Celebrity pumpkin portraits? You'd better believe it, folks! Unlike the traditional triangle eyes and crooked grins, some extra-talented pumpkin carvers are transforming ordinary gourds into remarkably lifelike tributes to some of the world's biggest stars.

Now, we already offered you a way to up the ante on your Halloween decorations in the form of your birth month pumpkin carving design. For those who want to take things beyond even that, though, celebrity portraits (which recently made headlines thanks to Kim Kardashian's attempt at the trend) offer a particularly ambitious challenge... especially when the goal is to make a recognizable face emerge from the pumpkin's flesh.

From country music icons to Hollywood legends, the aim of these intricate creations is to lean into that 'devil is in the detail' vibe; think facial features, expressions, and more. Honestly, if you've ever wondered just how far you can push the art of pumpkin carving, these celebrity portraits might make you rethink your own Halloween plans.

10 Brilliant Celebrity Pumpkin Portraits

If you want eerily accurate celebrity pumpkin portraits, that's where Maniac Pumpkins comes in. Rather than simply carving a spooky face, the nimble-fingered people at the award-winning pumpkin art studio treat their pumpkins as a canvas, turning familiar celebrity features into intricate works of Halloween art.

Shop Pumpkin Carving Essentials:

Don't believe us? Well, these eight celebrity pumpkin portraits show what's possible when Halloween creativity meets serious carving skills. So, if you're looking for inspiration before picking up your carving tools this year, take a look at these spookily accurate creations from Maniac Pumpkins.

Fair warning, though, that you might want to set aside a little more time than usual if you're hoping to recreate them yourself.

1. Harry Styles

Harry Styles might sing about watermelons, but there's no denying the musician makes for a truly mesmerizing celebrity pumpkin portrait.

2. Shania Twain

Shania Twain? As a pumpkin? Don't you dare say that don't impress you much; it's spectacular!

3. James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones had one of the most recognisable voices in Hollywood, but this tribute proves his iconic presence can make an impression without saying a word. It's a fitting nod to the legendary actor, whose unmistakable legacy deserves a place in the Halloween spotlight.

4. Megan Moroney

Country star Megan Moroney has plenty of star power, but who knew she could look this good carved into a pumpkin? This clever creation is a real treat for fans of the singer – and proof that Halloween decorations don't have to be all tricks and no treats.

5. Meghan Markle

Move over, royal portraits – there's a new contender for the most unexpected royal-inspired artwork. Meghan Markle gets the celebrity pumpkin portrait treatment here, and this is one Halloween carving that's certainly fit for a palace display!

6. Lin-Manuel Miranda

He gave the world Hamilton, but could Lin-Manuel Miranda inspire a hit on the Halloween carving scene, too? This pumpkin portrait brings a little Broadway magic to spooky season, and the accuracy has left us feeling (to quote Angelica Schuyler) satisfied!

7. Taylor Swift

It's a love story, baby, just say... pumpkin! Taylor Swift is no stranger to having fans celebrate her in creative ways, but this carved tribute might be one of the more unexpected. Swifties, consider this your sign to swap the friendship bracelets for a pumpkin carving kit...

8. Ozzy Osbourne

The Prince of Darkness was practically made for Halloween, so a pumpkin portrait of the late Ozzy Osbourne feels like a match made in spooky heaven. Forget the usual grinning jack-o'-lantern – this rock legend brings a whole new meaning to a killer Halloween look. We reckon it's a fitting tribute to the one and only Ozzy.

9. Bette Midler

It's just a bunch of hocus pocus – until you see this incredible celebrity pumpkin carving! Bette Midler's Winifred Sanderson is all but synonymous with Halloween, and this pumpkin portrait brings the wicked witch to life in wonderfully spooky fashion. Just try not to let it loose on your other jack-o'-lanterns.

10. Nasir Jones (Nas)

If you thought pumpkin carving was an Illmatic art form, just wait until you see this! Rap legend Nas gets the spooky-season treatment in this striking celebrity pumpkin portrait – and proof that Maniac Pumpkins knows how to create a real masterpiece.

Feeling inspired to give your own pumpkin the celebrity treatment? By all means, grab a carving kit and get creative. Just don't be too hard on yourself if yours ends up looking more like Jack Skellington than Jack Nicholson, okay? There's a reason the people behind Maniac Pumpkins are considered artists...

Turning fruit and vegetable seeds and peelings into new plants on your kitchen windowsill is such a satisfying process, for us adults as well as kids. Grow plants from lemon seeds and you could raise a citrus houseplant with glossy, aromatic leaves, or root a pineapple top for a striking pot of spiky foliage. Or how about growing a feast of fabulous foliage from an avocado stone? Seedlings grown from apple and pear seeds can be shaped into stylish bonsai trees, too.

If you like the idea of free food as well as free plants, then cabbage bases will grow a tasty supply of cut-and-come-again leaves for salads and stir-fries, while carrot tops produce herby foliage that’s so flavorful blended up into a pesto.

Propagating is a great way to get plants for free and, as well as creating garden plants with cuttings in October, a spot of indoor plant-baby-making is just the thing for rainy fall days. Got a little free space on a sunny kitchen windowsill? Then let's make a start on your soon-to-be-favorite gardening project…

1. Lemon, Lime, Orange and Grapefruit

Creating houseplants from citrus seeds is a relatively quick process and with the right care, a seed will grow into a foot-tall plant by its first birthday. While you'll have to wait a decade or so for fruit, citrus trees make beautiful foliage-first houseplants with glossy leaves that release a fresh, aromatic fragrance when rubbed. Lemon and lime plants will have pointy oval leaves, while orange and grapefruit foliage is rounder. All can be grown the same way so, if you've always dreamed of growing a lemon tree, why not try a whole citrus selection?

First wash the seed so it’s free of any citrus pulp. Carefully scratch off the outer shell with your fingernail to reveal the brown seed inside – though this step isn’t essential, it will speed germination. Sow the seed ⅓-inch deep in a small container of moist potting soil and use a clear cover to lock heat and moisture in.

