Meanwhile in the garden, Lucy ponders the meaning of life. 😉 I’m kidding. I think we all know Lucy’s one and only job is to chase squirrels and to be adorable.
So clearly, it’s time to pull the tomato plants.
But it’s hard to do when there are still a few ripening on the vine. Are you facing this dilemma right now too? If so, when are you planning on pulling your tomato plants up? I have broccoli plants on standby and I need to get them in the ground container if I want a small harvest by the first fall frost.
And your zucchini plants. Are they still alive and kicking?
Our yellow summer squash is still going strong…
But I think it’s time to retire the black beauty {green} zucchini plants and get a quick round of lettuce, radishes, beets and winter carrots planted.
I’d love to utilize both garden boxes this september and squeeze in a few more plantings but this box, the one closest to the fence, has been taken over by Hubby. The soon to be big and beautiful blue hubbard squash.
Isn’t she a beauty? Couldn’t you just kiss her?
How are things doing in YOUR garden these days? Are you pulling up your crops?
I’d love to know.
~Mavis
Lisa Millar says
Thats all looking fantastic!
Nooooo – leave the tomatoes!! I left mine looking manky forever this year and was getting handfuls of tomatoes long into winter – even the outdoor ones fruited for ages!! 🙂
I have also uprooted and hung tomato plants in the garage which let the remaining fruit ripen.
It doesn’t look pretty – but its food! 🙂
Love your squash!! Just fantastic!
I am still digging up last seasons carrots as needed, the parsley never died over winter, and I have oodles of it! Scraps of broccoli, the occasional chilli, plenty of silverbeet (chard) an accidental celery and we are working though our last box of potatoes!!
I am totally excited because I just bought my seed potatoes!!
And Lucy is always super adorable!!
Mary says
Wow, Lisa where do you live? Buying seed potatoes this time of year? We just pulled up the pumpkin and zucchini plants so all that is left is the russet potatoes and cherry tomato plant. Love to see the garden put to bed for the winter!
Lisa Millar says
lol – I am in Tasmania, Australia! I have been enjoying seeing Mavis’s garden and my other ‘other-side-of-the-world’ friends enjoy their gardens while I have been enjoying some winter down time by the fire!
Now its time for me to wake up and dive into my garden again and I can’t wait!!
Rachel says
I think I’ll pull the zucchini plants later this week if the couple of stragglers appear stunted. I live in CT and we still have a ton of tomatoes waiting to ripen, so I will probably pull those later than expected.
Our patty pan squash produced about a month ago, then wilted and I thought it was a lost cause. All of a sudden this week it’s started to fruit again. I went out this morning after a heavy rain and there are two baseball sized patty pans waiting to be picked! The same with our lemon squash. Slow to go, and then bam, we had two to harvest over the weekend.
I have rows of spinach, purple top turnips, red Russian kale, and purple cored carrots that were sown a few weeks ago when I pulled all of my cabbage. I hope they produce for fall. The kale looks promising.
If I pull the zucchini this week, do you think it’s too late to sow anything else directly into the ground?
Julie says
Our tomatoes are still all green and have fruits turning red! (I’m in Washington too) Two years ago when they died I just got all the leftover fruits and I made recipes for green tomatoes and I lay the rest on a plate to let them turn red on their own. Tomatoes in supermarket turn red that way. Taste is not as good, but good enough for tomato sauce and other recipes like that.
We killed 2 zucchini plants, they were making veggies, but the end of it was turning yellow everytime, so it was time to let them go. We got 55 zucchinis this year with 5 plants so it was pretty great.
I thought it was too late for a new round of beets, but if it’s not I’m gonna go for it for sure!!
Our butternut squash are getting huge, I’m pretty excited about that!
Phyllis says
Julie, If you grow “green shoulder” tomatoes, when you have to pick while they’re still green the fruit will actually continue to ripen and develop sugar and flavor. Most tomatoes at a store don’t have the green shoulder genes so they turn red but don’t continue to develop sugar or flavor. Green shoulders are only available in open pollinated varieties, not heirlooms. They are hard to find because few seed catalogs mention this genetic trait. You could try Black Sea Man or Mushroom Basket, but there are lots of others.
