A fall tradition-fried green tomatoes

 

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Tomatoes will survive a light frost, but not a freeze.  If you still have green tomatoes on the vine, make sure you pull them before the first killing frost.  You shouldn’t harvest tomatoes from a dead vine.

There are a few techniques you can use to prolong your tomato harvest: 

*You can cover your plants with a sheet when calling for frost and removing when it warms in the morning.  

*You can keep them going even longer if you put a portable greenhouse over them.  Be careful to vent your portable greenhouse very well when it is in the 50’s or warmer and sunny.  It will be a scorcher inside and you’ll have roasted tomatoes.  

Extend the season with protection for plants

*You can bring any potted tomatoes indoors and they will continue to produce in a sunny spot.

There are several things you can do with your green tomatoes: 

*You can make green tomato relish.  I just love all the fun flavor combo’s I see folks coming up with, from spicy habanero to sweet sorghum.  Your imagination is the only limit!  Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty

*You can wrap them individually in newspaper and store them some place dark to ripen.  I have had tomatoes keep until February.

*Or, you can go all out and have fried green tomatoes!

I remember my Granny making them each year.  I don’t have her recipe, but you can use a spicy fish breading, like Andy’s Cajun.  You simply slice your tomato, dip in the breading, fry in oil, and enjoy!

Even if you have a small space, you can grow tomatoes in a small garden spot or in a pot.  There are lots of varieties out there developed to stay compact.  Compact tomatoes for small spaces and pots

October 2024 Edible Garden Planner

Early October edible garden is in full bloom

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Gardening in October is refreshing, like the weather.  Pests are fading fast as the weather cools.  The sun shines brightly to take the chill off the cool days.  The summer vegetables like tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, basil and okra continue to produce at a reduced pace.  The cool season crops like lettuce, carrots, radishes, peas, cabbage, beets, broccoli and cauliflower are coming into maturity throughout October and into November.  Flowers, bees and butterflies are abundant in the fall garden.

Now is the last call to save seeds from your favorite fruits and veggie plants if you haven't done so already.  The plants still producing well this time of year are great ones to make sure you have some seeds to plant again next year.  The varieties that do well in your garden conditions are ones you want to invite back!  Just be sure to not save seed from any plants that are diseased as this can bring the disease back into your garden in the spring.  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

Basil will turn black when it gets close to 35 degrees.  I pull all the leaves when it is forecasted to get close to freezing or any chance of frost.  You can chop basil, put in an ice cube tray and cover with water to then use any time your recipe calls for fresh basil.  It stores best when frozen in water.  I also dry some to add to my "Herbes de Provence" seasoning mix.  Most of my harvest I make into pesto and place in freezer bags with just enough for a meal.  Gives a whole new meaning to “fast food.”  Pesto is great over pasta, fish, or as a condiment on sandwiches.  Basil will root from cuttings if you want to bring it in for the winter.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil...

The bees just love basil flowers!  Bees favorite flowers are those with small flowers like basil.  The purple holy basil flowers mixed with the white sweet basil flowers are quite pretty, too, as well as very fragrant.  If you want to keep the stems from getting woody on these types of basil, keep the flowers pinched back.  I always have Cardinal basil as well in my garden.  The leaves are great in pesto, the flowers are showy, and they don't get woody stems like traditional sweet basil does.  

Bee on basil flower

Other herbs will do just fine through frosts like parsley, rosemary, thyme, chives, tarragon, winter savory, and sage.  It takes good snow cover to stop these herbs.  Many winters you can harvest these herbs the entire season for cooking.  Cut back the extra now, dry and make into seasoning mixes which you can give to the whole family at Christmas.   Make your own "Herbes de Provence" 

I will wait until it gets below 32 degrees before I strip off the eggplant, peppers and tomatoes.  You can freeze or dry these veggies.  Tomatoes are a high acid fruit so you can also easily can sauce from them without using a pressure canner; a stockpot is all that is needed.   Preserving the tomato harvest  Be sure to follow any canning recipes exactly so your canned goods don’t spoil.  