You could use an old yoghurt pot with a drainage hole poked into the base and a clear plastic bag fixed over the rim with an elastic band, or make life easy with domed propagation pots like these 4" Nursery Pots from Amazon. Using a tailored potting mix like Gardenera Citrus Potting Soil, also available from Amazon, will support good germination and strong root growth. Stand the pot on your sunniest south-facing windowsill and remove the cover once you spot growth.

2. Avocado

Growing an avocado stone into a tropical tree-let is straightforward, and fast growth makes this a great project if you're gardening with children, but it's fun for adults too. While you can absolutely let your avocado grow tall, it’s easy to keep smaller by pruning, and the 8-12-inch leaves mean this is a standout houseplant.

First, clean the stone. It’s best to sprout avocado seeds in water rather than soil, with just the bottom, broader third sitting in the water. You can do this with a jam jar by pushing three or four toothpicks into the sides of the stone so it sits on the jar rim, or use a purpose-made avocado vase and skip the toothpicks.

Stand the jar in a bright spot with plenty of indirect sunlight – an east- or west-facing windowsill is ideal – in a warm room as avocados are tropical plants. Change the water every 2-5 days and wash the jar as needed, and keep levels topped up so the seed base remains wet and the top stays dry. Rainwater is best but tap water is fine, but do make sure it’s at room temperature so as not to shock the roots.

Once the stone has cracked open (this can happen very quickly, but be patient as it can sometimes take up to two months), there are a couple of inches of roots and you can see leaves forming on the top stem, move the plant into a pot of potting soil. Avocado plants need good drainage so use an all-purpose houseplant mix like Miracle-Gro Indoor Potting Mix, available from Lowe's.

Your growing avocado will naturally form a single stem with a canopy of big leaves at the top – which gives a great architectural look. If you want a bushier, leafier houseplant however, simply prune off the top set of leaves once the stem reaches 6 inches high to force the plant to grow multiple branches.

3. Apples and Pears

An apple or pear tree grown from a seed can produce an attractive garden tree – but don’t expect to be eating its fruit! The genetics of apple and pear trees are complex and seeds almost always revert to a wild ancestor with small, acidic fruit. However, apple and pear trees make great candidates for bonsai trees as they have lots of small fibrous roots and flexible branches that are easy to wire. If you fancy a little long-term gardening project, growing a bonsai fruit tree for your garden is so rewarding, and the spring blossom is so pretty.

Drop the seeds into a jar or water and slosh them around to clean. Ignore any seeds that float to the surface – these won’t germinate – but save the plumpest ones that sink to the bottom. Wrap these in a just-damp piece of kitchen paper inside a sealed zip-lock bag and pop them in the fridge to mimic winter, which is essential for germination. Check the kitchen paper is just-damp every week and, by around the sixth week, you’ll likely spot a white root protruding from the seed.

Then fill small pots or old yoghurt pots with a seed-starting mix like Back to the Roots Organic 3-in-1 Seed Starting Mix, available from Amazon. Use your little finger to poke a ½-inch hole, pop in the sprouted seed with the root downwards and gently push the soil over to cover. Pop this on a warm, sunny windowsill, keep the compost just-damp and in a couple of weeks you’ll see a green shoot.

In a few months, you’ll need to snip off the taproot and move your tree into a bonsai starter pot like this from Walmart and begin pruning branches and wiring into shape with training wire like this, also from Walmart. You can keep your mini apple or pear tree indoors over its first spring or summer but by autumn, move it outdoors.

4. Pineapple

It’s a hoot to grow a plant from a pineapple top, and as they're part of the bromeliad family, pineapples make good-looking houseplants with striking leaves. It’s unlikely to fruit, but so exciting if it does!

Rather than slicing off the pineapple top, hold the fruit in one hand and the leaves in the other and twist firmly in opposite directions. The top stem should pop out cleanly. Strip off the lower 5-8 layers of leaves until you have around an inch of naked stem. Let this dry – just leave it on a kitchen counter top – for 3-5 days until the base scabs over.

Treat the stem like you would an avocado stone, using toothpicks and a jar, an avocado vase or even a large wine glass to submerge the bare stem in water but keep the leaves dry.

Place this set-up on a warm, sunny south-facing windowsill, change the water every 2-3 days and, within a month, you should see roots. When roots are 2-3 inches long, move into a pot of potting soil tailored for cacti like Back to the Roots Organic Succulents & Cacti Mix, available from Amazon to grow your pineapple houseplant on.

5. Cabbage

Save the base of a cabbage and it’s easy to regrow fresh cut-and-come-again leaves to toss into salads and stir-fries. Slice the bottom 2-3 inches from a fresh cabbage and peel away outer leaves to expose the bare inner stem. Set this, cut side up, in a shallow bowl of water – or, if you want to make your cabbage crop into a fancy feature on a sunny kitchen windowsill, pop into margarita glasses like these from Amazon!

Keep the bottom edge of the cabbage base submerged and the top rim dry. It’s vital to change the water every day to prevent rotting, but you'll be well rewarded with new shoots that grow from the core within days. Crop only the outer leaves to prolong the harvest.

6. Carrots

You can use the same method to grow leafy greens from carrot tops, which taste rather like parsley and are delicious as a herby garnish or blended into a pesto. Simply cut the top inch from the carrots, trimming any green stems off, then pop cut-side down into a shallow saucer of water. It’s vital that the water doesn’t cover the top of the carrot stub where the leaves emerge, and that you change the water every day.

Your kitchen windowsill will soon be full of all sorts of lovely leafy greens, and I hope you enjoy your plethora of new plants!

Fall is a great time to start a vegetable garden if you’ve never grown your own before, and these compact crops will bring an abundant harvest in a small space. Sow in October and growing vegetables is so easy as you don’t have to worry about pests or remembering to water your plants every day, and you can still raise plenty of tasty crops at this time of the year. You won’t have to wait long to enjoy your very first harvest, either, and just wait till you taste the difference between homegrown and shop-bought!

