A fall tradition-fried green tomatoes

 

Sunday, October 19, 2025

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

It is garlic, perennial onion and shallot planting time!

Overwintering onions

Sunday, October 6, 2024

There are many perennial alliums.  Alliums include garlic, chives, leeks, and onions.  Fall is the time to plant perennial alliums like potato onions, walking onions, shallots and garlic.  

Garlic, leeks, shallots and onions will continue coming back year after year unless you pull them.  If they are not big enough the first year, leave them and they will come back bigger the following year.  For the biggest onions and cloves, fall is the best time to plant.  You can plant in the spring but your garlic cloves will be much smaller and your shallots and onions will have many fewer and smaller bulbs.

There are also Egyptian walking onions, potato onions, and shallots which are considered “multiplier” onions.  They continue spreading out from the single bulb you plant.  As long as you leave a few bulbs behind, they will come back the following year.  Egyptian walking onions are usually pulled and used fresh, but they can be conditioned for a couple of weeks and stored for months like potato onions.  Egyptian walking onions  

If you grow garlic, you will likely find that the following year you have garlic sprouting again even after harvesting the bulbs.  Many garlic bulbs will have little “bulbils” that become detached from the bigger bulb when you pull them.  These babies come back up the next spring.  I also had many bulbils from my hardneck garlic flower tops.  I will plant them this fall too.  It'll likely take at least 2 years for them to get large enough to harvest.  From the bulbs I harvested this summer, I will take the biggest cloves and plant those for next year's harvest.

Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......

In my Zone 7a, here is the recommendation on fall planting times:

September through October plant Egyptian walking onions

Mid-October until mid-December plant garlic, potato onions and shallots

Plant about 1" deep in soil rich with organic matter and well-drained, 6" apart for individual cloves or bulbs.  I already added the phosphorous and potassium my soil test said to add this spring so I will put a handful of blood meal for nitrogen under each bulb at planting.  If you haven't done a soil test, you can add a balanced fertilizer in each hole as you plant.  In the spring, continue to side dress with nitrogen every 2-3 weeks when growing resumes.  If using blood meal, use 1 cup per 10 feet of planting.  Alliums prefer a soil pH of 6.5-7.

I have issues with voles in my garden.  They are supposed to be repelled by blood so I am going to use blood meal as my nitrogen source when planting to see if that helps.  I have also planted daffodils and creeping thyme all around my beds as they re supposed to deter voles.

To protect against a severe winter freeze, apply a few inches of mulch over the bed.

I ordered potato onions from Southern Exposure last summer and them last fall.  Since they did not grow much, I did not dig and divide them.  I will add compost this fall to see if that gets more growth next season.  The Dutch Red Shallots they substituted for half of the potato onions did pretty well so I have dug them, will divide and replant here in the next month.  If my shallots are happy in the bed, I should get 4-12 shallots from each bulb come spring.  Potato onions increase by 3-8 fold in weight from fall to spring, but mine were very small when I planted them last fall and did not do much.  Since mine are still on the small size, I will likely get a larger bulb and a smaller bulb from each one planted if they are happy with the garden bed conditions.

There is a risk if there is a really hard winter that you can lose many or all of your fall planted potato onions and shallots.  Using mulch can help protect against the loss.  Southern Exposure recommends planting the biggest bulbs in the fall and saving the smallest bulbs to plant in the spring as an insurance policy.

In our Zone 7a, I have not had an issue with an extreme winter killing my bulbs, but I do use mulch in all my gardening beds.

I wanted potato onions since they multiple underground and have a long storage life.  I'm guessing that it will take a couple of years to get the potato onions really going so that between them and the Egyptian walking onions, I should not have to buy cooking onions any longer.  

Sweet onions do not store for long so I will still buy one of those every month or two for burgers.  I did also order sweet Egyptian walking onions that I have not gotten.  I had only 1 survive the first year.  They'll be an experiment to see if I can substitute them for sweet bulb onions for burgers.  It's fun to try new things in the garden!

