By the time Autumn comes around, most gardens have been harvested and plants removed to make room for winter crops. For me, I do not stick to a strict gardening calendar since the weather can be unpredictable. At this moment I still have tomatoes, peppers, a few cucumbers and my cantaloupe growing in my garden. The weather cooled down and a brief storm passed over Northern California a few weeks ago, then the temperatures rose back into the 80's and now we had a very cold storm pass over that brought snow to the Sierra's. The 80 degree weather was plenty warm for my tomatoes and peppers to ripen, though a bit slower. Once the nighttime temperatures stay in the low 50's and do not get above 75 degrees during the daytime, then I will pick whatever is left on my plants before digging them up. So when I heard the weather predictions of this storm I picked the last of my pepper and tomato crop, even the green tomatoes.
Here's a tip on ripening your own green tomatoes, if you are tired of fried green tomatoes, just put them in a paper bag and allow to ripen. I will tell you that ripened green tomatoes in a bag are not quite as good as freshly picked vine-ripened tomatoes, but they are still better than conventional tomatoes. You can make a tomato soup with your leftover crop, check out what I did last year
HERE.
Unfortunately I do not have a greenhouse of my own to grow some vegetables year round, so I have to pay attention to weather patterns. My herbs, for the most part will continue to grow through the winter, except my basil, which I will harvest before the first frost. I replanted my Swiss chard so that it can grow during the winter and I also added some blueberry plants to my garden.
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| Swiss Chard |
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| Tomatoes! |
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| Blueberry Plant |
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| One more Cantaloupe on the vine |
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| The last of my summer vegetable crop |
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