The secret to start growing your own vegetables in October is to use a raised bed or planter. Gardening in raised beds is so much more straightforward than growing veggies in the ground as it doesn’t matter a jot what your soil is like as you can instantly create perfect conditions with a tailored potting mix like Miracle-Gro Organic Raised Bed Soil, available from Lowe's.

Another big advantage to growing fall-sown veggies in a raised bed is that you can position the planter in a sheltered, sunny spot to help plants grow well in shorter days and cooler temperatures. You could even place it right up against a house wall to take advantage of your home's heat, and this also makes it simple to throw a layer of horticultural fleece over the top if you need to keep young seedlings cozy through a cold snap.

There are plenty of small-space veggies that thrive in a container, but here's my pick of the best vegetables to sow in October – all compact enough to flourish in a raised bed – if you want to grow your own this fall. So don’t keep dreaming about doing it done day – do it today!

Veggies to Sow in October

All these vegetable varieties are cold-tolerant, but tailor your choice to your zone. Position your raised bed in a warm, sheltered area of your garden and you can absolutely cheat zone recommendations to successfully grow winter crops. I would happily grow all these varieties in Zone 7 and above, and if you live in a colder zone simply choose a covered raised bed (you'll find my recommendations below) or be ready with a duvet of horticultural fleece (ditto!) when temperatures plummet, and give it a go: for the price of a packet of seeds, it’s well worth the risk.

1. Meteor Peas

Think you can’t grow peas through winter? Think again! ‘Meteor’ is an exceptionally hardy variety that’s been bred to withstand freezing temperatures so is one of the best vegetables to sow in fall, with seeds that are smooth and round so resist rot in cool wet soil far better than traditional wrinkled types. What’s more, this variety only grows to a bushy 18 inches high (rather than the wild tangle of 6-feet-high stems of many pea cultivars) so it’s a great choice for a small space. Just push some twiggy sticks into the soil when you sow and the plants will look after themselves.

While you’ll have to wait until May to enjoy the fresh peapods, the plants will get busy through fall growing a strong root system, ready to burst into growth in early spring for an early harvest. And the big advantage of a fall sowing is that you won’t have to net your plants against the pea moth, a pest notorious for ruining summer pea crops. Meteor pea seeds are available from Mr Fothergills USA.

2. Atomic Red Carrots

Carrot crops are normally sown in spring and summer but ‘Atomic Red’ is a cool-season specialist that flourishes in low temperatures. And just look at that color! Atomic Red is fully frost-tolerant and fast to grow so in milder zones you could be harvesting around 80 days after an October sowing. In colder climates, plants won’t crop until spring but the harvest will be well worth the wait: cool temperatures make the plant convert its starches into sugars to act as a protective antifreeze, so the carrots taste beautifully sweet.

As well as great flavor, Atomic Red carrots also keep their striking coral-scarlet color through cooking. With roots growing up to 11 inches long, this variety is the perfect size for a raised bed, where the loose soil will favour long, straight carrots. A fall sowing means there’s zero threat from pesky carrot flies, too. Atomic Red carrot seeds are available from Botanical Interests.

3. Dwarf Siberian Kale

The name tells you everything you need to know about this small but hardy veggie! While standard kale varieties can reach up to 3 feet tall, Dwarf Siberian kale stays at a tidy 15 inches high so it’s a smart choice for a raised planter. It survives freezing temperatures and is super-tasty too, staying tender and mild (unlike some of its curly-kale cousins that can grow tough and bitter) and becoming sweetener when exposed to fall frosts.

Young leaves can be eaten raw in salads and smoothies and if you sow in October you'll be enjoying these by late November or December – or wait a few more weeks for mature leaves to sauté with a little garlic and oil. Just be sure to only harvest the outer leaves, leaving the central crown intact, so the plants keep producing as a cut-and-come-again crop. Dwarf Siberian kale seeds are available from Eden Brothers.

4. California Early Garlic

Homegrown garlic is a delight so you should definitely find room in your raised bed to plant some cloves. Softneck garlic is best in a small space and the incredibly reliable ‘California Early’ is a perfect choice if you're at the start of your veggie-growing journey. It's very easy to grow and has a highly compact, vertical habit so you can pack plenty into your bed. California Early matures around June, too, clearing your veggie bed in time for mid-summer sowings of other crops.

Because it’s a softneck variety, California Early garlic doesn’t need the long period of freezing weather that hardneck varieties do to form cloves, which means it’ll still form plump bulbs in the warmer conditions of a sheltered raised bed. A raised bed also means you can plant a little deeper than usual, which is the expert secret to growing garlic with the plumpest cloves, even if this your first time growing this crop. California Early garlic bulbs are available from Walmart.

5. Vit Corn Salad

Being able to pick fresh greens for a winter salad is such a joy, and the taste is a far cry from the disinfected leaves sold in many grocery stores. Also known as lambs lettuce and mache, corn salad is the easiest to grow through fall and winter and ‘Vit’ is my pick for glossy, tender leaves with a gourmet nutty flavor.

This French variety is so easy to grow as it’s vigorous and naturally resistant to mildew and, as it only grows to 6 inches high in upright rosettes, it’s a great crop to squeeze in between bigger plants. Vit is incredibly resilient in cold temperatures and quick to crop too, ready to eat in around 50 days. As well as eating mache raw, you can cook the leaves as you would spinach. Organic Vit corn salad seeds are available from Burpee.

6. Purple Plum Radish

Before you brush off the idea of growing radishes, hold up! Have you ever tasted a homegrown radish? Because it’s nothing short of amazing! ‘Purple Plum’ is my pick for an October sowing because this cool-season specialist crops incredibly quickly and, in a warm, sunny spot, you could be harvesting these little heirloom beauties within a month.

Purple Plum radishes are a super choice for a small space because their roots reach peak crunch when they’re just 1½ inches wide. As they’re so quick to crop, you can squeeze them in around slower-maturing crops, too. Another good reason to choose Purple Plum for an October sowing is that – unlike most other radish varieties – they don’t become woody or pithy in damp fall soil if you don’t get round to picking them at the perfect moment.