For more on preserving your extras for year round use, see

 Preservation garden

24 No Tech Storage Fruits and Vegetables

Peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants are tropical perennials that can be brought in to overwinter.  If you have a favorite plant you would love to have in your garden next season, bring it in to an attached garage or even your living room.  I have successfully overwintered hot peppers, dwarf tomatoes and a few eggplants.  You get a serious jump start on the season in the spring if they over winter.  I am bringing in my tiny hot pepper plant Chipetlin to overwinter for the seventh year, my Jigsaw pepper and Tumbling Tom tomato plants for their second year.  I'll also have indoor basil as they volunteer in the tropical plants I bring in every fall.

There are several herbs that can be brought indoors as well.  Basil and chives are great ones to grow indoors in a sunny window since they loses so much flavor when dried and they are easy to grow indoors.  Growing herbs indoors for winter

Make sure you pull the tomatoes from the vine before the vine dies.  Wondering what to do with the green tomatoes?  You have a couple of options.  You can make fried green tomatoes-yum!  Just use some fish fry seasoning; we like Andy’s Cajun Seasoning.  A late fall tradition-fried green tomatoes!  You can also wrap green tomatoes in newspaper and store in a cool, dark location and many will ripen.  Check about weekly to cull any that spoil.  They won’t taste as good as fresh off the vine, but are better than store bought.  I have had tomatoes this way into February.

Potted tomatoes first of November

As the vines die back and the fruit loses its sheen, it is time to harvest winter squash. Winter squash include the well known pumpkins, butternut squash, acorn squash and spaghetti squash among many others.   Be sure to leave at least a couple of inches of the stem and place in a warm sunny spot for the skin to harden.  Many winter squashes will keep until next year.  I have had butternut and Trombetta squash last until the next summer.  Harvesting winter squash

October and November is garlic and shallot planting month for the Zone 7 garden!  Plant in the waning cycle of the moon.  Garlic and shallots loves loose, well-fertilized soil.  Loosen the soil down to about 6 inches, mix in a couple of inches of compost, and plant your cloves about 2-3” deep.  Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......  Garlic and shallot leaves are one of the first greens you will see in spring.  Don't be surprised to see them sprout this winter.

Now is also a great time to divide any perennials you have, whether they be herbs, edibles or ornamentals.  This will give them all fall and winter to put down strong roots.  Perennial greens (like chard, sorrel, cultivated dandelions, salad burnet) are always the first up in the spring.  This is the perfect time to plant any perennial plant.  The fall and winter allows the plants roots to grow deep, preparing it for a fast start in the spring.  Perennial veggies in the Midwest garden

It is still not too late in early October to transplant fall crops like cold hardy types of lettuce, cabbage, chard, pak choi, broccoli, kale, parsley or perennial herb plants.  You can check your neighborhood nurseries for bedding plants.  I use my Aerogarden or just a pot on the covered patio to start from seed cold hardy crops I want in my fall and winter garden.  Starting them indoors gets them going quicker.  With less sun and cooler temps outdoors, plants grow more slowly so getting bedding plants or starting indoors gets your fall veggies to full size quicker.  Add about 2 weeks to the "Days to Harvest" timing for fall planted edibles.

Cloches and portable row cover

To extend the season, you can order a mini greenhouse to cover your pots or the part of the garden you have planted your cold hardy greens you want to harvest all winter.  You can also purchase row covers that cover plants and provides protection from frosts, but not hard freezes.  Adding mulch is a good winter blanket for cool season crops.  Preparing the garden for frost

Winter hardy kale, spinach, Austrian peas, carrots and winter onions don’t need to be covered and can be harvested all winter (as long as the ground isn’t too frozen) and into spring.  I grow Austrian peas over winter and they provide greens for salad all winter long.  They have very pretty flowers, too.  Come spring I have lots of early peas too.

I’ll put our portable, plastic mini greenhouse over the greens in my Earthbox self watering pots sometime this month or next.  One watchout with green houses-they get very, very hot in sunny weather so be sure to open them to allow circulation in fall and early winter.  They will need to be closed up when winter really sets in December or January sometime.

Portable greenhouse over pots

What's happening in the late September edible garden

Cactus zinnias on right and Flame cock's comb on left
Sunday, September 22, 2024

We are having a very dry September again this year and way above average temperatures.  In the past, we could depend on the rains starting by mid-September and supplemental watering being pretty well over until next summer.  Not this year.  I am still watering the beds weekly and the potted edibles every 2-3 days.  

