FREEPORT, Ill – As your vegetable garden begins to wind down for the season, what tasks you could you be doing to ensure that next year is ready for growing? University of Illinois Extension’s program Wrapping up the Vegetable Garden was developed to help answer this question. In this program, Grant McCarty, Local Foods and Small Farms Educator, will help you determine what tasks you should do right now, what you should do soon, and what you should do later. The tasks will include planting garlic and cover crops, overwintering perennial vegetables, getting a soil test, orchard management, and many others.

“At the University of Illinois Extension office, we receive many questions on those final garden tasks as the growing season begins to wind down”, states Grant McCarty, Local Foods and Small Farms Educator. “Some of these tasks have to be done for next season like planting garlic in the fall while some are good practices that we encourage every year like cleaning tools and managing debris.”

Wrapping up the Vegetable Garden is part of the Autumn Joys of Gardening Series sponsored by University of Illinois Extension and Freeport Public Library.  It will be held on Wednesday, September 28, in the main floor meeting room of the Freeport Public Library, 100 E. Douglas Street, Freeport, from 6 to 7 p.m. To register or for more information, visit us online at go.illinois.edu/jsw or call us at 815-235-4125.