An Update Upon Fall's Arrival
Fall arrived sometime this afternoon, well after "The View" but before "Days of our Lives."
Although it is about a week until October and candy corn, the tomato plants keep growing, despite the rapidly shortening days, cooler weather, and weaker sun. For the first time since late July, with yarn in hand, I tied up several stems of new growth. New flowers are emerging and fruit still sets. Once the cooler weather returns for good, the plants will likely head south, never to return. By Columbus Day, surely these plants will have stopped yielding anything meaningful.
What's good for the tomato's goose is not good for the lettuce's gander. As the tomato plants bask in the warmth of early Autumn, the lettuce weeps and droops. This is certainly caused by the heat. After a cool night the plants look bright-eyed and bushy tailed but soon fade by mid-afternoon. Saturday's high temp of 66 should put these plants in their climatological sweet spot.
In other parts of the garden, the basil keeps plugging along while many of the flowers -- especially the petunias and zinnias -- have largely packed it in for the season. The chives look really good, but they might be phoning it in as they haven't done much over the past few weeks. They've got a long stretch of rough weather ahead of them as they'll be spending winter on the grange outdoors. (More on this in later posts.)
Incidentally, the picture at right was taken in the front yard yesterday morning.
Although it is about a week until October and candy corn, the tomato plants keep growing, despite the rapidly shortening days, cooler weather, and weaker sun. For the first time since late July, with yarn in hand, I tied up several stems of new growth. New flowers are emerging and fruit still sets. Once the cooler weather returns for good, the plants will likely head south, never to return. By Columbus Day, surely these plants will have stopped yielding anything meaningful.
What's good for the tomato's goose is not good for the lettuce's gander. As the tomato plants bask in the warmth of early Autumn, the lettuce weeps and droops. This is certainly caused by the heat. After a cool night the plants look bright-eyed and bushy tailed but soon fade by mid-afternoon. Saturday's high temp of 66 should put these plants in their climatological sweet spot.
In other parts of the garden, the basil keeps plugging along while many of the flowers -- especially the petunias and zinnias -- have largely packed it in for the season. The chives look really good, but they might be phoning it in as they haven't done much over the past few weeks. They've got a long stretch of rough weather ahead of them as they'll be spending winter on the grange outdoors. (More on this in later posts.)
Incidentally, the picture at right was taken in the front yard yesterday morning.
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