Peppers, beans, eggplant, okra and squash do well in this type of weather if you make sure they have enough to drink.  I have many peppers just waiting to ripen, my okra continues to flower and produce fruits, there are a few flowers on my Trombetta squash and 1 or 2 fruits, several tomatoes on most of my tomato plants, and flowers and fruits on my eggplant.  When the heat gets in the 90's and stays there, tomatoes will drop their flowers so you don't get as many fruits during heat waves.  Hopefully, we will get the rain and cooler temperatures they are calling for this week and it will help everything in the garden.

Herbs are doing well.  The basil and oregano is in full bloom.  I do need to do a cutting of my basil and make some pesto before frost hits and my basil all dies.

Cardinal basil in forefront and Genovese basil in background

The winter lettuce seed I planted about 10 days ago has sprouted and are growing.  When they get their second set of leaves, I will start transplanting them into their winter pots which I will cover with a portable greenhouse cover.  I also have Giant Blue Feather lettuce, chard, Red Romaine lettuce, Utah celery and pink celery coming up.  All will do great under cover all winter.  

 

My vining green beans have died off.  It looks like the voles tunneled all under the plants.  Voles love eating roots and it appears they love green bean roots!

I dug all my shallots and garlic last month.  I will divide and replant them next month.

If you are a garlic lover, October is prime time to plant your garlic for next summer's harvest.  I save the biggest cloves from my summer harvest to plant in the fall.  If you haven't ordered yours yet, some varieties may be sold out, but that is always a good reason to try something new.  Time to plant garlic!

My volunteer zinnias, cock's comb, and flame celosias did really well this year.  I'm sure I will have many volunteers come up again next year.  The California Giant orange zinnia just glowed in my front yard pot.  I may have to get a packet of the orange California Giant seeds for all the front pots.

Fuschia pin cushion zinnia

Hummingbird vine, Heavenly morning glory, and Red Malabar spinach volunteer vines went a little crazy this summer.  Next year, I'll need to thin them back much more than I did this year!

My husband has been busy hauling in dirt from our pasture to backfill around the addition we put on.  I am looking forward to getting my southern exposure flower beds back!  Right now, I have been temporarily growing in the beds at the back of the house, which is northern exposure.  We don't have alot of garden bed space in back so about half of my veggies have been grown in pots.  I grow all my peppers, tomatoes, greens, onions, and eggplant in pots.

I do like growing Egyptian Walking Onions, eggplant and peppers in pots so will continue to do so.  Tomatoes, pole beans, squash, okra, cucumbers, corn, garlic and melons all are more productive in the ground.  You can still do well in pots using compact varieties, but smaller plants do mean smaller yields.

Pretty soon, it will time to reflect back on this year's garden, see how much I was able to can, pickle, dry and put away in the freezer to develop next year's garden plan.  It is best to do at the end of the season when all is still fresh in your mind.  It is also a great time to write up the list of things you'd like to learn more about over the winter to try in next year's edible garden. 

Peppers love fall

Jalapeño

Sunday, September 15, 2024

My peppers kick into high gear come September and keep right on producing through October.  They seem to love the lower humidity and cooler nights.  

This time of year, I back off fertilizer.  Nitrogen promotes new greenery which can make the plant more susceptible to a hard frost.  Typically, peppers do fine up until a hard freeze.  I have had good success with bringing cayenne, Jigsaw and my Chiltepin pepper plants indoors for the winter.  They keep producing into January and then start flowering as soon as I take them outside in the spring.

Right now, I have Poblano Anaheim peppers, California bell peppers, burgundy sweet peppers from seed I have saved, a Chiltepin wild hot pepper native to the Southwest, Habanada sweet pepper, Jigsaw purple hot pepper and Tunisian Baklouti hot pepper plants.  They are all happy in their pots.