This is another vegetable that gets sweeter when touched by fall frosts, too, and you can also eat the radish tops, raw in salads or tossed into winter stir fries. Purple Plum radish seeds are available from Botanical Interests.

7. Astro Arugula

Another must for a fall sowing is arugula. One packet of seeds will provide a wealth of peppery leaves for salads and garnishes, or try making a zingy spring-is-coming pesto by swapping out basil for arugula. ‘Astro’ is the variety to reach for when sowing in October as it still germinates quickly in cool fall soil and, unlike many other arugula, keeps producing its flavorful green leaves once daylight hours drop below 10 hours a day. It tastes good, too, with a smooth, nutty flavor and a mild peppery bite.

While Astro arugula can tolerate light frosts, growth will slow and speed as temperatures lower and rise, or you can keep a steady supply coming by popping a clear plastic cloche or horticultural fleece over your crop. While you can leave foliage to grow up to 18 inches high, a big advantage to growing your own is that you can pick oh-so tender and tasty leaves when they’re around 4 inches high, and the plant will quickly grow more of this cut-and-come-again crop. Astro arugula seeds are available from Botanical Interests.

Which is the Right Raised Bed for Me?

To successfully grow veggies in a raised bed, the planter needs to be at least 8 inches deep, and ideally a little deeper. However, few crops need more than an 18-inch depth of soil to grow well, and it's expensive to fill a very deep planter with potting soil. If you want to grow deep-rooting crops such as potatoes and heavy feeders like zucchini, it’s much more cost-effective to grow these separately in deep fabric planters, or choose an open-based planter that allows roots to grow into the ground.

If You Live in a Cooler Zone

Choose a raised planter with a built-in cover that makes it easy to keep fall-sown seeds warm for fast germination and shield plants from plummeting temperatures.

If You’re Growing Veg on a Patio or Deck

Growing veggies on your patio means you can use the warmth and shelter of your house to keep plants cozy through winter. Dark-toned paving also absorbs the sun’s heat during the day then releases it later, so a patio often escapes frost, too. If you need to shelter plants during cold snaps, simply throw a lightweight plant cover or horticultural fleece over the planter. Choose one that allows sunlight and air to pass through, like this Harvest-Guard Cover from Walmart, and you can leave it on day and night.

If You’re on a Budget

Starting a veggie bed needn’t be expensive if you opt for an open-base raised metal planter that allows plants to grow down into the soil. There are all sorts of shapes and sizes available, of varying quality, so shop smart: only buy galvanised steel (and it’s a bonus if it’s powder-coated), check for central support strips that span the planter for added strength, and look for a protective strip running around the top edge for your own comfort.

You can buy drawstring frost covers to fit most sizes of these raised beds, such as this Raised Bed Frost Cover with Insulating Aluminium Liner from Walmart, that are quick and easy to pop on and off during cold snaps.

From classic spooky faces to floral designs and pop culture-inspired creations, there are so many options when it comes to choosing your Halloween vibe – but what if your birth month pumpkin could help you narrow things down?

That's right, folks! Halloween is just around the corner, and if you’re still deciding what to do with your pumpkin, there’s a pumpkin style written in the stars for you.

Of course, if you're anything like this author, then you likely already know your birth month bird, birth month animal, birth month tree, and birth month bug, but 'tis the season to be spooky, after all! (Which, you know, explains why we're suddenly so obsessed with our birth month owls and birth month spiders). Jack-o'-lanterns, then, feel like the natural next step.

All 12 Birth Month Pumpkins

Whether you’re a fan of traditional spooky decorations or prefer something a little more creative, there’s a birth month pumpkin to match every personality.

So, grab your carving tools (or a paintbrush) and discover which carving design you should be using this Halloween...

January – The Classic Spooky Face

If you're a January baby, then your birth month pumpkin is a classic for a reason! You like to keep things traditional, and when it comes to Halloween, you know you can’t go wrong with the classics. A sinister grin, triangular eyes and a flickering candle inside? Why, they're all you need to create the ultimate Halloween pumpkin.

Your practical nature means you’d rather perfect a timeless design than follow every passing trend. After all, some things never go out of style.

Shop Pumpkin Carving Essentials:

February – The Spider

Unconventional, a little mysterious and never afraid to stand out, those born in February need a pumpkin with a twist. A spider design, complete with long spindly legs stretching across the pumpkin, is just the thing! After all, you’ve never been one to settle for ordinary.

Bonus points if you add a few smaller carved spiders or faux cobwebs around the base of your birth month pumpkin. And don't forget to smear some Vaseline to the carved edges to keep it looking its best for longer!

March – The Floral Pumpkin

Born in March? You have a creative, imaginative side, so a birth month pumpkin covered in carved flowers, swirling vines and delicate leaves is right up your street. Think intricate patterns that let candlelight shine through, creating a soft and magical glow.

I know, I know, but who says Halloween decorations have to be scary, right? Equal parts autumnal and enchanting, this is guaranteed to hold its own among all the neighborhood decorations.

Shop Pumpkin Seeds To Plant For Next Year:

April – The Monster Face

Bold, playful and a little unpredictable, you’re not afraid to have fun with Halloween. A monster-inspired design, complete with jagged teeth, wonky eyes and an exaggerated expression, is the birth month pumpkin, then, that perfectly captures your energetic personality.

Honestly, the messier and more mischievous the grin, the better. You're here to make an impression, not play it safe (and extra points if you can have your monster chomping on a smaller pumpkin, in the style of the image above!).

May – The Painted Pumpkin

Why carve when you can paint? You appreciate the finer details, so a beautifully painted pumpkin is your ideal Halloween party project. Think elegant black-and-white patterns, metallic gold accents or a rich autumnal colour palette.

If this is your birth month pumpkin, then you like things that look considered and stylish, and a painted pumpkin lets you create something special without covering your hands in pumpkin guts. Just be sure to pick up something like this Caliart Acrylic Paint Set of 24 Colors with 12 Brushes, as some other paints will just slide right off.

June – The Pop Culture Pumpkin

Born in June? Figured as much! You love a conversation starter, so why not turn your pumpkin into a tribute to your favourite film, TV show or character? From a recognisable character silhouette to an iconic symbol, there are endless ways to bring your fandom to life (although we're quite partial to the above tribute to Obsession!).

