Heatwave Pushes Summer Veggies into Fall
The only advantage of our recent heatwave, it pushes summer veggies into fall. I thought I would return from Tennessee and my garden would be burnt to a crisp in the record heatwave of mid-September. Rather, my summer veggies got a boost from the 90+° heat.
The Late Bloomer garden came alive in late September
After pulling all but one tomato vine, the very prolific red cherry (seeds were from Seeds of Change),…
Red Cherry tomato vine still producing, though 1/4 the size of August
Red Cherry Tomato harvest September 22 made into salsa with my jalapeno
I spread two inches of wood shavings from my neighbor’s tree that has been mellowing on my driveway, in an effort to move to no-dig gardening,…
Wood shavings for no-till gardening layered over tomato bed
And placed 16 of my peppers in pots where my tomatoes had enjoyed my best sun. I removed this stunning harvest before moving them. I’m growing hots: Caribbean Red Habanero, Long Red Cayenne, Serrano, Poblano, and Early Jalapeno, the seeds shared by a friend. Sweets are: Sweet King of the North, Friariello di Napoli, and Golden Marconi, seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
September 17th hot & sweet pepper harvest
Other plants still blooming are okra, beans, lemon squash, eggplant, baby watermelon, and Mexican sunflower and basil are going strong. All photos from today.
Okra blossom with ant
Haricot Vert Bean – one plant growing in a tomato container
Cremes Heirloom Bean vines climbing tomato stakes
Cremes rare heirloom bean with long pod from localharvest.org
Lemon squash with numerous fruit developing
Ping Tung Long Eggplant growing in a container
Baby watermelon and bloom
Mexican Sunflower has hundreds of blooms
A dozen plants of basil growing profusely
And I’m SO excited that borage has reseeded and will be blooming again this fall. Bees favor borage over everything in my garden, so after pulling all the spent bushes from summer, the dropped seeds are giving me another run! Every day that’s warm enough, bees will have plenty of blooms to visit.
Borage plant almost ready to bloom
Now that we’ve said goodbye to summer and past the Autumnal Equinox, my garden gets less sun with it’s northeastern exposure. And because I had such superb tomatoes this year, I just wasn’t ready to let them go. I will roll this container (young vines from suckers I removed and rooted in water in July) around on the driveway during the day to maximize sun. Even if I just get a handful, it will be worth it!
Rolling tomato container
When temps start dropping along with the sun’s axis, being portable can extend the season. I also moved the squash and eggplant (1 container each) to the sunniest available spots. I adjusted the healthy watermelon vines to the top of the trellis to catch the most rays and gave all the plants a boost with biodynamic compost, earthworm castings, organic plant food, water and mulch. I’m hoping this will be the trick to a late fall harvest of fresh summer veggies.
Did the heatwave work for you? Is your summer garden still going strong? Please leave a comment. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you soon with my epic (for a small garden) tomato story on “Late Bloomer.” – Kaye
Category: Urban Gardening, Vegetables, Warm Season
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