It's FALL y'all!
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It's starting to look a lot like FALL around here. Though this year's Autumnal Equinox does not occur until September 22nd, nobody advised my plants.
Many of my tender crops have either died or show evidence of passing on this week. The butternut squash plant that still looks vigorous and is setting new fruit is starting to develop yellow halos around the leaves.
This is what happens when you combine HOT days and COOL nights. Perennial leaves are changing colors and some are dropping already. Thankfully my squash harvest has been bountiful this year. My plant is setting lots of new blooms trying to spread its seed, but I'm not sure (with this weird weather) even if the brand new blossoms are fertilized that the squash will have a real hope of getting big enough to pick before a freeze hits.
My annual and bienniel plant seeds are either ready to pick or are in the process of drying now. Today I picked some carrot and onion seed and placed them into brown paper lunch sacks for later.
Indoors, things are busy too. I canned a total of 48 quarts, 23 pints, and 17 half pints this week. The tomatoes are just starting to really get going so my canning days are going to get much busier this next few weeks.
I am debating about whether or not to extend my tomato harvest by covering the plants with plastic row covers at night. Last winter I covered a few beds with hoops and plastic and I was harvesting tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers through December, when we forgot to close the row ends one night...
Since I grew indeterminate tomatoes this year, they grow Up, Up, Up, and are now over 6' tall.
Protecting them will be difficult, but I am leaning toward trying to wrap them from the sides.
We'll see how it goes...
My weekly garden To-Do List
continue garden bed clean up/prep
add chicken manure/straw to the old corn bed to overwinter
plant more winter veggie seeds
continue harvesting and canning
May your garden blossom and flourish this week.
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Thanks for taking us on a garden tour...looks great! I ended up with 53 quarts of whole tomatoes from only 15 plants. I was very happy. Last year I only canned 20 qts from over 40 tomato plants. It was at a community garden where the soil is too sandy and it was very cool and rainy. All bad things for tomatoes. Finding out with the right conditions...less is more! Blessings, Nancy
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