Whether you opt for a nostalgic favourite or the latest pop culture obsession, your birth month pumpkin is guaranteed to get people talking. it may be a little fiddly, though, so I recommend sketching it out properly before you get cracking.

July – The Smiling Pumpkin

Warm, sociable and full of personality, you need a birth month pumpkin that makes people smile. For you, then, the goal is a big cheerful grin, rounded eyes and perhaps a few quirky details (like the teeth seen above), all of which will give your creation a welcoming and playful feel.

Hey, it makes a lot of sense! You are, after all, all about bringing people together, so your pumpkin should be just as inviting as your Halloween gathering.

August – The Sugar Skull Pumpkin

Hardworking, ambitious and never one to shy away from a challenge, August babies need a birth month pumpkin that makes a statement. Inspired by the colorful sugar skulls associated with Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), this design features intricate floral patterns, decorative swirls and bold colours that transform an ordinary pumpkin into a work of art.

Take your time with the details, experimenting with vibrant paints, symmetrical patterns and marigold-inspired flowers. The more elaborate the design, the better – this is your chance to show off your creativity and create a pumpkin that's guaranteed to turn heads.

September – The Cat Pumpkin

Intelligent, organized and with an eye for detail, you appreciate a design that requires a little patience. A pumpkin carved with the silhouette of a sleek black cat, complete with pointed ears, an elegant curled tail and carefully cut-out whiskers, is the perfect way to put your precision to the test (or, failing that, a cute cat face as per the above!).

Take your time mapping out the design before you start carving, making sure every line is just right. You could even add a crescent moon or tiny stars for an extra decorative touch.

October – The Celestial Pumpkin

Halloween falls in October, so it makes sense that your birth month pumpkin is a real doozy! Charming, sociable and naturally drawn to beautiful things, you need crescent moons, delicate stars and intricate celestial patterns, painted in gold and silver against a midnight-black background, or carefully carved to let the candlelight shine through.

The result? A sophisticated and eye-catching design that's guaranteed to be a conversation starter at any Halloween gathering.

November – The Pumpkin Fairy House

Empathetic, passionate and with a mysterious side, you love the idea of a little magic hiding just beneath the surface. Enter stage left, then, a birth month pumpkin pumpkin transformed into a tiny fairy cottage, complete with a carved doorway, glowing windows and a winding trail of vines.

Take your design a step further with miniature details, such as a tiny chimney, a moss-covered roof or little mushrooms (you could even copy your birth month mushroom!) nestled around the base. Add a flickering LED light inside to make the windows glow, creating an enchanting scene that looks as though a woodland fairy might appear at any moment.

Shop Pumpkin Fairy House Essentials:

December – The Ghost Pumpkin

Generous, optimistic and always up for an adventure, December babies are never afraid to try something a little different. Which means (obviously) that a cheeky ghost pumpkin, complete with a wavy silhouette, playful eyes and a mischievous grin, is the perfect way to bring some fun to your Halloween display.

Don't be afraid to experiment with an unusual shape or a more elaborate design. After all, you like to take risks, and Halloween is the perfect excuse to let your creative side run wild.

So, which birth month pumpkin design will you be trying? Whether you stick to a classic jack-o'-lantern or try something a little more adventurous this year, the honest truth of the matter is this: the very best Halloween pumpkin is the one that lets your personality shine through.

Happy carving!

Cardboard mulch is being championed as a sustainable, low-cost method to suppress weeds and lock moisture into soil, but did you know it can boost your harvest, too? A USDA-funded trial found cardboard mulching was not only highly effective at reducing weeds, but increased some vegetable crops by as much as 97%. Yep, you read that right.

A variety of crops were grown over different seasons in the two-year cardboard mulch trial, a collaboration between the University of Wyoming and the USDA’s Western SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) program. The growing conditions weren’t easy, either: the trial site of Sweet Hollow Farm in Victor, Idaho, sits in Zone 4 with a super-short growing season. Yet alongside impressive yield increases, results showed weed coverage in cardboard-mulched beds at just 15%, compared to 45% in beds that were tended using traditional tilling methods.

Impressed, I decided to test out the findings for myself and back in the summer I used old cardboard boxes to mulch my vegetable bed and sat back to see what happened. Now it’s October, and I can report that my veg bed is not only 95% free of weeds but I’ve enjoyed my best-ever harvest, I'm happy to vouch for using cardboard as a mulch if you're growing vegetables. I also discovered a few vital details that make a huge difference. So, if you want to try cardboard mulching yourself – and you absolutely should, because now we know a cardboard mulch does work – here’s what you need to know for great results.

1. Use Corrugated Cardboard

While you want to block sunlight to suppress weeds, it’s vital to allow both water and air through for healthy soil and happy roots, and corrugated cardboard makes the layer less dense. In the USDA-funded trial, two layers of corrugated cardboard were used to create a dense barrier to exhaust aggressive perennial weeds such as field bindweed. I only used one layer of corrugated cardboard and it still suppressed weeds well, and the soil beneath it still smells sweet.

I was concerned that water wouldn't penetrate the corrugated cardboard but sliding a long-probe moisture meter like this from Amazon into the soil reassured me that it did. In my very unscientific tests between this mulched bed and the unmulched bed beside it, I was pleased to see the cardboard layer kept the soil moisture level far more consistent, too.

2. Check Cardboard is Uncoated

An uncoated finish also helps soil and root health as the cardboard layer is more permeable and breathable. Another reason to avoid coated cardboard is that glossy or water-repellent finish is typically made up of synthetic polymers – use it as a mulch and you’ll inadvertently be adding microplastics to your soil.

It’s not always easy to spot coated cardboard as some have matt finishes, and you need to watch out for cardboard that’s had water-resistant additives mixed directly into the pulp during production, too. To test, put a drop of any cooking oil onto the cardboard: if it soaks right in, go ahead and use the cardboard; if it sits on the surface, that’s a sure sign the cardboard contains compounds you don’t want in your soil.

