With the first September days, the summer in my garden is over. Sunny hours in are reduced to only two or three a day, and the constant forest shade is keeping the dew on the beds. In very dry conditions, this can be a good thing, but not for all the plants.

Tomatoes are out

Tomatoes can’t stand the fog, dew, and moisture. As soon as we get the first couple of foggy days, they are mostly dead. Some years I leave the sick plants in the garden until the fruits are ripe, but this year my fruits are also getting infected, so I decided to pull out all of them.

There are still a bunch of healthy green tomatoes on the plants, so I’ve harvested them all, and I’ll leave them to ripe on the balcony. Once the tomatoes are fully grown they can ripe anywhere. I’ve had tomatoes turn red in the basement, kitchen, and even in the complete darkness. They just need warmth and time.

After harvesting all the tomatoes, I pulled out the plants and disposed of them on the garbage pile at the bottom of the vegetable garden. I have two piles in the garden. The top one is a compost pile and it is used for sowing and planting, and the bottom one is just for disposing of weeds and sick plants. This pile is never used. I should burn these plants, but burning an open fire is forbidden, and also the forest is just too close to have an open fire. This is why I made this pile. The plants rot during the winter, and in the spring the pile spot is again empty and ready for next year.

Cucumbers and zucchinis

When I went to clean the tomatoes I was certain that I’d need to clean the cucumber and zucchini beds too, but to my surprise, there are actually a few plants left that are still growing, flowering, and producing. The surviving cucumbers are mostly the oldest ones. The two small locations I’ve sown in July are completely dead, but the May bed is still growing.

Unlike cucumbers, healthy zucchinis are the ones that were sown in July. The ones that I transplanted in May are mostly gone by now. Also, only dark green zucchinis are still healthy. The rest of the varieties are sick or gone.

Filling up the empty beds

Once the tomatoes and dried corn were out, I had three empty beds. Since it is still early in the fall, I decided to sow some more speedy vegetables. I’ve sown more lettuce, green onions, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbages, and endive. All of these vegetables will be either ready for harvest or transplanting until November when I will deep dig the garden and prepare it for winter.

This was one of the last sowings for this year. There’s no more point in sowing anything since nothing will have time to grow, except for the early spring vegetables, which will go to the garden in October. I’ll sow some broad beans, lamb’s lettuce, and winter lettuces in late October.

Harvests are still strong

Still, even with tomatoes being over, I’m still harvesting very nice amounts of vegetables. Since this was a very dry year, I’m more than pleased with the number of vegetables that I’ve harvested since May. Beans are now flowering more than in the whole summer, second lettuce is now ready for first harvests. I’m also harvesting the second sown carrots, which I’ve sown for dried green spice, and the rest of the vegetables are still producing fruits. Maybe a bit slower since there’s no sun in the garden, but fruits are still healthy.

Next week I still need to clean some parts of the garden and remove the sick plants. Also, if we get some decent rain I could start deep digging the empty beds. It’s easier to dig the garden in parts than to do the entire garden in a couple of days.