Garden -- October

By mid-month, you should clean off your tomato vines and put the vines into compost.
Sort the tomatoes.
The red ones -- you  know what  to do.
The green ones -- you have a choice.
Put  them in a paper bag with an apple.
Check it about once a week and remove the red ones to use.
It might take a couple of months to use them all  up.
Or make picallilly or chow-chow or chutney with the green ones.
If they're slicing tomatoes, slice them and make fried green tomatoes or a pakora or tempura.
All your other warm-weather veggies are almost done  as well.
If you planted spaghetti squash, you should be harvesting the last ones and putting them up for a month to dry before you use them.
If you planted pumpkins, leave them on the vine until you need jack o'lanterns,
but if you inspect them and they are starting to rot, harvest  them.
Clean the fibers off the seeds and roast them for snacks.
Cook the rind into pumpkin pie filling; there are recipes on the web.
(acorn and butternut squash also make good pie)
If you're not a pumpkin pie fan, you can pickle the rind or make pumpkin chutney.
You can also puree it and get recipes off the web for how to make your own pumpkin latte mix.

By mid-month, you should mow your lawn for the last time this year and put down cornmeal gluten to suppress the seeds of this year's weed grass.

By mid-month, if you planted late hardy vegetables, you should be harvesting microgreens
and baby vegetables to pickle or eat fresh-cooked.

If you are using open-pollinated seed in your garden, you are almost out of time to place an order.

And oh yeah, DON'T  PRUNE ANYTHING.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved