It is time to harvest your basel, okra, and eggplants as these should be about done and it is last call time for planting broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower. These plants all need time to bud up before the first good frost if you want good sized heads on them. All of these take several months to head up. For cauliflower, once heads show up, be sure to bend a large leaf over the head to keep your the heads white.

You should also be planting collard greens and cabbages if you have not already planted them and want to enjoy them. Carrots, lettuce and other greens should also do very well beginning now. Cilantro requires nights in the 50s to do well and can also be seeded in over the next month or two. It is too early to plant peas. However, you can start planting them in late December or early January. Elaine

Some of you may have noticed that your beds are several inches lower than when originally planted. This happens as your veggies take up soil nutrients and as you harvest the plants. So please consider adding several bags of compost...either your own or purchased compost to unplanted areas of your garden. You can incorporate this with a pitch fork. Black Kow, mushroom and other composts are available in gardening centers including some specifically listed as organic. For composts low in nutrients, consider supplementing with a fertilizer. At Homestead, you should probably add a fairly rich fertilizer that has N, P, and K. I noticed that Miracle Grow has some organic fertilizers now by the way. At Summit, nitrogen may be the only thing needed since your soils were very high in P and K in the spring, though only testing will tell for sure. Blood meal and coffee grains are both excellent sources of nitrogen.

For areas already fall planted, you may side dress your plants with compost or spray your new plants that are already several inches tall with fish emulsion.