I have many, many bulblets from my existing Egyptian walking onions that I will also plant.  These walking onions have the taste of a white onion.  Each bulblet with produce a full size Egyptian walking onion bulb (about the size of a leek) if planted individually so they have room to grow.  You can plant them 2-4" apart.  Since I have so many top sets, I am going to plant each topset instead of breaking them apart.  I'll plant them around 12" apart since they will grow a cluster of onions.    

For more on growing onions,  

Onions-everything you need to know to grow 'em

Alliums are very nutritious, easy to grow, and tasty.  Try some in your garden this year!

Fall garden checklist

 

Sunday, October 12, 2025

As summer comes to an end and the cooler temperatures of fall start moving in, let's not forget to give some attention to our edible garden.  

There are a few things to tend to in the fall decorative, edible garden.  It's not as exciting as spring but very appreciated for the health of your garden and to make sure you are ready for next season.  Here are some items to consider for tidying up and getting ready for your next edible season:

-Save seeds from your best producers.  Seed saving will help your plants adjust to your specific microclimate and have the most abundant harvests.  I keep mine in plastic baggies, labelled with the variety, year saved and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.  Add any other helpful information for identifying and growing.  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

-Take cuttings from any of the plants that you want to start indoors for the winter.  Basil is an edible that you can easily start from a cutting to have handy for cooking.

-Be sure to prepare any tropicals you had outdoors for pests before bringing indoors.  I spray well with an insecticide a day or so before moving indoors.  Since the light will be less indoors, pruning before bringing indoors will help minimize leaves dropping.

-Cut back herbs and dry herbs to make spice mixes mix.  Harvesting and drying herbs

-Keep harvesting your veggies and fruits as long as they continue to produce.  Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant will continue to give you fruits until the first hard freeze.  If you can't eat them all, preserve them for winter and spring eating!  Preserving the extras from the summer garden

-If you haven't already, remove any dead or dying plants from the garden.  Any that are diseased should be burned or put into the trash; don't compost these.  For the rest and any trimmings, put in the compost pile or bin.  Composting is possible in small spaces or even indoors

-Keep your garden weeded.  You want to be sure to keep weeds from going to seed otherwise you will have lots of the little buggers to pull next spring!  I add weeds to the compost pile as long as they don't have seeds.

-Clean, sharpen and weatherproof your tools.  Make a list of tools and supplies that you would like to add to your repertoire for next year's gardening season. 

-If you have clay pots, be sure to empty them out or place under cover so they don't freeze and crack.  You can either revitalize soil next spring with added compost and fertilizer or can add to the compost pile.  Re-energize your potting soil!

-Take a soil test to see what amendments to add.  Enriching the soil now will have it in top shape for the spring season.

-Take a look at your garden journal and make notes of what went well or not so well, what varieties did well in your garden, what you want to plant in next year's garden, how many you want to plant, etc., etc.  I always try to put together my plan for next year's garden at summer's end while everything is fresh in mind.  I will make additions to it or maybe some switches in what varieties to try, but the bulk remains the same.  Reflections back on the 2024 garden and the 2025 garden plan

-For fall edible planting, look for empty spots in the garden to put winter veggies, like leeks, onions, carrots, cabbage, kale.  I get pots going with lettuce and greens that I will keep under my portable greenhouse for fall and winter salads. 

A fall edible garden

Winter edible garden

 

Many like to clear all debris from the garden, but I leave flower and edible seed heads for the birds over the winter and for volunteers next spring.  Come spring, I clear away all debris.

What we're harvesting in the mid-October edible garden

Tomatoes and peppers with zinnias in the background

Saturday, October 11, 2025

The garden continues to produce well; more than we can eat fresh.  We are harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, onions, sweet and hot peppers, lettuce, sprouting broccoli, Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, eggplant, Trombetta zucchini, sorrel, chard, yard long beans and many herbs.  I am freezing tomatoes, peppers, okra, yard long beans, Tamarillo fruits, Goji berries and Husk cherries each week as well as drying the herbs we need for the winter.