3. Only Use Brown Cardboard Printed With Black Ink

While plain cardboard is best, it’s fine to use cardboard that’s been printed with black ink as that’s likely water- or soy-based and will break down safely in soil. You’ll be happy to know that the black ink used on the 20 million standard Amazon packages sent out every day is plant-based. However, highly pigmented colored inks can contain synthetic compounds that you don’t want leaching into your soil.

Similarly, skip white cardboard as this goes through chemical bleaching processes, whereas standard brown cardboard is typically made from recycled paper fibres or raw wood pulp.

4. Remove All Labels and Tape

If you’re recycling boxes that arrived by mail, it’s vital to remove all tape and shipping labels before using. These products are designed to withstand weather and rough handling so don’t think they’re just paper. Standard thermal shipping labels contain synthetic chemicals that soil microbes struggle to break down, and research shows can be taken up by root crops. Some types of paper tape are reinforced with fiberglass, so remove every last bit.

Make it easier to peel off labels and tape, and their adhesive backing, by hosing the cardboard down first and leaving it to sit for five minutes.

You could also take a tip from the USDA-funded trial which re-used cardboard from a local craft brewery down the road, and ask local companies if they have some to recycle. Like the large cardboard slip-sheets used by the brewer to separate layers of beer cans during transit before being recycled in the trial, this packaging is likely to be free of labels or tape.

5. Overlap the Edges Well if You’re Dealing With Persistent Weeds

Running perennials like bindweed can travel horizontally in search of light, so overlap the edges of cardboard sheets by at least 6 inches to ensure they don’t find their way through the barrier.

6. Cover Cardboard With a Layer of Compost

In the USDA-funded trial, a 4-6-inch layer of compost was laid over the top of the cardboard sheets before planting began. A planting hole was then punched through the cardboard, into which a seedling was transplanted. So, while taproots and the lower root system grew into the ground to access moisture, the upper feeder roots grew into the compost layer that was rich in nutrients.

As well as the lack of competition from weeds and the extra moisture locked into the soil by the cardboard layer, trial yields were undoubtedly boosted by the added compost. Standout results included winter squash, where kabocha squash saw a 28% higher yield and spaghetti squash saw a 40% higher yield than the same crops in tilled control beds. Onions and shallots also fared exceptionally well with red onions seeing a 62% higher yield and shallots showing an increased yield of 97%.

Such a thick layer of compost wasn’t practical for my backyard veggie bed or my budget, so I experimented with leaving half of the bed with only the cardboard mulch, and half with a 2-inch layer of compost covering the cardboard layer. While weeds were effectively suppressed in both sides, and all plants cropped exceptionally well, the half with compost-covered cardboard was more productive when it came to crop yield.

I’m all for creating a low-maintenance garden with maximum reward for minimal effort, so I’ll definitely be using this method again. Though it took a little while to lay the cardboard mulch, I easily got that time back several times over because of the reduction in weeding and watering. It's also an easy way to increase the abundance of harvested crops in a small veggie bed like mine.

Cardboard boxes are a great resource for gardeners and can be used for all sorts of tasks from adding cardboard to balance plant material when composting to laying out sheets of cardboard to kill grass in preparation for a new border. Overall, a cardboard mulch made growing backyard veggies much easier, and as I usually mulch with compost once a year anyway, there was no cost but plenty of reward, and I recommend you give it a go.

Garlic is such a satisfying home crop to grow, and switching up one simple element will bring you bigger bulbs. It's such a no-brainer, yet it takes most gardeners a few years of growing garlic to realise this easy trick at planting time makes a huge difference to the size of harvested bulbs.

Traditional advice tells us to plant cloves knuckle-deep when we grow garlic, which equates to 1-2 inches. However, this rule-of-thumb hails from times when we all gardened in the ground, often in soil that sat wet through winter, so rotting cloves were a real risk. Today, in the loose, well-draining soil of a raised bed or in ground much-improved with compost, you can afford to plant cloves a little deeper, and that results in plumper bulbs.

Why? With a couple more inches of soil above them, the cloves are better insulated from the weather above, allowing roots to carry on growing for far longer before they’re halted by freezing temperatures. This big root system will power strong growth in spring, resulting in fatter bulbs. A deeply-planted clove will resist frost heaving which can pop a shallow-planted clove right out of the ground, too. Ready to grow garlic with bigger bulbs? Here’s exactly what to do.

1. Prep the Soil for Great Drainage

If you want to know how to grow garlic with bigger cloves, it's important to realise that you can only plant garlic cloves deeply in soil that's loose and well-drained. Try this trick in heavy, wet soil and if the cloves don’t rot over winter, the plants will waste energy pushing shoots through the dense ground that they could have ploughed into bulb expansion. So, only plant garlic this way if you have a raised bed which naturally gives good drainage, or you’re lucky enough to have loamy, free-draining soil.

Either way, improve the soil’s structure and drainage some more by digging in compost. If you make your own garden compost, great. If not, use a manure-free plant-derived compost like Back to the Roots Organic Compost, available from Walmart.

If you have already-fertile soil, the compost will also supply all the nutrients the garlic needs to grow plump bulbs. In poorer soil, or if you’re growing in a veg bed that’s been full of crops all summer, replenish nutrients before you plant with a slow-release fertilizer that’s high in phosphorous to boost root growth: Down to Earth Fish Bone Meal from Amazon is ideal.

2. Time Planting Just Right

To get the biggest bulbs, you want to get your cloves planted early enough to allow them plenty of time to grow a strong root system before winter, but not so soon that they move onto sending lots of shoots above ground that may be hit by freezing weather. The sweet spot to plant garlic cloves for big bulbs is around three weeks after your first frost, depending on your USDA zone.

So, tailor the time you plant garlic in fall to the conditions in your garden. In zones 1-6, you’ll want to plant garlic in October; in zones 7-8 you may need to wait till the end of October; and in zones 9-10, you’re perhaps looking at November.

