Posted on 08/15/2020 6:21:55 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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bttt
I’ve got enough tomatoes on three plants to supply the town I live in. But, I’m looking forward to a Fall crop of “something” but I don’t know what.
Any suggestions—maybe onions, peppers or anything that will grow in the Fall.
I you have room, plat some hard neck garlic cloves.
They’ll grow slowly all winter and send up tops in the spring that will be your first fresh veggie of the season.
I just put in spinach, lettuce and peas a couple weeks ago and they’re up. 2nd crop of each. Also Basil and going to put some purple carrot seeds down today.
My Minnesota Mini cantaloupes are ripening...and I have to eat two a day to keep up. But they are mini....and perfect for one person..size of a grapefruit. 8 plants in a 10 x 10 space will yield at least 30. What a great picnic gimmic they would be.
Figure out how many days you have left in your growing season.
Count backwards from your usual first hard freeze date (for example, mine is usually October 15th in SW Wisconsin Zone 4/5) and you can grow anything that fits that time frame between today and that freeze date. Of course you can extend that time frame a bit by using row covers, a cold frame or even covering items with plastic over night to keep the cold air off.
As of today, I’ve got about 60 days left to grow things outside, but I am putting some tomato seedlings in the greenhouse and will dig up and pot some pepper plants, just to see if I can keep them producing under cover. (Unheated.)
For Fall crops I’ll plant Garlic (waiting for it to arrive!) lettuces, spinach, beets, radishes, green onions and maybe carrots - I never have good luck with carrots, but I keep trying!
Books I’d recommend:
‘Four Season Harvest’ by Elliot Coleman (I’ve met him - he’s DREAMY, LOL!) (He gardens in Maine)
‘The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener’ - Niki Jabbour (She gardens in Canada)
‘Building and Using Cold Frames’ (Pamphlet) - Garden Way Publishing
I’ve got ‘Black Cherry’ tomatoes started for my greenhouse extending experiment this season. Love them, and I really let Beau down this season with the dumb cherry varieties I planted. Total losers! It’s back to Sweet Million and Sungold or Sunsugar, for sure.
Beau would be jealous of your melon success. He tries so hard, but never has much success with melons. Of course, Bear Training Season starts in July, and he’s pretty much back and forth between home and the cabin through October, so you can’t have everything in life! ;)
My tomatoes ahve been ripening beautifully and I’ll be canning some up in a couple days, when I have enough to make it worth it.
The potatoes look like they are recovering some from the hornworm infestation.
I ordered some Bacillus Thuriniensis to spray on them, and in the meantime, I mixed some DE and cyanenne pepper and dusted the pants and the ground around them. Haven’t seen any hornworms in 2-3 days now.
I’m hoping I got most of the suckers but any that may have escaped to breed will probably get taken out by the Braconid wasps.
However, the basil did not like the cayenne pepper very much. it burned the leaves where it landed.
My onions are doing OK and I should be ready to pull and cure my scant garlic crop.
Once this stuff is all harvested, I’m going to spend the fall setting up some raised beds and getting the garden under a lot more control for next summer.
Today’s project. Summer Tomato Jam.
I am substituting Smoked Paprika for the Ginger.
A garden is always a work in progress! :)
Tomato jam? That is brilliant!!
Peach
I'm just planted some beets....4 varieties that I had to order online because the covid suddenly made everybody a gardener and all the seeds have been bought up locally...too early for garlic....and I did throw in some leaf lettuce seeds....
Just got done watering (Southern California) - the weather report is for temps around 100 today and up to 103 tomorrow.
This is my least favorite time of year as we go into saving our gardens instead of planting or maintaining them. When the hot winds come up, that makes things even worse. Some of us water twice a day.
I’ve learned through trial and error which plants survive this intense period of heat and hot winds and which don’t - mostly bougainvillea, vinca, cactus, aloes and a few others.
Can’t wait for it to be over, but it’ll take a few weeks.
I’m going to do a test dig on a hill of potatoes this afternoon when I get back from having coffee and pastries with a few friends from the 50s & 60s...
You sound like me and the first Blizzard of the season, LOL!
Of course, my garden is put to bed by then, but if I need a shot of sunshine and warmth, I have to shovel a path to the greenhouse! ;)
I’m glad you’re able to get out with the gang, today! :)
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