Karen's Garden Delights Journal
2nd week of September 2011

Orange Banana Tomatoes The tomatoes really fizzled out early for me this year it seems. The large slicers aren't worth much anymore, finding cherry tomatoes that aren't split is a challenge and the only tomatoes worth eating any more are the Roma types. Here are the Martino Romas, Blue Beech and Orange Bananas. The Orange Bananas were one of my experimental crops this year and they win the prize for being the best one worth growing again. The fruits were very meaty and wonderfully tasty. Some other experiments weren't as successful this year and I don't think I'll be planting fava beans or bulb fennel again.

Watermelon The squash and melon plants seemed to die off early this year too. We gathered all of the stray watermelons and the kids are enjoying using the small ones as personal bowls like this yellow one. We picked about half a bushel of Tennessee spinning gourds and will use some for children's activities at Lehmans Fall Festival on September 24. Others will be dried for Christmas ornaments. When gathering the butternut squash I was very disappointed that we have so many seconds in the pile and very few that look like they will be long keepers for storage. So many of them have chew marks on them, I think from a groundhog... I think we will need to address that problem before next spring arrives! Butternuts are usually in abundance at roadside stands and I may have to buy some for storing this year.

Cover Crop Since the squash is dead, we started pulling up the black plastic to fold and store. I think this is the earliest we have worked on this task. All of the main garden plastic is away and we raked over the ground to loosen it slightly before broadcasting a cover crop of jerry oats which received gentle rain the first night. I am determined to get as much cover crop planted on time this year as I can. I am even trying to gently hoe around fall crops like cabbage and brussel sprouts so we can sprinkle some oats in those beds. I just finished my last cold frame seminar for the season at an Amish home down in Fresno. It was long but scenic drive down there to do the class for a delightful group of about 25 folks. Now that I am done teaching others, I need to get busy planting my own cold frame crops. This week we finally started planting the greenhouse area with spinach, chard and ruby mizuna. The low tunnel area needs another disking before I'm ready to start planting there and with it being this late, my planting will be more for early spring harvest.