Our cherry tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, Trombetta zucchini, and yard long beans are still yielding well.  All the large fruit tomato vines except Better boy have died back.  For tomatoes, be sure to take all the tomatoes off the vine before it frosts.  You can either wrap the green tomatoes in newspaper and store in a cool place to ripen, make them into relish, or eat them as fried.  For fried green tomatoes, we like a Cajun batter.  Gives them a nice, spicy flavor.  A late fall tradition-fried green tomatoes!

The year, my cucumbers produced well into early September;  I am getting very few now but more than I eat fresh.  Cucumber info and tips for growing  My Trombetta zucchini is loaded, but it started producing late this year.  Probably because it was a new bed that I didn't have enough compost to cover it last fall.  We put compost on it last month and then they really picked up growth and fruits.  

As you straighten up your garden beds as the summer crops wind down, be sure to compost!  Any plant that has a disease, do NOT add to your compost pile.  Throw away.   Composting may not kill all disease spores and you could be spreading the disease next season wherever you use the compost.  For more tips on composting (even indoors), Composting is possible in small spaces or even indoors.

Peppers love this time of year.  They are native to the mountains so October is perfect for them.  They will continue to produce even after frost.  My peppers did well this year.  I had a few California bell peppers planted in the garden bed.  The rest of my peppers were in pots.  The sweet chocolate pepper that I saved from seed was loaded this year.  The Tricked You sweet Jalapeño did well.  The hot Tunisian Baklouti pepper plants just kept produced peppers all season long and are covered in baby fruits and lavender flowers now. The only pepper plant that didn't do well was a sweet yellow banana pepper plant.  It produced just a few small peppers.  I harvest my peppers when they start to get some color in them and let them finish ripening on the counter.  Removing the fruits encourages the plant to replace them, giving you more peppers.  Peppers get sweeter when they ripen, but are good to eat even when green.  

I will bring in the Jigsaw pepper plant, the Chipetlin pepper plant and the Baklouti Tunisian pepper plant for the winter.  It seems like the hot peppers overwinter well inside.

Basil is doing pretty decent right now.  Basil are very tender annuals and will turn black with the first frost.  Make sure to harvest all the leaves prior to the first frost.  You can dry basil, make it into pesto or freeze it in water.  My favorite is to make pesto.  I will probably harvest all the leaves in the next week as they are calling for the 30's here.

Stevia in bloom, covered in butterflies

You can also dig them up and bring them in for the winter.  Place them in a full sun spot.  You can put them back outside again in the spring after all danger of frost has passed.

Bay, chives, thyme, marjoram, oregano, sage and tarragon are all robust.  The tarragon maybe a little too robust!  Tarragon smells wonderful.  Even if you can't eat all that you can harvest fresh and dried, it makes a wonderful potpourri.  I just use dried, whole stems in a vase to freshen an entire room.  I bring the bay tree in for the winter every year.

I am going to try leaving the rosemary in the garden bed again this year.  Typically they survive until February after we get a warm up and then another blast of frigid weather spells doom for them.

The greens are doing well that I seeded in mid-September that sprouted.  Less than half of the seeds I planted sprouted likely because it was in the upper 90's in September and cool season crops have a difficult time germinating in heat.  They love this time of year, cool with plenty of rain.  As soon as they are a bit bigger, I will put in the permanent spot for the winter that I cover with a portable greenhouse.

Fall is a bountiful time for gardening.  I have planted many winter hardy varieties of lettuce, greens, mustards, snow peas and cabbage to keep the garden producing into December and hopefully beyond.  With the portable greenhouse, we should have greens all winter. 

What's happening in the early October edible garden

Sunday, October 5, 2025

This is a time of year that most summer vegetables are winding down and cold crops are growing quickly.  With frost, many summer vegetables will die and cold season crops will get sweeter.  The biggest difference between spring and fall is that the days are getting shorter and cooler instead of longer and warmer.  For planting in the fall, add 2 weeks to the "Days to harvest" on seed packets to compensate.

