September's Garden (2021)

This month we began clearing out the finished summer vegetables and planting seeds for the winter garden. Fall arrived early. The heat normally breaks around the middle of September but instead, it broke the first of this month. It has been cooler than in the past. October 15th is our first average frost date which means the peppers, beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and squash will probably die soon.

In the potato then squash patch, the Tahitian Butternut Squash has produced its crop and is winding down.

Since the squash was planted late in the season after the potatoes were mostly dug they will not be harvested until the day after the first killing frost to give them a chance to fully develop their sweet flavor. The many undug missed potatoes are now sprouting beside the squash.

No one has touched this bed since Reese and I were covered in fire ants while digging the potatoes.  Brave Bill retrieved the abandoned shovel left in the middle because I wouldn't step back inside. There are two fire ant colonies and they keep getting bigger. After the squash dies, I will deal with them somehow.

The sweet potatoes planted in horse manure inside the big blue tubs beside the potato/squash bed will be dug up (or dumped out) this month. I am looking forward to discovering if growing them in big buckets will make digging easier. 

The peppers are loaded and ready to harvest. That will be a major chore right before the first frost since I want as many to ripen as possible.

This was the tomato rows one week ago before Bill pulled the fences up.  I had given up on them producing anything before frost. Twelve inches of rain in one day was more than they could handle.

Their area will become two hoop houses. The carrots that had been planted under the left row are still growing and winter vegetable seeds have been slipped in between them.

To the left of the tomato rows were the two rows of corn. The first fence will stay up to be used again next year. It held the Black Futsu squash that had twined between the stalks.

I cut the corn stalks, left the roots in the ground since they would be hard to dig, and untwined the Black Futsu Squash. We have eaten them and they taste like a mild pumpkin. There is only one left on the spindly vine but every squash bug hiding in the garden has managed to find it. It is covered.

Radishes won't make it through the winters here, even under a hoop house so assorted saved seeds from last year's crop were scattered between the corn stalk stumps. They will be eaten before the bitter cold of winter arrives.

The fence for the second corn row has been removed and it was planted with saved seeds from the bag of assorted unknowns. It will be another winter hoop house.

The next row over was the Swiss Chard and melon patch.  All that remains is the celery plants. The Conquistador Celery is bitter during hot weather but the flavor improves during cold weather. This too will become a winter hoop house. Collard seeds are just now sprouting.

The beans in the back of the garden are a disappointment. They are growing great, have plenty of blooms but haven't had time to produce more than a handful. I doubt if the pods will swell enough before frost. I keep telling myself, it was the best I could do in the spring so get over it. It was a gamble - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  At least the ground was covered so it didn't erode.

The green beans on the corral fence are finally producing. I'm harvesting every day and should have enough canned for winter.

Putting sweet potatoes below the beans worked wonderfully. The beans went up the fence and the potatoes spread below keeping the weeds down. 

The second corral fence located in the back of the garden toward the woods held the late-planted tomatoes. They came from rooted suckers and a few clearance rack plants. They were small when the big rainstorm hit and fared a bit better.

At least there are a few tomatoes left for us to enjoy. We are really missing the summer abundance. (I want to say we are suffering but that would be melodramatic.)

This is the back of the garden one week ago before we pulled up the Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua Squash monster plant. There were two positives. First, they tasted absolutely delicious, mild, juicy, and unique. Secondly, the dreaded squash vine borers did not bother it.  I let it grow as long as possible hoping it would eventually produce a bumper crop since it had swallowed up the back of the garden.  It didn't.

This was all it produced! No more prime real estate for this slacker! It will be planted again next year since only one seed from the package was used but it will be stuck somewhere else where it can run wild without wasting valuable garden space.

After removing the vines, this is how much garden space it had occupied. 

The Calico Lima Beans look lush but they have been a big disappointment. They are just now blooming so there is no way they will produce before frost. 

I finally worked up the courage to try a bitter melon after three of them ripened, then rotted and fell to the ground.  I expected them to be so bitter they would burn my mouth like a hot pepper but they didn't.  It was a surprise. They aren't bad but aren't good either - they are edible.  I am experimenting with recipes and will share my findings in another post after this garden season ends.

The same will be true for the Chinese Python Snake Bean.  I have learned too much to share here.  Next year it will receive a prime spot in the garden along with a taller trellis. More than one seed will be planted.

The squash harvest is curing on the front porch beside the growing winter garden seedlings.  It never seems to stop or even slow down.

Last Month's August Garden (2021)

Last Year's September Garden (2020)

Through the Garden Gate