It’s hard to believe that it’s already September and that the garden season is just about over;
seems like just yesterday we put our cool weather crops into the ground. I think it’s been a good
garden season despite challenges like drought and really hot weather, neither of which helps
plants grow well. Our gardeners have persevered, though, and many have put in a second crop
of beans and plan on putting in more peas in the next couple of weeks, along with cool crops
like greens and lettuce.
We’ve talked about how to plan gardens, and how to plant seeds and plants so that they thrive. We
covered garden maintenance and tasty workshops on heart-healthy cooking and food
preservation. And now with our last meeting that’s coming up, we’re going to be talking about
winterizing gardens and making sure they’re in good shape come spring.
Winterizing our gardens will be very important if the wooly bear forecast is correct this year.
According to weather folklore, the wooly bear can predict how bad the upcoming winter will be
based on its coat color and pattern. This year people are saying that the wooly bears they’ve
seen are all black- a harbinger of a long, cold, snowy winter that starts early and ends late.
Should the wooly bear winter prediction be true, even if our gardeners can’t make it to the store,
they’ll still be eating good with all the fruits and vegetables that were canned and frozen, or in
the case of berries, made into jams and pie fillings to use over the winter. Some people have
even made soups and canned or frozen them, or canned lots of sausage and peppers. They are
not going hungry, no matter what.


I hope the wooly bear is wrong and that we have a mild winter, and any snow that
comes in just in time for Christmas and leaves by New Year’s.