The Poblano I am drying for chili powder.  The sweet peppers I eat fresh and rough slice and freeze for salsa and tomato sauce.  The larger hot peppers I freeze whole and use for salsa and homemade hot sauce.  At the end of summer, I will take all the hot peppers frozen from last year and make hot sauce.  It is super easy.  Make your own hot sauce!  A I use the hot sauce to make wings for football games.  Homemade hot sauce wings with homegrown celery

Sweet pepper 

Poblano

Yum!  Yum!

Here's my easy recipe for fresh salsa.  Quick and fresh homemade salsa

In my garden, my peppers seem to do the best in pots.  It's a great space saver too if you are growing all your edibles in the garden bed.  You can put your potted peppers interplanted with petunias along your side walk or patio for decoration as well as food. 

The veggies I grow every year that seem to favor or do at least as well in pots are peppers, eggplant, bay laurel, bush cucumbers, Egyptian walking onion and all greens.  I try to find room in the garden bed for tomatoes, okra, garlic and pole beans.  I only need one trellis of pole beans to grow everything we need.  

It doesn't take much garden space to grow lots for your family to eat year round.  You can garden year round in small space  If you have limited space for storing extras, focus on veggies that are easy to keep without a freezer.  21 no tech storage crops

Midwest Fall Edible Garden

Fall savoy cabbage 

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Fall is a great time to garden!  You don't have to worry about pests and there is typically good rainfall so you don't have to worry about watering.  The crops that thrive in spring, thrive in fall.

For fall gardening, you actually start some varieties as early as July.  These will be the same type of veggies you planted for your spring garden.  You may have to start some varieties indoors as some seeds will not germinate in the hot temps of summer.  You can extend the fall harvest by covering your veggies with crop fabric when chilly temps arrive in late October so you can harvest all winter.

Don't worry if you are just getting started now; there are plenty of cool season crops you can start from seed in September and many you can order on line or pick up at your local nursery or big box store if you are getting a late start or just want to grab plants and plant.

Crops fall into 2 categories-cold season and warm season crops.  Warm season crops are those that abhor frost or getting their feet chilly.  Most of the warm season crops are killed by frost and won't grow unless the soil is nice and warm.  Cold crops are those that prefer when temperatures are cool or downright cold.

A rule of thumb is that if you eat the tuber, leaf or flower, it is typically a cold season crop.  If you eat the fruit or seed, it is a warm season crop. 

Choose the Right Varieties

In addition to choosing the right plants for cold-weather harvests, you can also increase fall harvests by planting specific varieties bred for colder climes. Look for varieties marketed as: fast-maturing; short and compact; textured (such as curly kale and Savoy spinach), winter-hardy, frost tolerant, overwintering, for every season, year-round, remarkably cold hardy, etc. 

Because daylight hours are getting shorter in the fall, you will need to add about 2 weeks to the “Days to Harvest” your seed packet gives as the seed packet dates are based on spring planting.  Plants grow slower in fall because the days are getting shorter instead of longer.

Just like in spring, seeds have to be kept moist to sprout.  You can also plant the seeds in peat pots or you can reuse the plastic annual trays you got in the spring.  You can put the plastic trays in a water catch pan, find a shady spot convenient to watering, fill with seed starting mix, sow your seeds and keep moist.  When the seedlings get their true leaves on them (second set), they are ready to transplant into the garden or a larger pot.

Outdoor seed starting tips

There are some veggies that the temps are too high to germinate in our Zone 7, like lettuce.  These you will have to start inside or on the cool side of the house in the shade or indoors if you're having a really hot September.  Once the highs get down into the 80's, you're generally safe to start outdoors in the shade.  

Indoor seed starting tips

Ideal soil temperatures for seed starting

Good choices for fall planting:

Root crops-Beets, Burdock, Carrots, Celeriac, Garlic, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Onions, Parsnips. Radishes, Root Parsley, Rutabaga, Salsify, Scorzonera, Turnips

Greens-Arugula, Celery, Chard, Dandelion greens, Fennel, Lettuce, Mustard, Collards, Chicory, Kale, Sorrel, Spinach, Peas, Fava beans  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

Brassicas-Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Chinese Cabbage,   Broccoli and cauliflower growing tips 

Herbs-Marjoram, Parsley, Savory, Thyme, Sage, Cilantro, Oregano  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Below are some general planting times for cool season crops for our Zone 6/7 garden:

July

Beets, carrots, Asian greens (pak choi, tat-soi), cilantro, collard greens, endive, escarole, frisee, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, mustard, onions, parsnips, scallions, and Swiss chard.  Use transplants for broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage.

