September is here, and with it comes the knowledge that summer is almost over! We’re starting to see signs of fall around the garden already – beautiful goldenrod blooming in the hedgerows, trees beginning to turn colour, and a nip in the air in the morning that is decidedly un-summery. This time of year is exciting in the garden, because after all of the manic planting, transplanting, and maintenance of the summer, we now reap the rewards of our work.
Most of the work in the garden these days involves weeding newly planted crops, maintaining the health of our current crops (eg. staking tomatoes, killing squash bugs, etc!), and harvesting the bounty that we’ve worked so hard this season to produce. The crops have had mixed success this year, but as it turns out, the tomatoes have been one of our superstars this season. For awhile, we were rather afraid that all of the cool, wet weather would mean that they wouldn’t ripen or the weather would make them susceptible to disease. However, over the past few weeks, we’ve had a great harvest, and it looks like they’ll still be producing for another couple of weeks after this too! Here’s a picture of some of the tomato harvest this week:
We’ve planted a whole bunch of fall crops—kale, radish, spicy Asian greens, lettuce mix, kohlrabi, and on and on! Some of those crops are already well on their way, reaching up towards the sun, while others (such as lettuce mix) were planted later because they grow much more quickly, and are just beginning to get their legs under them. I like that the vegetable growing season has a distinct cycle… it begins with all of the cold season crops, like kale, radish, and green onions, and ends with them too!
I hope that you enjoy the remaining days of summer, and take every opportunity to soak up that beautiful sunlight!
Lindsay