What's happening in the early September edible garden

Trellised purple pole beans and potted Egyptian walking onions

Monday, September 2, 2024

Self seeding flowers like zinnias, hummingbird vine, morning glory, marigolds, Love Lies Bleeding and Cock's Comb celosia are in full splendor right now.  Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, Egyptian walking onions, the Mediterranean herbs like basil, rosemary, sage, oregano, chives, tarragon and thyme are still doing well in the garden, even through the 90's of August.  We are preserving everything we have extra right now.  Love knowing that we can eat food we grew year round.

It has been a very hot and dry August, well into the 90's many days at a stretch, even reached triple digits last week.  Looks like we are headed into the 80's for the extended forecast which the plants will appreciate, but no rains likely.  We are not getting the fall rains we used to get this time of the year.  Just sunny, dry with low humidity.  Great weather for enjoying the outdoors, but watering is needed for the edibles.

I fertilized middle of August with all natural fertilizer.  With natural fertilizers you don’t have to worry about “burning” your plants as they slowly release into the ground.   This may be the last time I fertilize this season. You should fertilize about once a month through the growing season.  You don’t want to shoot too much nitrogen to your fruit producers as you can end up with all leaves and no veggie fruits.  It is especially critical for any potted plants as they can't pull up nutrients from the surrounding soil; only the small amount of potting soil in their isolated pot.  

 The veggies that love the spring weather also thrive in fall.  It is important to get all your winter and overwintering veggies and greens up to full size prior to early November.  The days are so short come November that there will be minimal growth from November to mid January.  The fall edible garden

This year was decent for peppers and tomatoes.  Peppers were late getting started but have produced well.  The ones in the garden bed wilted early in the season.  I thought it was disease or the voles had eaten away their roots and pulled them all.  About a week later, I noticed that the soil was really dry in that bed so that may have been part of the problem.  The plants my husband had in upside down 5 gallon buckets did great until July.  He hadn't fertilized them since April.  The fertilizer stakes he used said to add more every 3 months.  With potted plants, a good rule of thumb is to double that, so every 6 weeks in this case.  I trimmed them back, he fertilized them and we are seeing some growth again.

I planted a second round of tomato plants both in the garden bed and in pots.  The ones in the garden bed are just starting to get flowers and the ones in the pots have been providing ripe tomatoes for a couple of weeks.  Peppers and tomatoes will continue producing up until a hard freeze. 

For the last few years, I have started growing 2 tomato crops, one early and one started in June or July.  This way when some of the tomato plants die back, the new ones are kicking in.  I already have enough frozen tomatoes in the freezer to last until next year's harvest, but it is nice to have vine ripened slicers for fresh eating.  I'll make sauce and can it with the frozen tomatoes left from 2023 and any additional frozen quarts from this year that won't fit in the wire basket in the freezer.  I always do that when it starts cooling off.  

 Preserving the tomato harvest       Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty

My pepper plants are still producing.  The plants grew decent this year in the pots.  The sweet red snacking pepper, Anaheim, Jigsaw, Tunisian Baklouti and Chipetin pepper plants have both green and ripening fruits on it.  The volunteer California Wonder has small fruits on it.  I have been freezing extras off the sweet pepper plants and drying the Anaheim peppers for chili powder for about a month now.  They'll produce until a freeze.  The variegated Jigsaw plant I overwintered indoors is doing great outside in its pot.  The Jigsaw, Chipetin and Tunisian Baklouti peppers are hot peppers.  I grow the Chipetin for using in my seasoned salt mix.  The other two I will use to make hot sauce. Peppers love September

I grew three types of pole snap beans this year and Christmas Speckles lima beans.  I planted 1500 Year Old bean vine that can be either harvested tender or left on the vine for dried beans; I'm using it for snap beans.  I did my standby Blauhilde purple Romano type bean.  I planted a Japanese early winged bean that has beautiful blue flowers.  The pole beans had their roots eaten by voles so I did not get a huge harvest from them.  The winged bean is still producing.  The winged bean takes a while to get going and just started producing beans.  The Christmas Speckles lima bean is on its third round of pod production.  They will all produce up to a hard freeze.

Basil in front, okra to left, cock's comb on right, zinnias in background

I started by bush cucumber in the garden bed this year.  It did decent.  I got enough for all the pickles my husband will eat.  My mom really likes them, too, so next year I will put in an additional plant for her.  Luckily, it looks like I have a yellow cucumber volunteer vine and it is now producing so their are fruits to give to her.   Make your own pickles without a store bought seasoning mix

My potted eggplant did well this year.  Eggplant loves hot weather and lots of sun.  I do have about 6 plants.  For fresh eating, we probably only need 3 as long as the Trombetta is also producing.

The Trombetta summer squash is doing well.  I am getting a 1-2 fruits every week so enough for us to eat and give 1 to friends or family each week.  If I have many extras, I will make into zoodles.  This zucchini is one I will grow every year as it is the most disease and pest resistant I have found, it doesn't over produce, and it tastes great.

My raspberry plants are producing fruits again.  I got 6 apples off my columnar apple tree last week.  We removed the wire mesh from around it and the deer came and snacked.  I may have gotten a few more if I had kept the deer away.  The goji (or wolf berry) berry bush is producing many fruits.

The chives, tarragon, thyme, oregano, celery, and onions are all doing quite well.  All will do well through the fall and into the winter.  I will harvest many of the herbs in the next month or so to make my dry herb mix that I use in just about everything.  Use your own herbs for your Thanksgiving dinner

Basil does not survive a frost so I will harvest all of the plants when the forecast is calling for frost and make pesto that I freeze.  I have a variety called African nunum that does great indoors all winter that I can always have fresh basil when I need it.  It smells wonderful, too.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

I need to get my lettuce and pea seeds going this next week.  The temperatures are going to be cool enough for germinating and growing lettuce right now.  When the seedlings get to a good size, I will transplant them into their winter home in my self watering Earthboxes. 

I had let the greens in the Earthbox reseed themselves over the summer and there are new sweet mustard greens, celery, chard, cultivated dandelions, sprouting broccoli, and amaranth growing.  I will cover the Earthboxes with a portable green house later this fall so we can have salads throughout the winter.  Homegrown, organic salads in a Midwest winter

I have had a huge number of volunteer Red Malabar spinach vines from seed from last year's vines.  Will need to do more pulling of the volunteers next year!  Had many volunteers of cock's comb, too, and zinnias.  When they get a decent size, I move them around to pots and in the garden bed.  I love their bright colors.

Make sure you save the seeds from your best and longest producers to plant in your garden next spring.  I also save seeds from organic produce I get from the store that is really good.  Some of my favorite tomato plants have come from seed saved from store bought tomatoes.  Look for heirlooms as they will come back like their parent from seed.  What do the terms GMO, natural, heirloom, organic, hybrid really mean?

Tomato, horseradish, marigolds, morning glory and zinnias in the south facing garden
This fall, we will have mustard greens, lettuce, chard, Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, garden sorrel, cultivated dandelion, purslane, cress, celery, chives, and sprouting broccoli for salads.  Peppers, snap beans, squash, eggplant and tomatoes will produce until the first freeze.  The Egyptian onions will produce all through winter.