August

The rest of the greens (arugula, corn salad, lettuce, miner’s lettuce, spinach, mustard, endive), kohlrabi, onions, snap peas, scallions, cabbage plants, radishes, and turnips.  Peas and Fava beans can be planted in August for spring harvests in Zone 6 or higher.  

September

Plant more greens, carrots, and radishes.  September is also a great month for starting perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees and shrubs.

What I've sown for fall and winter edibles 

Fruit for small spaces

 Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

October

The month to plant garlic for next year’s harvest and over-wintering onions.  Order your favorites early as many sell out quick.

October is prime time to plant garlic

If you don’t want to start seeds, some big box stores and local nurseries have begun to have fall planting veggies.   If none in your area do, there are many mail order seed companies that carry fall bedding plants.   

What I've sown for fall and winter edibles

"Well used" self watering pot I started my lettuce seeds in

Sunday, September 8, 2024

I started a variety of seeds yesterday for harvesting all fall and winter.  With a portable greenhouse, you can keep the Midwest lettuce salads going all the way to next spring.  This fall, my sowings are for lettuce, arugula, snow peas, chard, leaf mustards, chards, kales, pink dandelion, and pink celery.

The challenge to starting cool season lovers from seed this time of year is that it can be so hot.  The seeds will not germinate well in ground temps above 70 degrees F.  There are a couple of options for summer time seeding.  You can grow in shade, cover with a shade cloth or start your seedlings indoors move outdoors after they have sprouted.  Right now, it is cool with the highs in the upper 70's and lows in the mid 60's so perfect temperatures for lettuce germination.  Outdoor seed starting tips

I like to start in rectangular, self watering pots on our covered patio, close to the watering can on the northeast side of the house. Most of what I have sown will be up in 7 days if kept well watered.  I let them grow until they have the first set of true leaves and are about 2” tall.  I then transplant them into their permanent home, keeping them well watered for another couple of weeks.  The trick this time of year to planting is getting the plants close to full size by November when daylight hours are too short to support growing.

Here is what I planted.  Be sure to label your seed rows!

-Winter Density-a romaine type that is full size in 54 days

-Tango-a leaf lettuce that is frilly and light green, full size in 45 days

Landis Winter-a butterhead lettuce that reaches full size in 50 days

North Pole-another butterhead lettuce that is full size in 50 days

Tom Thumb-a small romaine type that is full size in 50 days

Winter Crop-a headed lettuce so approximately 50-60 days

Winterwunder-a loose leaf that is full size in 60 days

Red Romaine-a romaine that is full size in 40 day

Provencal Winter mix-a variety of greens

Arctic Tundra mix-a variety of greens

Roquette Arugula-full size in 42 days

Pink Dandelion-full size in 85 days

Pink Celery-full size in 60 days

Avalanche Snow Pea-30" vine, 61 days to harvest

Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea-28" vine, 60 days to harvest

Little Purple Snow Pea-27" vine, 50 days to harvest

All of these will have leaves that are harvestable in about half the number of days to get to full size.  On the flip side, it generally takes longer for fall crops to get to full size than the packet says as the temperatures are getting cooler and the daylight shorter going into fall than in spring time.  A rule of thumb is 2 weeks longer to full size.

I like self watering pots because you can fill the reservoir without directly watering the soil surface.  With lettuce the seeds take light to germinate so they are very close to the surface.  Watering the soil itself can dislodge the seeds and move them all around the pot.  This isn't a catastrophe if you have all the same type planted in a pot, but since I have 8 varieties in the same pot, I don't want them moving around so I can see what germinates and how well they do through the season.  

You can start your seeds in any container you prefer.  If you do a coir or peat pot, you can just plant the entire thing in the garden bed after the seedling is up and going strong.  The drawback is that they have to be watered more as so much moisture wicks out of the permeable pot.

 

For this round, I watered the soil well, then planted the seeds, labelling each mini row in my rectangular pots that I start seeds in.  I will continue misting the top to keep the soil moist and filling the reservoir from the bottom.  You don't want the soil to dry out before the seeds have germinated.