Phyllis says
Sorry, I meant to say green shoulders are not available in HYBRIDS.
Leslie says
My tomatoes just starting coming on two weeks ago (black krims), and I harvested over 19 pounds last night. I think I’ve got maybe two or three more harvests left before I pull them. I learned so much about this variety over the last six months and can’t wait to improve my practice next season. The plum, and apple are both done and pruned. The fig is done and has received an initial pruning to reduce canopy size, but still needs to be thinned. I have to dig a few more potatoes. Rhubarb may give me a few more stems, and hoping for a few more basil leaves. I’m going to read up on your lettuce posts and consider that for the winter. I also have to get garlic cloves in. And I started planning my next seed order for the next round of free shipping offers. Already excited for next year!
Elise says
One year a neighbor pulled up his tomato plants and hung them in the garage, and the tomatoes turned red over time. you could try it and report back 🙂
Dawn, DE says
We have pulled and hung the tomato plants for many years when they get like that. The rest of the crop will ripen better than if you pulled them from the plant and put them in paper bags or just on the table. I don’t know what does it, but on the vine ripening is just the best. Frees up space in your garden and you still have maters for later.
I am now having a trouble with our pumpkin plants… The fruit gets about baseball size and then turns black and rots. New fruit right next to them look healthy and so does the stems/vines/blossoms. Any ideas as to why this may be happening. The plants are about 8ft from a major 2 lane road. We have had problems with exhaust killing things before, but the rest of the plant just looks so healthy. Any ideas I would appreciate.
Heidi P says
Same thing has happened with our pumpkins. Frustrating! I thought maybe it was a soil discrepancy? I brought in new soil this year but for the first time my plants didnt thrive like usual. Id love to know what went wrong.
Phyllis says
Is it possible they didn’t actually pollinate? Un-pollinated fruits look like small fruits just starting to grow but will always wither, blacken, and eventually fall off the vine. If that’s a possibility try planting buckwheat as a cover crop with your pumpkins and squash. The buckwheat will attract lots of pollinator insects. I’ve tried this for two years and the yields are almost double. Buckwheat reseeds easily but isn’t especially invasive and is easy to pull or hoe out. I just let is come up anywhere in the garden and pull when the flowers begin to wither but before the seeds develop. Not sure, but it might work.
Dawn, DE says
Oh, and BTW – we always look forward to Lucy pics! She is so adorable.
Teckla says
If you must have the containers for winter stuff, pull the tomatoes and use the green ones in place of the ubiquitous zucchini to make relish! Or make green tomato mincemeat, or use the small ones whole to make green tomato pickles. Some of them will likely ripen after they are picked, although as others commented, the flavor isn’t as good. Looks to me like you and Lucy have had another great year in the garden!
Linda says
If you need the space for your broccoli, you can pull the plants and hang them somewhere safe until the tomatoes ripen.
Mel says
Our tomatoes are just beginning to produce (they’re incredibly late and sparse this year). I am dutifully picking each one that ripens (out of 24 plants, just 1-2 every few days–torture), and freezing them. As soon as I have enough, I’m going to make tomato sauce. The plants I started from seed did FAR better than the ones I ordered online, so next year I will just try starting them all myself. We had one raised bed of other veggies that did nothing, so I’ll be pulling those plants immediately and replacing them with kale, collards, cabbage, beets, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and chard. I already filled another raised bed with turnips and carrots, and I’m biding my time on pulling the Seminole pumpkins, potatoes, and sweet potatoes to add more. Our long, cold spring stunted all our summer veggies, so I’m going all out for fall.
Jennifer g says
To pull or not to pull–I guess it depends on how much you feel like starting new plants. If your squash plant is still an enthusiastic producer, I say keep it, since you can’t guarantee the new starts will produce (ya never know!). In the SF Bay Area, my tomatoes are still vigorously producing Roma’s and slicers. And I’m juuuust about ready to cut six sugar pie pumpkins from their vines. I’ll start some lettuce or something after that. Good luck!
Phyllis says
Mavis, I’ve never seen a squash shaped like that…what variety is it?