Posted on 09/01/2025 4:39:33 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Really cool map! Thanks for sharing that!
Where I live, peak will start happening in late October, right about the time we get back from our annual beach vacation.
The only tree we have in our front yard is a tulip poplar. It drops leaves daily already. I use the blower on the driveway, the walkway, and our deck and stairs to the backyard daily. Autumn is a beautiful season, but I have plenty of work every year with the leaves around here.
The prevailing winds bring all my neighbors’ leaves into my yard. Raking has become my least favorite outdoor chore. Still, I am grateful that we live on a beautiful piece of property with the best of both worlds, great neighbors in the front, and wildlife and privacy in the back.
I finally learned to use mostly oak with maybe 1/4 hickory when I BBQ, grill, or smoke meat. More hickory is just too much “hickory smoke flavor”! Sometimes I have a little apple or plum to throw in, but, our old apple tree is about 90% dead now, so, I’ll have plenty wood from it for a few years, then none, I suspect. The old plum tree gave up the ghost last year. We have 3 plum saplings, but I’ll get nothing from them for quite a long time - likely longer than I’ll still be BBQ’ing. :-(
We had a high of 87 deg. F today, but the dewpoints are only in the upper 50’s, so, it’s not been uncomfortable if I avoid long periods in direct sun. 40 degree temperature swings between early a.m. and mid-afternoon — it’s almost like being in the desert Southwest in early spring or late fall. We’ve just about dried out the rains of last week, so, I’ll have to start watering again. Many of the tomato plants are doing well, though: My mid-summer transplants of Cherry Falls tomato plants are still producing, the Better Boys have a few fruits ripening, the Romas are still producing like mad, the Golden Jubilees (I think) from seed should finally be ripening soon, in very good numbers, the HeatWave II that got eaten down to one leaf left is actually going to crank out 3 or 4 fruits, it appears, the Abe Lincoln’s** are steadily producing at a moderate rate now, the Independence Day plants have several green fruits coming along nicely, so does the “Early Treat”, and the Mortgage Lifters fruits are all still green and growing slowly - hopefully maturity will come B4 frost! There are several green tomatoes and one presently green-yellow on the Lemon Boys, and my “mystery volunteer” tomato plant is doing very well, with several fruits almost ready to pick, and a few green fruits still developing. I’m going to be swamped with (really late) tomatoes if the warm weather holds up well until mid-October. The Ichiban eggplants continue to successfully crank out a few fruits until maturity, though the “regular” eggplants have been doing very so-so. My wife’s lemongrass is doing great, so are her malungai(sp?), and her little “lemonsito” “tree” (more like a small bush) is finally flowering - like crazy! The fragrance is sort of “sweet lemony” and carries a long way, bringing in many pollinators — I’m hopeful they will benefit other plants too. The Opo plant has produced 3 fruits*, two of which are ~ 1/4” shy of 20 inches long. The fruits have stopped growing, so, it’s time to harvest them if we want to use them to eat: I cut down one so far, and it weighs 6 lb., 3 oz. Used B4 the skin toughens up, over half should be edible.
*A 4th fruit has set, but it’s only about 3” long, and I don’t know if it will develop further or not. The entire plant has slowed greatly, perhaps from putting its energy into the fruits. It appears to be growing under 1” a day @ present. The pepper plants all seem healthy, but production seems to be proportional with heat, with the Thai peppers doing best, and the sweet peppers poorest. Once our high temperatures drop back to the low 80’s, I’ll try moving the pepper plants to more sun: With sun angles getting so low, and days short, I’m thinking “partial sun” as opposed to “mostly shade” will benefit them.
I finally ate a fruit off the “Mystery Volunteer” (my name for it) tomato plant, yesterday: It’s rather mild, but not completely “blah” tasting, and has a hint of sweetness. It’s not my favorite, but it’s better than Romas, better than the Heatwave II’s, better than most store-bought tomatoes, and should be fine anywhere one might use a Roma. The fruits are numerous and so far, all darn near perfect, around 2-1/2” diameter, with no splitting. Definitely, it’ll be worth collecting some seeds. I’ll test a fruit for shelf (counter-top) life: If good, these would be excellent for giving away.
**Strangely, the (for me) hard-to-get-started Abe Lincolns produced sooner than the supposedly much earlier maturing Early Treat plant (only one survived our sodden early summer) or the Independence Day plants, both varieties taking until now to be close to producing harvestable fruits. The Abe Lincoln’s seem “medium” in all respects: the fruits have been ~2” diameter, they seem to be both medium sweet and medium tart, they’ve been fairly split resistant (but not great), and they have been consistent / steady if moderate producers. That’s really a pretty good set of properties, so I’ll save some seeds from those, too.
2 last observations tonight about tomato plants: The Bonnies’ “Golden Jubilee” plants still going continue to produce fruits that are to me, indistinguishable from the Cherry Falls that I grew from seed. Both also seem to tend to produce only a couple rounds of fruits, doing so fairly quickly, then peter out (and some plants die), so, staggered transplanting from small (up to 4”) starter pots definitely seems to work best. And, strangely, the tomato plants that seem to do best “held back” in small starter pots have been the Mortgage Lifters. They just sit there, not growing much, but also not dying off after a while. It’s almost as if they are little Bonsai plants, when kept in small pots. Then transferred to large pots or into the ground, they are slow to “take off”, but eventually at least some do. My biggest (and transplanted early on) Mortgage Lifter may be close to 10’ tall now. I guess we’ll see how big those still very green slow growing fruits get. So far, the biggest are only about 3-1/2” diameter. Hopefully, the warm but not hot weather predicted the next several days will speed them up.
That is a cool website, will be sharing. Thanks.
Nice report Paul, especially on the tomato varieties. What state are you in?
Pictures, once you have it the way you want it, Please! :)
You’re right - ‘Sabelka’ The ‘Soldaki’ were eaten by chipmunks when still seedlings. Grrr!
That relish sounds like a lot of chopping - but it also sounds really good!
I made Jalapeno Pickle Relish this year; I’m really liking it!
That is a really neat map! We have a long was to go up here - and with it so dry, I’m not sure WHAT the trees will do this season.
Nothing but HOT (high 80’s) and DRY for me until a week past tomorrow - then MAYBE some rain. I still haven’t mowed - I’m just ignoring it, and Beau says I’m not to mow past October 1st anyway, so I may be done for the season.
I have company coming the 23rd of October, so I have between now and then to get more work/cleaning done in the garden, but am waiting for cooler weather.
The ‘company’ is my Great Aunt Alice whose farm I stayed on during the summers as a kid. So many fond memories! She’s 90 this year and still sharp as a tack. She’s the one (along with my Grandma Anita) that instilled my love of gardening and farming and animals. Alice and her husband Don had the first ‘Organically Certified’ farm in Wisconsin. He was always cutting edge. ;) (Don is 92!)
LOL - going to share with a bunch of ladies .... the pastor calls the church potluck cooks the “Kitchen Angels”.
I wish it was a 9x13 in the picture, don’t know of a 9x14 size.
LOL I’ve got one of those in my charity pile to take to the donation center. I have a smaller one I am keeping.
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