We continue to fertilize our vegetables monthly.  Fertilizer stimulates new growth so don't fertilize the plants that are "tender"/susceptible to frost.  This is also a great time to do a soil test.  Healthy garden soil secrets  You can see what amendments are needed.  Get them on now so the amendments are fully available for spring crops.

Fall is also a great time to re-mulch the garden beds to give an added blanket of warmth protection to prolong the season.  The mulch will break down over the winter, providing additional organic matter.

Be sure that you are saving seeds from your best producers for next year's garden.  Seeds from plants that do well in your garden are the best to save as they are proven to like your garden conditions and give you the produce you like.  Always save seed from the best tasting, best sized veggies.  For any plants with disease, do not keep their seeds or compost.  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

I replanted cucumbers and tomatoes this year in late summer.  I only got a couple of cucumbers and I have several baby tomatoes on the tomato plants.  It is not a bad idea to replant tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini in mid June each year to keep these plants at top producing vigor until frost.  For tomatoes, be sure to take all the tomatoes off the vine before it frosts.  You can either wrap the green tomatoes in newspaper and store in a cool place to ripen, make them into relish, or eat them as fried.  For fried green tomatoes, we use Andy’s Cajun batter.  Gives them a nice, spicy flavor.  A late fall tradition-fried green tomatoes!

Our eggplants are still producing well this year.  I am grilling our extras this year and making baba ganoush that I freeze.  Grilling adds a smoky note to the dip.  I have tried freezing eggplant after blanching and after cooking, but the taste just wasn't the same.  Frozen baba ganoush seems to keep its taste well.  We enjoy eating it with pita bread or chips.

Any plant that has a disease, do not compost!  Throw away in the trash.  Composting may not kill all spores and you could be spreading the disease next season wherever you use the compost.  Composting is possible in small spaces or even indoors

Peppers love this time of year.  They are native to the mountains so they love warm days with cool nights.   They will continue to produce even after frost.  To prolong the season, I put the pots up against the house when it cools down later this month.  You can also bring them indoors and they will produce for weeks inside.  When spring comes and you put them back outside, they will get a jump start on producing next year.  Peppers a Plenty in September

I have Ancho pepper plants in a pot.  I have been harvesting and drying Ancho Anaheim peppers for a month or so.  I dry and make chili powder.  All the sweet peppers have been producing since late July.

Peppers are for every taste and garden

My Trombetta zucchini are finally producing well.  I love Trombetta squash plants as they resist squash bug diseases.  My yard long beans have been producing for about a month.  Yard long beans are heavy producers as long as you have a high trellis or arbor as the vines grow 20' long.  Both will continue until we get a killing frost.

Trombetta squash, berry bushes and pole bean bed

For basil, the plants are quickly regenerating.  You can harvest from them a few times a season.  These are very tender annuals and will turn black with the first frost.  You can dig them up and bring them in for the winter.  Place them in a full sun spot.  You can put them back outside again in the spring after all danger of frost has passed.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

I planted some snow pea, spinach, and lettuce seeds in pots in mid August.   About half came up because it was so hot in August and September and cool season crops don't germinate well in hot temperatures.  I need to transplant them into their winter spot in Earthboxes that I cover with a portable greenhouse to keep salads going until spring.  Plant lettuce seed now for fall and winter harvest...

Cabbage, kale, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, chard, onions, arugula and other cold crops get sweeter with cool weather and a nice frost.  If the taste of these are too strong for your palate right now, give them another chance after frost.  Our Egyptian walking onions are lush and green.  The bulbs are filling out nicely.  Egyptian walking onions

This is also the perfect time of year to reseed your lawn or transplant perennials.  Many herbs are perennials-garlic, sprouting onions, lavender, oregano, chives, sage, tarragon, thyme, savory, salad burnet, and rosemary.  There are varieties of Bay Laurel and rosemary that are supposed to be hardy in Zone 7.  So far, they haven't survived consistently in my garden.  They'll make it until early spring and then get killed by a hard freeze after a warm up.  I keep trying rosemary, though.  For bay laurel, I just keep it in a pot and bring indoors every winter.  Perennial veggies in the Midwest garden

