Today on The Garden Lady we start off with a postcard that reminds us to look to The Green Man and Mother Nature for plant information and inspiration. Be flexible, and plant for diversity. 

I also talked about harvesting vegetables in the fall. A common question is about whether you should leave tomatoes or winter squash in the garden if the plants have died back or have leaf diseases. As long as frost isn’t expected, leave tomatoes on the vines as they ripen. Not only do those stems still nourish the tomatoes, but even when the leaves die back from blight or other issues, the green stems are capable of photosynthesis too. If your winter squash leaves have died from powdery mildew, you can either leave the squash in the garden to ripen, or bring it inside. The risk of leaving it in the garden is that critters may decide that it’s ripe enough for them! 

Butternut squash can either finish ripening on the vine or in the house. In general, it’s best to leave fruit to ripen on the plants, but in the fall we want to avoid offering our produce to the critters

Pick the ripest tomatoes on a cluster as they are ready. It’s also a good idea to pick ripe or nearly ripe fruit if a rain is expected so that the tomatoes don’t split from the sudden influx of water.