Temperatures tonight are supposed to reach 31 degrees. I harvested most of the rest of my tender vegetables tonight: chard, last (green) tomatoes, two last cucumbers, hot peppers, two small eggplants. Still growing: carrots, radishes, leeks, fall greens, arugula, kale, chard, butternut squash.
The last dahlias of the season (perhaps).
I still need to plant garlic, dig up my dahlia tubers and clean my plot to get it ready for the winter. Hopefully I will get to it this weekend or next week.
Dahlias and Virginia Creeper.
I also harvested milkweed seeds today, from three pods total that I found close to the Sam Adams Brewery. I plan to plant them in the neighborhood in the next few weeks.
Milkweed seeds.
Today’s harvest: Swiss Chard, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, tomato, eggplant, dahlias.
The cucumber vine has started to wither. There is a couple more cucumbers still but I am not sure if they will make it. Well, we had a good run for sure. Still growing: tomatoes (winding down), pole beans, eggplant, chard, kale, carrots, leeks, hot peppers, greens, radish, arugula. The last three were just sown a couple of weeks ago, so they are not ready for harvest just yet. I also still have my directly sowed butternut squash. It looks great and has plenty of flowers, but I believe it is too late in the season for it to bear fruit. Alas.
I ordered seed garlic this past weekend: softneck Transsylvania from Burpee. I decided to save a few of my biggest Red Russian heads for planting. This will not happen until late October/early November. I also ordered a ton of bulbs and perennials for fall planting for our front yard (tulips, crocuses, black-eyed Susan).
Cucumbers, Swiss Chard and tomatoes.
I had harvested really thoroughly the night before I left and took four cucumbers up to Maine where they went into a salad.
The cucumber is producing fruit like crazy. Those six cucumbers weigh in at 4 pounds. When I came to harvest this morning, the cucumber cage was toppled over and I had to stake it to fortify. Same happened to my Brandywine cage. Looking forward to the next few weeks of fresh garden produce.
The potatoes are getting ready to be harvested, and the pole beans (that I planted late) are flowering. The bush beans are close to being done, the cucumber is still producing heavily and my three tomato plants are heavy with (for the most part still green) tomatoes. The leeks are looking great and the kale is coming up. The golden beets I sowed sadly did not germinate as did the last carrot crop.
The pinkish-white dahlias are the only ones flowering so far – I have two of those. The two red ones are taking their time.
I need to weed and clean the plot and will sow fall greens in the next couple of weeks.
Dahlia, asparagus, mint.
September bouquet: dahlias, parsley, radishes and asparagus
The four dahlias I planted this year gave me plenty of flowers for beautiful arrangements all summer and fall, big and small. I liked experimenting with combinations of flowering vegetables and even weeds.
Mini dahlia in soy sauce dish
Unfortunately, the night frost we had a few days ago killed them off and the day after, I dug up the tubers. I cut off the flower stalks leaving about 3 to 4 inches and carefully dug up the tubers using a pitchfork and then gently shook off most of the dirt. I am letting them dry in a paper bag for a few days before I will store them over the winter in the basement. I will trim the stalks to 1 to 2 inches and store the tubers in a basket or some other well ventilated container loosely filled with lightly moistened peat moss or vermiculite. I then inspect them regularly during the winter to make sure they do not rot and do not dry out. Any rotting parts will be removed. Here’s to hoping they will survive.
Today I spent a couple of hours getting the plot ready for winter. I ripped out spent plants, pulled weeds and turned the soil. During the process, I found a number of potatoes I had left in the ground, a welcome basis for today’s dinner of roasted potatoes and carrots and pork tenderloin with mushrooms.
The rain kept me from cleaning up more than I had planned to, but I still got to pick some flowers for a little bouquet. Planting more flowers this season was definitely a good idea. I loved having fresh flowers every week this summer and fall.
I also harvested carrots (which we had for appetizers, dipped in hummus), kale, Chard and parsley. I still have carrots, radishes, leeks, Chard, kale, leeks, onions, dandelion greens, herbs and flowers growing in the garden. It has been an extremely warm fall and one of my plot neighbors has some strawberries growing in his plot. Crazy.
Dahlias, Jerusalem artichokes, parsley and foliage
Today, I harvested my last beets and my first leeks plus kale and the last handful of green tomatoes before I pulled the plants. I also harvested some forgotten potatoes before the rain forced me inside. Still going strong in the garden: carrots, radishes, leeks, Chard, chicory, kale, onions, parsley and flowers. 
Dahlia, parsley flowers and foliage
Today’s mini garden bouquet: dahlia, Thai basil and asparagus
I usually have one Thai basil plant in the garden plot. I love the fragrance of it. It will be used to garnish a Pad Thai I plan to make in a couple of days. I also harvested a few more cucumbers, kale and parsley.