Fall is certainly here — we have seen the last of the hot weather and I think that very soon it may even freeze at night.

So yesterday Brian and I spent a few hours breaking down the vegetable garden. We pulled out everything but the acorn squash — which has produced a couple of grapefruit-sized gourds so far.

The tomatoes, which I thought in early summer would be a smashing success, kind of failed. And here is why:

+ The three plants grew incredibly large and tall, creating too much shade for the inner and lower fruits. This also made the stalks/stems too long for nutrients to actually reach all of the tomatoes. They were all over six feet at their highest. Needed lots of support to keep from collapsing. This was probably because they were in a very sunny area, in very rich composty soil, with unlimited root space in the ground.

+ Birds took to eating the fruits as soon as they began to turn color. >:(

+ Did not get enough water or food from me. It was hard to keep up as I got pregnanter. Could not do any pruning, etc.

So. Yesterday I plucked about five pounds of green tomatoes and put them in a paper bag. Having done this a few weeks ago, I know they will ripen to perfection. Pity they could not ripen on the vine.

Learnings for next season: Instead of a raised, ground garden bed for tomatoes, we will purchase some oak half wine barrels, which will give the plants enough room, but not too much room. And they will be easier to access. One plant per barrel. More watering, feeding, and pruning. Netting if the birds become an issue again.

Good news is that when the tomatoes did survive to ripeness, they were amazing.

Other takeaways from Veggie Garden 2009 for next spring:

+ Plant carrots earlier, and continue to plant in rows every two weeks, so that we can have carrots all summer.

+ Skip the radishes; not really worth it. Same with sugar snap peas. Peas are only worth it if you do a whole field of them. But they are very easy to grow, anyway. Might be fun for the baby… hmm we’ll see.

+ Do cucumbers again, but only one variety, and do them in barrels as well. They creep along the ground and get tangled without enough attention. Produced yummy fruit though.

+ Skip the peppers; again, not worth it when you yield a SINGLE pepper on each plant.

Next summer I won’t be pregnant so it’s going to be much easier to keep up with the garden. When summer falls in your final trimester and you can’t even put on socks, it’s not really possible to pull weeds or plant anything.

Any suggestions for other worthwhile edibles to grow would be great. Summer squash, maybe?