Fall is a great time to cut back your herbs.  Save the stems, place loosely in a paper bag, put in a dry location, and in about a month you will have all the dried herbs you and many family members will need for the next year!  Make your own "Herbes de Provence"

Fall is a bountiful time for gardening.  Cabbage, kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts and onions will do fine in the garden with no cover.  The cold hardy greens and veggies I have planted will produce all fall and winter with the portable greenhouse cover.  How to extend the garden season  

What to plant in the October edible garden

Fall edible garden

 Saturday, October 4, 2025 

October is a great time to plant garlic to have big cloves by next summer.  Many cold hardy crops can be transplanted into the garden, too.  Cover can be used to extend the harvest all the way through to spring.  

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

This month you can transplant more greens, any perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees and shrubs.   Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden   Greens can still be sown by seed if you have a cold frame or a portable greenhouse cover.  Sow the seeds, then after sprouting and developing a couple of sets of leaves, you can put a cover over them at night to keep them warm and growing faster.  You want your plants to be as close to full size by mid November as you can get!  That's when the daylight hours get less than 10 hours and growth outdoors pretty much slows to a crawl.

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

October seeds outdoors
Austrian winter peas

Fava beans

Garlic

Lettuce-winter hardy varieties

Snow peas

Spring bulbs

October transplants
Arugula

Broccoli
Brussel sprouts

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Celery
Corn salad

Endive
Escarole

Frisee
Italian dandelion

Kale

Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mache
Mustard and Mustard Greens

Winter and Perennial Onions

Parsley

Scallions

Shallots

Sorrel
Spinach

Sprouting broccoli

Trees, bushes, and perennials

Transplants for winter and overwintering

Look for cold hardy edible varieties when planting for fall and winter harvests.  You may be surprised that you can harvest all through the winter months things like greens, onions, Austrian peas, carrots, and cabbage.  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.  

Covering plants when there is a cold snap in the fall will keep them warmer and growing quicker.  You can use cover to possibly extend the harvest all the way to next spring.  I use a portable greenhouse for my lettuces that works great.  Extend the season with protection for plants  Homegrown, organic salads in a Midwest winter

When planting when temperatures can get hot, be sure to keep the soil moist until the plants are well established.  Lettuce won't sprout when the ground temperatures are above 75F.  If it is too hot in your garden, you can start them indoors.  My lettuce seedlings are starting to get their first set of true leaves.  I'll likely transplant them in another week or two to their winter pot.  

Summer and fall planted crops take longer to come to harvest than they do when planted in the spring.  Rule of thumb is to add 2 weeks to what the "Days to Harvest" on the seed packet.  It's because the days are getting shorter rather than longer and cooler rather than warmer.  

Once there are less than 10 hours of daylight, most plants growth will slow to a crawl.  This occurs at our latitude on November 24 this year.  We get back to more than 10 hours of daylight on January 17.  Once we get back to 10 hours of daylight, plants come to life and start growing quickly again.

What you want to do is to start your seeds and transplants early enough in late summer and fall so that the plant is at full size before daylight gets short and the cold really sets in.  Then you harvest what you want through the winter.

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 hot sun and frosts.  After they have a couple of sets of their true leaves, you can transplant into the garden bed or pot.  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 dry weather until well established.

For more seed starting tips Outdoor seed starting tips  Indoor seed starting tips  Ideal soil temperatures for starting your seeds

You can also get fall transplants on-line and at local nurseries.  So if you haven't started seeds yet or don't have the time, this is another great option to have a fall and winter garden for fresh eating.

October 2025 Edible Garden Planner

Early October edible garden is in full bloom

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

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 eighth year, my Jigsaw pepper, Bakouti hot pepper plants for their second year and a couple of dwarf tomato plants I am trying.  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