After the seedlings are up, I'll wait until they have a few leaves and are about 2" or so tall before transplanting into larger pots for the winter.  I cover all my larger self watering pots later in the season with a portable greenhouse to keep the greens going all winter.  How to extend the garden season

If you want to direct seed in your mulched flower bed, dig a shallow trench about a quarter inch deep, fill with potting soil, seed, pat down, then cover lightly with more potting soil.  Water well with a gentle stream of water so you don’t wash the seed away.  I use a rain head on my watering can.  Even better is to get the soil moist, then scatter the seeds, cover lightly with potting soil and pat gently.  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens 

A  I also have purple sprouting broccoli, Ruby Streaks mustard, Giant Blue Feather lettuce, chard, Utah celery and Hilton Chinese Cabbage that has self-seeded.  I should have plenty of greens for salads all the way through winter with covering my self-watering pots over these winter hardy plants.  

What to start in the edible September garden

Fall seedlings in an Italian garden

Saturday, September 7, 2024 

September is a great time to continue planting for fall and winter harvests.  Get the most out of your edible garden by using all the seasons for fresh, homegrown goodness.  With fall gardening, you don't have to worry about pest and disease pressures plus the temperatures are enjoyable for outdoor activity.

What is a four season garden?
You can garden year round in small space
Planning for a four season garden

A fall edible garden

This month plant more greens and root vegetables.  September is my favorite month for getting winter lettuce and greens going.  I keep pots just for year round greens.  The spring/summer greens have already bolted and gone to seed.  I cleared them out when the seeds are dispersed and the stalks turn brown.  I have volunteer celery, amaranth greens, and sweet mustard greens that has sprouted in some of them.  Plus the Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach and Giant Blue Feather lettuce is still going strong.  I need to start my lettuce seeds this week.  After sprouting, I'll transplant them together in self watering pots so that I can cover them with a portable greenhouse to keep the harvest going all fall and winter.

Time to plant lettuce seed for fall, winter salads

 Root for fall!  

September is also a great month for starting perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees, shrubs and spring blooming bulbs.  There are 2 great things about perennials.  1) You only have to plant them once and they come back year after year.  2)  Perennial greens are the first things up in late winter, early spring.   Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

The hardest part is finding a spot to start the cool season crops with so many summer veggies going strong.  I like to start them in smaller self-watering, rectangular pots that are about 6" tall by 12" or so long in the shade and then transplant them out when it gets cooler and more room is opened up.  

Here are the crops you can start in the September Midwest edible garden:

September
Austrian winter peas
Arugula
Beets

Broccoli transplants
Brussel sprouts transplants

Cabbage transplants

Carrots
Cauliflower transplants
Corn salad
Escarole

Fava beans
Frisee
Italian dandelion

Kale

Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mache
Mustard and Mustard Greens

Winter and Perennial Onions

Peas

Radish

Scallions

Snow peas
Sorrel
Spinach

Turnips

November edible garden

Look for cold hardy varieties when planting for fall and winter harvests.  You will be surprised to harvest all through the winter months things like greens, onions, Austrian peas, carrots, and cabbage without any cover.  You can also extend the harvest by looking for the same crop with different days to harvest timing so that they mature at different times.  

Finally, you can use cover to extend the harvest all the way to next spring.

  Extend the season with protection for plants
Winter edible garden

When planting seeds when temperatures can get hot, be sure to keep the soil moist and in a cool spot until the plants are well established.  Summer and fall planted crops take longer to come to harvest than they do in the spring.  Rule of thumb is to add 2 weeks.  It's because the days are getting shorter in fall rather than longer like in spring.  

A great and easy way to start your fall garden is to sow the seeds in a pot on a covered deck or patio.  This makes it easy to keep an eye on the seedlings and protects them from the harsh hot summer sun.  After they have a couple of sets of their true leaves, you can transplant into the garden bed.  Harden them off first by moving the pot to full sun before transplanting.  "Hardening off" seedlings  After transplanting into the garden, keep them watered regularly during hot, dry weather until well established.

For more summer seed starting tips Outdoor seed starting tips

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.