Mid-September In My Zone 3 Potager - The Food Garden in Early Autumn.

Yellow of Parma onions drying and curing for storage.

The autumnal weather continues to be beautiful here on the prairies. The nights are cool, often dipping to single digits, while the daytime temps are lovely and the breezes are warm. Perfect weather for yard and garden work.

This week is supposed to be a little cooler, with a risk of frost. I have my sheets ready to throw over top of those tomatoes... just in case. They are so close, I am taking no chances.

You can see and feel that fall has arrived though. Officially, it is a few days away yet, but everything is looking a tired and past it's prime.

Here's what is going on this week in the potager, aka the food garden.

The zinnia bed still looks great but starting to get a little peaky.

Pots, planters, hanging baskets.

My planters and hanging baskets are coming down this week, even though they still look pretty amazing. However, I am over it, over them. Seems I'm suddenly done with all the pink. It stood me well all summer long but bring on hues of gold, red, and orange.

I stopped watering to let them wilt down and dry out the soil. This make it easier for us to remove the plants from the pots. Hubby is going to dump the smaller pots into the garden beds, soil and all, to add new soil life and micro organisms to the gardens, but we will leave the soil in the big pots and just refresh them with compost next year. I'll tell you all about that in spring! If you are planting autumn colours in your pots, just add a bit of compost or bagged manure, that will be enough to feed them till the frosts or elements take them down.

See that raspberry bed behind the apple tree, by the fence? That is where I am going to make huge piles of leaves ; )

Leaves - What to do with them when they start falling from the trees?

1. In your flower beds, you need not do anything at all. Leave them on top of the beds to compost down with the elements. They provide winter shelter for ladybugs and other beneficial insects and then will break down to feed the soil life and improve your soil.

2. Mulch them up and spread them out on top of your garden beds to improve soil friability, feed the soil life, and fill your soil with nutrients. This is the route that I'm going to take with mine.

3. If you have a large compost bin or pile, toss them in there to break down into garden gold that you spread around your plants in spring.

4. Leave them in a big pile, make a wire cage to keep them from blowing about, if need be. They will break down into leaf mould that is a fabulous feed for your plants, your gardens, your trees and shrubs. I particularly like to put it around my strawberries in spring.

Tips from the pros about watering your trees in fall... Don't.

Zone 3 - The pros say that if you are watering your trees at this time of year, you are keeping them green and growing. Stop watering now until they have lost all their leaves. This is kind of a hardening off process that helps them get ready for winter.

After they have lost all their leaves is when you can give everything a good, deep soak.

Zone 7- On the west coast, this is a great time to plant trees! Before the rainy season begins. The weather is cool enough that they are not stressed from the heat so they only need a deep soak once a week or two till the leaves fall and the rains start.

Pumpkin leaves still look sort of good but the zuke is full of powdery mildew.

Powdery Mildew

Many of us have mildew on our cukes, zukes, squash and pumpkins by now. This just comes with the time of year, no point in doing much about it as the heavy morning dews will just keep bringing it back. Tis that time of year.

Mildewed leaves can be tossed in green bin or composted. The mildew will not harm the soil in any way. To prevent mildew in summer, make sure that you have great air flow around your plants, and water at soil level in mornings (ideally). I have so many leaves as I grew pumpkins, winter squash, and zucchinis this year, that some will go in the bin and some will be placed with the potted plants on top of the beds to rot down and feed the soil.

Tomatoes

My paste tomatoes are finally blushing, some have even turned red. My beefsteaks are ripening and being harvested while these pastes are just hanging out, not a worry in the world. They should have been ready a month ago already! It's the craziest thing. They are determinate varieties (Heinz 2653 and Martino's Roma) so have a determined life span but these guys are well past their due date, still flowering, still fruiting, still growing. I have pruned and pinched them back twice already! This is super unusual but must have something to do with the weather this summer. Whenever something happens that does not make sense, I put it down to mother nature throwing another curve ball ~ hah!

Anyways, they all look terrific, so I will leave them as long as I possibly can as I prefer vine ripened tomatoes. I am sure we will get enough ripe ones to make at least one batch of tomato sauce but if most stay green, we will make a big batch (or two) of our super yummy green tomato chow chow and bin the rest. So it goes.

