August is a time of transition on the farm. June and July have taken their toll, and there is not much coming out of the field right now. We’ve taken down the tomato trellises, mowed and disk harrowed the tomato plants into the soil . The high tunnels stand empty as we begin getting them ready for the fall plantings of chard, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, and garlic.
Some plants take the prolonged heat just fine. The okra, eggplant and peppers are still producing, and the butternut squash is almost ready to harvest. We have another planting of yellow squash and zucchini that should start putting on in a couple weeks. There are young Juliet tomato plants in the field, and another planting of watermelon.
Monday we seeded arugula, radishes, and Asian greens that will be ready to harvest at the beginning of September. We also seeded the fall carrots, but we’ll have to wait until mid-October for those. The greenhouse is filling up with young brassica seedlings that will be ready to plant out in a week or two, and we will start seeding lettuce later this week. A month from now, the fall garden will look completely different.
All summer a cover crop of sudangrass, buckwheat, and cowpeas has been growing where we plan to plant our spring crops next year. Now we are mowing in down and disking it in. It will take a couple of weeks for the plant material to break down enough to shape beds. Some rain would help.
Small Shares
- tomatoes
- juliet plum tomatoes
- garlic
- peppers
Full Shares
- tomatoes
- peppers
- garlic
- okra
- carrots
- cantaloupe (Wednesday only)
- winter squash (Saturday only)
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