Well, here in Canada, the weather is starting to cool in the evenings and the plants are finishing off their season. A few will continue to produce in the weeks to come, leading up to our first frosts, but most need to be harvested and the beds cleaned and prepped for next spring.

Over the last week, we have started pulling a few of the plants that are finished. The zucchini had stopped flowering and the mildew had set into most of the leaves, so we pulled them out. Likewise, the cucumbers and cucamelons were also succumbing to the mildew on the leaves. We harvested the last of the produce off those plants and then pulled them out. I also pulled the ground cherries because they had stopped flowering and most of the cherries had fallen. All that was left were some super tiny fruits, which wouldn’t be worth harvesting, even if they did ripen in time. We also finished off the last of our carrots. We will definitely need to grow more of those next year. I prefer to have a solid harvest in the fall that sees us through most of the winter.

This weekend, we harvested the last of the cantaloupe. Only one finished getting ripe, but the evenings have cooled and the vines had mostly died off, so the few remaining cantaloupe likely wouldn’t have fully ripened anyway. I am going to set them in a window for a few days just to see if I can get them a little more golden, knowing that the flavour won’t develop much further. Cantaloupe only ripens on the vine, so once you pluck them, they don’t really develop past that. I am however hoping that they are ripe enough that when I dehydrate them, they have some decent flavour.

I went through the ground cherries that were on the tarp to determine if any were worth keeping. It turned out to be a fairly good final harvest of larger berries, so that was a bonus. I should have enough to make a cake or tart that I have been meaning to make all summer with them. I am sure I will grow these again next year. Not only did we enjoy them, but some of my family would like some next year to use in baking. I am more than happy to grow it again just so that I can share them with others.

I decided to pull the beets, even though they could technically stay in a little longer. I wanted to test out planting some fall onions to see if I can get an earlier harvest next year. I originally was going to plant them where the beets were and then move the beets over to another area of the bed next year. In the end, I decided to put the onions where the carrots had been, so I didn’t actually have to pull those beets. Oh well, they will remain good in the fridge for a while yet. There weren’t as many as I would have liked, so I will end up eating them long before they may start getting rubbery.

I finally have butternut squash!!! After years of only male flowers on the long, healthy vines, I finally managed to get the plants to produce this year. I have been patiently watching the squash go from bright green skin to the light brownish orange that you want them to have. The skin had finally thickened this weekend to a point that my nail doesn’t pierce it. The timing was perfect since the vine was starting to die back a bit. They are now resting in a nice dry area in the house so that skin can finish curing. Though, with only 4 squash, I will likely go through them in no time. We will see though. I am hoping for more next year so that I have enough to share with my mom who loves cooking with them.

The tomatoes & peppers will stay in the ground for part of this week. I am on vacation, and plan to finish closing up the garden. The weather looks like it will be mostly warm & sunny, so I am hoping to give the peppers a few more days of growth and the tomatoes a few more days of getting ripe in the sun. I will still have to ripen a lot of the remaining tomatoes in the house, but at least if they start outside, it is a much faster process in the house. I think I will make a batch of tomato soup with the last of the tomatoes. Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches are such a delicious dinner after cross-country skiing.

I have also left the broccoli in for a bit longer. They continue to thrive in this weather, so I will take advantage of all the little heads that continue to sprout. One of the plants seem to have sent out some new stalks with some decent size heads growing, which I didn’t think they would do. They won’t be full sized, but definitely bigger than anything I’ve gotten from our plants as a secondary growth in the past. Looks like we will have a few more stir fry’s with our own broccoli yet this fall!

The potatoes are also still hanging out. We have been slowly harvesting what we need, and leaving the rest to continue growing. I think we have only harvested 2, maybe 3 of the mounds that we grew this year. I did 6 mounds in total, so we expect we will have quite a bit more to harvest still. I took a small bag to my parents yesterday, and plan to give another bag to some friends tomorrow when we head out for a fall fish with them. I will also try to store some for the winter, but I unfortunately got a fairly thin yellow skinned potato this year, so I am not sure how well the skins will cure for winter storage. Next year, I will get some russets so that we have an easier time of storage.

The strawberries are continuing to pump out berries. However, it is the time of year, that sometimes the mold sets in before they finish getting fully ripe. During my harvest this weekend, I found about 8 strawberries that were molding on the vine. That’s not too bad, but it will likely become more frequent as the evenings continue to get colder. Hopefully these days of sun help ripen the strawberries that are already a good size and just need to finish turning red. A few more harvests would be great. I did my best to rest the berries on top of the leaves for optimal sun exposure when I was harvesting the other day.

I pulled a bunch of herbs from the planter, leaving enough that they continue to grow into the winter and naturally die with the cold. I am thinking I may have to mulch the planter this week in the hopes that I can get these plants to come back next year. Based on being zone 6, they should be perennial, and I have had luck with some coming back in the past. It will just depend on what sort of winter we have. The mulching though, should help just a bit with the chance of success. The tarragon is on it’s 3rd year, and I am confident it will be back. The thyme and oregano I would really like to have come back. I have successfully had thyme come back in the past, but not oregano. The rosemary is going to be potted and brought into the house to see if I can keep it going all winter. It is such a healthy, flourishing plant right now, that I hope it will continue to be in the house. I’ll keep it in the window with lots of light and see how it goes.

Once I pull the last of the plants, I will blow out our irrigation and we will be ready for the frosty fall into winter. I’m hoping that it doesn’t get as cold as fast this year. We barely had a fall last year before the snow came and stayed. Either way, we will be more prepared this year.