It’s now late September, and my garden isn’t quite sure what to do. The temperature has dropped and given us nights in the 50s and 60s, and I have harvested at least a dozen pumpkins, which being changing color when the temperature approximates fall.
But this week, we’ve had highs in the high-80s, and are expecting a drop to just below 70 by Saturday. There are flowers open on my pumpkin because of the heat, with new fruit having formed in the last week, while other pumpkins are ripe and ready to pick. The newly formed fruit will probably not survive, though it may be that a neighborhood squirrel or raccoon gets to them before the weather does… they’re quite soft at this stage.
My tomatoes are going through similar waves of ripening or over-ripening. On the extremely hot days, they split before they’re fully ripe, which means they go bad before I get to them. If they’ve split and haven’t gone bad, they frequently get eaten in the picking process, to avoid losing them. (Not to be confused with other tomatoes that get eaten in the picking process.)
I can’t really complain, as it extends my harvest. But I was swatting away mosquitoes this week, and I’m fairly sure none of us appreciate them having an extended season.