It’s been another rough couple of weeks as I try to recuperate from yet another cold! At least this time of year isn’t the worst to be forced to take a break. During the summer, even a few days away from the garden can lead to an unmanageable amount of backed-up work. However, right now is the sweet spot of the season. It’s still warm enough that everything is producing and therefore we don’t yet need to start the big job of ripping out plants and preparing the beds for winter. At the same time, it has cooled off enough that growth has slowed on both the crops and the weeds, meaning harvesting and weeding (the main work of summer) have decreased and, as winter draws ever closer, planting new crops is done for the season.
We have also received several heavy periods of rain, which is both a positive and a negative. After a very dry fall, the crops certainly needed it. However, it would be better to get smaller amounts of rain over more spread-out periods of time instead of the heavy rains we received, which resulted not only in the collapse of the tomato trellis a few weeks ago, but also in split tomatoes and rot problems on other crops. When farming and gardening, it always seems like you get what you need at the wrong time, so it’s unsurprising that this last bout of rain looks like its going to be followed by a couple weeks of dry weather. Oh well! At least we’ll get to enjoy time outside before it gets too cold.
As the season starts to draw towards a close, I always begin thinking of what changes I want to make for next year. Of course, we will have the wonderful advantage of the garden already being set up, so will be able to get in all of the early crops, from potatoes and onions to early rounds of spring greens, that we missed out on this year. I have also learned more about our household consumption and the pest pressure we face, so will plan to plant larger successions of fall kale and use bug netting across the board on all of the fall greens in the brassica family, which were set back by heavy flea beetle pressure. For the time being, as the garden turns ever greener, we’re making sure to enjoy all of the fruits of warm weather before the cold sets in. Tonight, we’ll be eating the last green beans, although fortunately the cherry tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are still coming in strong!
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