Most garlic varieties need an 8-10 week period below 45°C to trigger cloves to split and form bulbs, a process known as vernalization. So, in zones 10+, you’ll need to pop your garlic into the fridge, in a paper bag or a lidded jar, for a couple of months to mimic this cold period before planting.

3. Only Plant the Biggest Cloves

When you split open your garlic bulbs, discard any smaller cloves as research shows bigger cloves grow bigger bulbs. Now your soil is loose and fast-draining, you can safely plant the cloves around 4 inches deep, using a dibber such as this Hand Hole Digger from Amazon to create planting holes.

Space holes 6 inches apart, because good airflow around the leaves will help prevent fungal diseases such as rust that can slow bulb growth. Then drop a single clove into each hole, pointy end up, and push that lovely loose soil over the top.

And that’s all you need to do to double the size of your homegrown garlic bulbs! You see, the expert secret to growing big garlic bulbs is to grow big root systems. Kept cosy beneath that extra couple of inches of soil, with all the nutrients they need, the cloves you planted will quickly get busy growing deep roots through fall. While root growth will pause in frozen soil, as soon as temperatures creep back above 41°F it will resume, off and on, all through winter.

When spring arrives, that strong root network gives plants access to plenty of moisture and nutrients to grow lots of foliage. And because you’ve planted your garlic in a sunny spot, all those leaves act as solar panels to generate energy to fuel plumper bulbs. The loose soil you created will also allow bulbs to easily expand to their full potential.

Make sure you water the soil through any dry spells in spring and early summer when bulbs are swelling, then slow once the bulbs are fully formed – you’ll know when to stop because the foliage will start to yellow – and you’ll be harvesting garlic that's grown into showstopper bulbs.

Which Garlic is Best for Home Growing?

If You Garden in a Colder Zone

In zones 1-8, opt for hardneck garlic varieties as they're much hardier and won't mind sub-zero temperatures a jot. Hardneck garlic bulbs have fewer but bigger cloves, strong flavor and store for 4-6 months.

If You Garden in a Warmer Zone

Choose softneck garlic in zones 6 and above, because it copes far better in warmer temperatures. Softneck garlic tastes milder, typically has lots of smaller cloves, and stores well for up to a year.

By mid-October, many tomato plants look pretty rough, with yellowing leaves, a few stubborn green fruits, and stems flopping over their cages. The easy move is to yank the whole mess out and drag it to the trash or the compost pile. Before you do, though, there’s some useful work hiding in those tired plants.

Good end-of-season tomato plant care starts with a close look at what you’re pulling. Some vines can feed next year’s garden as compost, and the best fruit can give you free seed. Others may carry diseases you don’t want to spread around the yard or carry over into next summer.

That’s the main thing to keep in mind as you work. Healthy tomato plants can usually go in the compost, while diseased ones should be bagged and disposed of according to your local guidance. Nearly every other job, from saving seeds to cleaning cages, depends on knowing which kind of plants you have.

1. Check Plants Carefully for Disease

Walk the row slowly and look at leaves, stems, and fruit before a single plant comes out. A few problems should never go into a typical home compost pile. Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) is one, and the bacterial tomato diseases are others, including bacterial spot (Xanthomonas spp.) and bacterial canker (Clavibacter michiganensis), which can survive in plant debris. Mosaic viruses are worse still – tobacco and tomato mosaic viruses can hang on in dried plant debris for years. Most backyard piles never get hot enough, evenly enough, to kill these organisms. Bag those plants and get rid of them according to your local rules, and do the same with any plant that’s heavily infested with pests.

2. Save Seeds from Your Best Tomatoes

Seed saving only works with open-pollinated or heirloom varieties – hybrids won’t come true to type, so an F1 tomato’s seeds can give you something quite different next year. Pick fully ripe fruit from your healthiest, best-tasting plants and scoop the seeds and gel into a glass jar with a little water. Stir it twice a day for up to about five days, until it ferments and the good seeds sink. Pour off the floaters, rinse what’s left in something like the Farberware fine mesh strainers from Walmart, and dry the seeds on a coffee filter or paper plate.

Once a fingernail can’t dent them, they’re ready for labeled paper envelopes; the Lotmer seed-saving envelopes from Amazon are printed with seed name, variety, date collected, and growing notes. Kept cool, dry, and dark, tomato seed usually stays good for about four years.

3. Take Healthy Cuttings Before Frost

This one’s optional, but if there’s a variety you loved this year, you can carry it through the winter indoors. Pick a few healthy side shoots about 3–4 inches (8–10 cm) long and snip them off with clean pruners – Fiskars' bypass pruning shears, available on Amazon, are a great budget-friendly pick if you need a new pair.

Cuttings will usually root in a plain jar of water, as long as the cut ends sit 1–2 inches (2.5–5 cm) under the surface and the jar stays somewhere cool and bright. Once roots show up, pot them and give them all the light you can. Don’t put this off until after a hard frost has already hit the garden.

Leave out any plant that had disease problems, and viruses in particular, since a cutting can carry them along from the parent.

4. Compost Healthy Plants the Right Way

Healthy vines are worth composting, but toss them on the pile whole, and they’ll take ages to rot. Chop them into short lengths first – 8–12 inches (20–30cm) or so – because smaller pieces break down faster. It also pays to strip off any leftover tomatoes. Seeds can make it through a backyard pile in one piece, and you may find volunteers popping up next summer.

Layer the chopped vines with dry leaves or other brown material. A compost bin like the Redmon 65-gallon compost bin from Walmart keeps it all corralled.

If you’re on the fence about whether a plant was healthy, use that compost away from where tomatoes will grow. Healthy potting mix from containers can go on the pile, too, so dump those pots before you stack them for winter.

5. Remove the Roots (or Leave Them?)

For plants that stayed healthy all season, there’s a good case for leaving the roots in the ground. Just cut the stems off at the soil line, and the roots will break down in place, adding organic matter without much soil disturbance. A plant that wilted, stunted, or yellowed for no clear reason is another story. Loosen the root ball with a spading fork, like Home Depot’s Ames 4-tine forged spading fork. You’re looking for knotty swellings on the roots, a sign of root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.).

