Hello, listeners to the October 2024 Food Literacy Podcast. Harvest time is upon us but as strange as it may seem it is also time to think about the 2025 gardening season. Get ready for winter and 2025!

Here are some resources I hope will inform your decision(s). In doing research for this episode, I came across the Gardenary YouTube channel and an episode that suggested we stop using fertilizers to grow our gardens. The title was a bit misleading, but I agreed well sort of. The host talked about synthetic fertilizers so check out the entire video for useful information.

That said for those of us using grow bags for our gardening projects I recommend using a bit of organic fertilizer with the techniques described in the video because containers need a bit more nutrient support. For some excellent information regarding organic fertilizers see the Ecofriendly Homestead site regarding organic fertilizers, I recommend reading the entire post. I repeat I agree with the Gardenary host about the importance of compost and in her words poop for fertilizing our gardens. The host recommended manure and worm castings, and I recommend worm casting and staying away from animal manure in our home gardens. Generally, I recommend organic fertilizers in the beginning stages of your garden such as when transplanting seedlings into the grow bags and when seed you direct sowed have germinated, after that you can get by with compost and worm castings although I mix a very small amount of organic fertilizer to the worm casting say 10% of the mixture.

I will provide information about local sources for local compost for those that are not making compost at home in an upcoming episode.

Gardenary, offered some additional information that I think you will find useful regarding potential growing opportunities to consider for October. Also see the Gardenary 2024 calendar and watch for the 2025 edition. The general information will not change regarding frost dates, seed starting schedules, etc.

Think of your budget for items such as amendments, hoses, garden tools, etc. you can usually find them at a lower price now and into the winter. Once, spring arrives the prices go up...

I saw interesting videos from America’s Heartland regarding cultural foods and the food as medicine benefits of cultural foods and gardening that resonated deeply with me as I have been promoting cultural food primarily from the African Diaspora this past season and we will be continuing the program in 2025 while adding cultural food from other cultures in the ethnosphere. What is the ethnosphere you ask? The ethnosphere according to Dr. Wade Davis is defined here.

Additional resources:

Can you still plant crops in October? Check it out.

Preparing now for your seed starting projects in the spring.

Thinking about growing an herbal apothecary? (Remember to consult with your health care provider.)

Orrin Williams contact: orrinw@uic.edu

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the OCEAN-HP, or the CPHP.