Are you outside cleaning up the vegetable patch, and listening to the radio? Well stop ! Not the listening, the cleaning. Despite the passing of Labor Day, there is a lot of summer- and growing season- left in Oregon.
While June, through August are the warmest months of the year in most of the U.S., in the Willamette Valley the warmth comes are July through September. On the coast, summer "warmth" comes in August, September, and October. This "season shift" is caused by the slow heating and cooling of the water in the Pacific Ocean versus the faster heating and cooling of land surrounding inland areas.
What this climate lesson means for you is that tomatoes, beans, summer squash, and the like can be picked for two more months- if you take a few steps now.
Keep a few of your tomato plants dry with a sheet of plastic during the earliest fall rain. On just before it rains- off as soon as it stops. Also, reduce the amount of water you give them, or cut it off all together. This will encourage the plants to ripen the fruit they have set rather than produce more blooms and fruit- that wouldn't mature until December. Reduced watering will also make the last tomatoes store better.
If we have a frost in October, put an old sheet, blanket, or some remay cloche material over sensitive plants for the night. Early frosts are often followed by a week of warm vegetable ripening sunshine.
Winter squash that have matured should be picked and set out in the sun for a few days to cure, but those still ripening on the vines can be left in case the first really cold weather doesn't arrive until December.
Cleaning up of dead melon plants and potatoes that have been harvested is fine- those bare areas are a great places to plant a cover crop. But consider leaving corn stalks and other plant debris in your garden over the winter so birds will be able to find a meal.
You may be facing a glut of summer vegetables right now, but prolong the harvest into early winter because even those second rate November tomatoes would be a treasure come January.
For the OSU Extension Service, I'm John Fischer with KLCC's Good Gardening.
