It's peak harvest time for vegetables that need 4 - 5 months frost free growing time and soil temperatures above 18 degrees C, such as melons, aubergine/eggplant, chilli and capsicum.
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These vegies are at their delicious best right now, and while you want fruit that's a good size, remember not to leave it too long or they can become bitter and tough, particularly when picking eggplant.
To help your pumpkins and squash ripen, remove any large leaves on the vines that are stopping sunlight reaching the developing fruits.
Continue picking crops like beans, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, marrows and zucchini while the vegies are still young and if the plants are still productive.
If the plants have exhausted themselves, or succumbed to powdery mildew or other fungal diseases, its time to take them out and either compost the plants, or if they have mildew, bag and bin them.
It can be tempting to keep plants that still have a few fruits but it can be more worthwhile to take them out and clear space for winter crops.
If you have tomato plants that have just a few green tomatoes on them, pull them out roots and all and hang the plants in a dry sheltered spot, where those last few tomatoes will continue to ripen.
Your winter Brassica vegie planting, particularly cabbage, cauliflower and kohlrabi, should be well underway by now, so they can reach a good size before the weather cools significantly.
Other Brassica crops such as kale, broccoli and brussels sprouts, can also be sown now.
If you don't have any spare ground in your vegie patch at the moment and haven't planted your Brassicas yet, you may have to consider sacrificing some of the last of the green tomatoes, zucchini or squash to make some space.
Read more about gardening:
- Now is the time to transplant shrubs
- The mornings are getting cooler
- Saving the taste of summer and planning for the cooler months
- Save those seeds
- Time to bottle the bounty
- A hardy bulb bulb enjoy now
- Gardening matters: take stock and plan
- Get into the vegie patch
- Gardening Matters || Welcome to 2022
- Keeping on top of weeds
- Strong and vigorous growth
Continue to stay alert for signs of snail or slug damage, especially during and after rain and on your newly planted seedlings. Also keep checking your Brassica crops for caterpillars.
When their leafy tops turn yellow, you can harvest late-season potatoes. Make sure you remove all potato tubers from the ground when harvesting. If you leave small ones to sprout over winter they can cause diseases and attract pests next season.
Gather any remaining fruits such as apples and pears before they are damaged by frosts. To tell if apples and pears are ready to harvest, hold the fruit from below and gently twist. If it is ripe the fruit should break away from the tree with its stalk intact with almost no effort at all.
