September and October
September and October I could hardly believe my eyes but the leaves of the acorn squash looked crinkled and the edges were brown, FROST! Date: September 8.
Being a California native I will never get use to September being harvest time in my garden in Cle Elum, Washington! The peaches had just ripened to be picked the week before! The last frost last spring was in May! This year I am promising myself to remember there are only 90 days of summer. This the third week of September I must harvest all the sage, thyme, parsley, basil, oregano, celery, and squash (not pumpkins or squash with hard shells like acorn, even though the leaves and stems look dead). I need to cover spread the compost to protect perrenials and mark where my potatoes are so I can dig as we need. I don't leave my pumpkins on the ground because the rain, which has also started, can cause them to rot. I do leave all picked apples and squash under cover where the cool crisp nights will keep them fresh. All the wildflower seed heads need to be cut and distributed. I need to check the wild bee boxes and see if all the tubes are full. Frost didn't touch my tomato plants because the deer ate them first, but if they hadn't been eaten, I could have cover my plants with the green tomato fruit or I could pick them green, place them on newspaper in a cool dry place or I could leave them to hang on the dead plant in hopes that the last few warm sun days will ripen them before the hard frost and snow! Collecting frost deaden leaves and small twigs and building compost piles are all part of the work of September and October. Also this is time to evaluate the successes of the 2007 garden and begin to plan where to plant tomatoes where the deer can't eat them!