Read this article about how to help your tomatoes ripen indoors in all sorts of different ways, for ideas if your tomatoes are also still green.

No Blossom End Rot on any of my tomatoes! Yay! Now, if they would only turn red!

Oh, just want to mention that all of them look great, not a one with BER. They were watered every 3rd or 4th day with a long, deep soak all summer long, and now just once a week. They are just perfect. If you are getting BER, try watering less often but good and deep. It is hard to do, seems wrong, but just keep telling yourself that they do dry farming in Italy and hey, your grandma only watered once or twice a week, too, as she had to carry the water. Also, remember how you planted them really deep? Doesn't matter one iota if the top inch or two is dry as those roots are down deep where the soil is damp.

My Pink Berkeley Tie-Dyes, Ruby's German Green, Bloody Butcher, plus the cherries are tasting just fine. I also have some lovely Mystery Keepers in the greenhouse. They are late tomatoes and will not turn bright red. They stay a light pink on the outside but watermelon red inside. These keeping tomatoes are placed on a beer or pop flat, not touching, and placed in the cold room or pantry. They will keep for many months. I have had some last until late February!

Potatoes

Mine are ready to be harvested. The tops have completely died down (except the row in front) so they should have a pretty decent skin on them to help them keep well in storage.

We ate all the Norlands this summer! None left for storage. Thank goodness we grew those Jazz potatoes, too! I mean, I'm not really bothered as we grow food for eating, but is always lovely to fill the pantry, too. Especially with the cost of food these days.

To store your potatoes, let them die back completely, like above. Then lift them, wash them, lay them out to dry, and place in a cardboard box in your cold room for winter. You want to place them somewhere that they will stay above freezing but cool and dark. The cardboard box works great as it absorbs moisture, does not allow it to build up inside the box, and keeps the light out so they don't go green.

Onions

When your onion tops start to fold over at the neck, push the rest of them down, too. Leave them sit for a few days so that they stop growing, start to shut down, and cure better for storage. If you are going to use them right away, you do not need to do this.

Once the tops start to wilt, lift the onions and place them out to cure. Ideally in a shaded area with good air flow. If you wish to braid them, wait till the tops are brown and no longer full of moisture to prevent mould from setting in. I cut the tops off, clean up the roots, and store them in a basket.

You guys, things are looking tired around here!

Everything else....

The rest of these beets will be harvested for pickling, just leaving a few for Thanksgiving dinner. They are being watered once a week till then.

I have twisted the tops off of the brussels sprouts to put energy into the sprouts, help them plump up some more. They taste better after a frost or two, but we will be harvesting one or two plants for Thanksgiving regardless.

The carrots are being left in the raised bed as long as possible. I want a couple of good frosts to sweeten them up before I harvest them. They will have the tops cropped off, washed, dried, and placed in a plastic bag with a few holes punched into it and a paper towel. Replace the paper towel once a month in winter, place in fridge crisper, they should keep nicely till next summer. Truly!

Super cute single serving sized Baby Spaghetti Squash from Renee's Garden Seeds.

Cukes and zukes are old and tired, time for them to go. The winter squash will be left on the vines till frost kills the leaves (probably this week), and then I will place them on the counter, or in the warmth of the greenhouse, to finish ripening.

The bean tower is going crazy. Lots and lots of yummy Kentucky Wonder pole beans.

I think that is the catch up on most of the things. I also have celery growing so well, baby lettuces, scallions, basil and other herbs, etc... all being harvested when needed.

Back to school time is a great time to find a new day timer to use as a garden journal.

Journaling!

I bought myself a fresh new day timer from Homesense the other day. There is something so wonderful about starting with a fresh new journal, isn't there? All those empty pages to fill with thoughts and dreams and ideas for next gardening season. First thing I started with is flowers and veggies to sow in October. There are many more than the ones I have listed in my journal, but these are the ones that I am interested in sowing and growing : )

I like to start with a new day timer/journal in fall rather than spring, to write down my thoughts on the summer while everything is still fresh in my mind. What did well in summer, what did not, and what to change. Like these baskets! I have three baskets hanging from the hail guard that bugged me all summer long. While they flowered beautifully all summer long, the colours were too pale and soft, did not stand out against all the greenery of the raised beds. Next year, I'm going big, bold, and bright.

Never Stop Dreaming ~ Tanja