years ago it is important to change the plastic every so often as degrades as it ages and blocks the full spectrum of sunlight from reaching your plants.

I kept the greenhouse going until the third week of September when it finally got cold enough for me to have to wake up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire. I didn’t feel like doing that as I have trouble falling back asleep after a 2 am wake up so I harvested all the remaining tomatoes and peppers and brought them inside to process. 

We are still eating tomatoes as they slowly ripen up on trays. I diced and froze most of the peppers and made eight or so pints of refrigerator pickles with the Hungarian wax, pepperoncini, and jalapeños. I don’t like to make shelf stable canned pickled peppers as they get so soft.

Mid month I took a few days away from the homestead to hunt for moose with some friends. We were not successful, but we had a great camping trip, and I came home with a gallon of lingonberries as a bonus.

After our first hard frost on the 23, it was time to get the potatoes and carrots out of the ground and I finally finished up that backbreaking chore on the 29th. I am always jealous of folks who don’t have to lift their crops from heavy and sticky clay soil soaking wet from fall rains! 

I am putting in some road miles this week picking up moose meat from camp and riding along with the last load of horses down from Fairbanks to where we overwinter them in Point Makenzie instead of doing the autumn garden cleanup. With snow in the forecast this week it might not get done this year but there is no real harm done I do not get to it. Any insect larvae already nestled in for the winter to not be disturbed and compost can be spread just as easily in the spring. But if we have some decent weather in early October, I might get to it yet.

The one important fall chore I need to do is selectively prune the raspberry row. I never seem to have enough time in the early spring on the high snow years before they start growing and picking this year was harder than it should have been with the unruly and overgrown canes. I like to thin them to a row about a foot wide and 8 canes per linear foot and remove all the spent fruited canes as well any small canes. 

This fall it seemed the leaves held on longer than usual and I feel like I have been treated to an extraordinary display this year especially as I have driven from Chitina to Fairbanks, Chitina to Wasilla, and Wasilla to Fairbanks. What a beautiful time to be traveling around! I am content to be winding down the garden season and look forward to cozy times ahead by the wood fire.

From my garden to yours, I hope you are enjoying the fruits of your labor from this past season and looking ahead to an even better one next year!

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