The Fall Garden is actually two sides of a coin. On the one side you have the end of the summer crops and on the other, you have the planting of fall and winter crops.
We have done our third planting of tomatoes after the 4th of July and those vines have ripe fruits until we get a frost around the end of October or first of November.
We pick all the unripe tomatoes the night before the frost and then place them on a shelf to ripen. We are usually eating out last home grown tomatoes around the end of December.
Eggplant begin producing in late July and if the conditions are right and the plants kept watered, they can be expected to keep providing fruits until frost. We sometimes plant different 3 varieties and all have sweet flesh that is in no way bitter.
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We usually do a second planting of green beans and summer squash around the end of July.
These began producing after about 4-5 weeks, around the beginning of September.
Green beans are susceptible to insects, but also just have a short life span.
The put out a harvest of beans for 2-3 weeks before petering out.
You can plant green beans several times over the course of the summer.Squash plants will have a peak of production before succumbing to insects, be it squash bugs or vine borers. Again the secret to a continual harvest is repeat planting.
There is a squash variety called “Troboncino” that is said to be resistant to insects.
The green fruit, shaped like a gourd, are actually a winter squash but can be picked green and cooked like a zucchini.
The vines are quite prolific and cover a wide area. They put out a lot of fruit and seem to be insect resistant as advertised.
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Okra really doesn’t start coming on strong until mid-August.
Once it does, look out! The plants really put out.
We can only eat so much and after I have frozen enough for winter, I sell or give away the rest, a few pounds a day.
Roasted Okra
One of our favorite recipes for okra is also one of the easiest ways to prepare it. This is also a good way to use the larger pods that are always part of the harvest.
Arrange the pods on a cookie sheet and spray the pods with oil, using one of the aerosol oil dispensers that are currently popular.
Place in the oven and bake until soft. Salt and enjoy!
For a variation coat the oiled pods with cornmeal. Using the broiler setting on your oven also produces a nice effect. They are also great placed on the grill.
Fall Crops
You can usually find broccoli starts at a local nursery or garden supply store. Even Walmart sells flats of plants these days.
We usually plant lettuce from seed but sometimes purchasing some plants in a flat is a worthwhile investment, especially if you find you have missed the window for starting from seed.
Lettuce seeds can be very tiny and difficult to space properly, requiring a lot of thinning later. We like to purchase pelleted seed, where each tiny seed is covered in a coating of clay, making them much easier to space properly. You can purchase pelleted seed from Johnny’s Seeds.