Remove infested roots soon after harvest and leave them out of the garden. The same goes for plants with Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici), which can persist in soil for many years. In containers, tip the root ball out and check it the same way.

6. Clean and Disinfect Cages, Stakes and Supports

Some disease organisms ride along on tomato supports. Bacterial canker can persist on stakes, and mosaic viruses can last weeks to months on stakes and trellises. Knock off the dirt first, then scrub or hose them down, since soil blocks disinfectants. Then soak them fully in a 10% bleach solution (1 part bleach to 9 parts water) for at least 20 minutes.

Rather skip the bleach? ZeroTol 2.0, an OMRI-listed hydrogen peroxide product sold on Amazon, is labeled for hard, nonporous surfaces like metal cages and tools. Wooden stakes are trickier – bacteria can hide in the wood – so toss any that held canker-infected plants. Plastic pots can get the same bleach soak, followed by a good rinse.

7. Recharge the Bed for Next Year

Bare soil over winter is a missed opportunity. Winter rye is very cold-tolerant and grows in cool weather. In mid-October, it’s still an option in many areas, as long as you sow it at least four weeks before steady cold sets in. You’ll find Mountain Valley Seed winter rye on Amazon in a 5-pound bag on Amazon. Mow it in spring before it sets seed, then turn it under two to four weeks before planting.

If it’s too late for a cover crop, spread compost such as Back to the Roots organic compost, available from Home Depot, or a blanket of shredded leaves, instead. Next year’s tomatoes should go somewhere else, too – keep tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes out of that spot for three to four years. For containers, reuse potting mix only if the plants stayed healthy, and replace the top 6 inches (15 cm) in big pots with fresh mix.

Your Post-Harvest Tomato Checklist

Once the last tomatoes are picked, here’s the whole job in short form. Pin it somewhere you’ll see it, because October tends to get busy.

• Look over every plant for disease before anything gets pulled.
• Bag blighted, bacterial or virus-infected plants, and compost only the healthy ones.
• Save seed from your best open-pollinated or heirloom tomatoes.
• If you want a head start, root a few healthy side shoots indoors before frost.
• Chop healthy vines and pick off leftover fruit before they hit the compost.
• Dig up and check the roots of any plant that wilted or struggled.
• Scrub and disinfect cages, stakes and pots before storing them.
• Sow winter rye, add compost or mulch the bed with leaves.
• Pick a new spot for next year’s tomatoes.

There are two types of people in this world: those who put one pumpkin outside in October and feel good about it, and those who aspire to be like Martha Stewart. Every autumn, her entire staircase is lined with pumpkins and gourds that look like they were grown by expert garden design fairies. And, as usual, her comment section collectively decides to give up and beg for a tutorial on how to create a fall porch display.

Well, I consulted with a couple of experts to give you that tutorial, so just call me a younger, dark-haired Martha Stewart. If you squint, you won’t even see the difference.

The Design Principles Behind It

Before you even think about raiding a pumpkin patch, you’ll need to understand what makes this display look planned rather than like Halloween decorations set out at HomeGoods in July.

Preeti Shah, founder of Spotlight Style and luxury event producer of over 20 years, is clear on this: "A pumpkin display looks designed when it has a plan. Choose a tight palette, such as creamy whites, soft sage and one deep orange, and repeat it from the bottom step to the door. Vary the sizes, but group them in odd numbers, with the biggest pieces anchoring the corners and the smallest at the front edge. Leave breathing room between groups so the stairs still read as stairs. Then step back and squint. If one spot grabs your eye, move it."

According to Heidi Grasman, gardening expert and co-owner of Garden Crossings, the difference between an autumnal display that looks well-planned and one that looks thrown together on a whim comes down to one thing. She says, "Just throwing pumpkins on a porch is very Halloween-looking – adding in flowers and foliage makes it look decorated." Pumpkins are the supporting cast, not the main event.

Which Varieties to Choose

If you’re new to decorating and gardening in autumn, you might be surprised to know there are actually different varieties of pumpkins you can choose from. If you're interested in growing your own, you can even buy a Spooky Pumpkin Seed Mix from Seed Needs on Amazon.

The cream and white pumpkins that really anchor Martha’s display are usually Casper, Lumina, or Baby Boo. These all have smooth skin, clean color, and look exceptionally striking against a dark door or stone step.

If you prefer the classic deep orange, Howden or Cinderella (Rouge Vif d'Etampes) will give you that saturation that looks beautiful in fall photos and holds on to its color for several weeks. If you like things to be a little more unique, Galeux d'Eysines has tiny little wart-like skin, while Jarrahdale is a flat, bluish-gray variety. And if you love a good gourd mix as I do, these quirky, unique shapes will fill in the gaps in your display and can add extra interest to the front of each step edge.

Adding Flowers and Foliage

If you're trying to get a similar display to Martha Stewart’s, think outside the box (or pumpkin) with some fall foliage. Grasman recommends using chrysanthemums as the focal point, with foliage doing the structural work. She says, “I like to use coral bells for foliage color, ornamental grass as a thriller or spiller, and then mix the mums in for flower color."

On choosing the right mum: "It's not so much about what variety to choose but where it is at in its bud or bloom stage. If they are looking for instant color, choose one that is more in bloom. If they are looking for the color to last a while, choose one that is just in bud."

Her advice on pumpkins within a planting scheme is useful too. She adds, "Let the pumpkins and vegetables be an accent, not the main show of color. Tucking some ornamental peppers, kale, cabbage into your fall combination planters can add a pretty touch. Let the mums be the focal point."

Shop Pumpkin Planters

Grow Your Own for Next Year

If you’re a purist and want to grow your own pumpkins and gourds for next year, sow them outdoors in late May or early June, or indoors 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost. They need a lot of space (at least 6 feet in each direction for most varieties), but even a small patch can give you enough for a full stair display.

Sow two seeds per station, and once both have germinated, remove the weaker seedling by snipping it at soil level so only the strongest plant remains; then keep it well-watered once the fruits start to develop.

They are ready to harvest when the skin is hard and the stem is dry. Then leave them to dry in a warm spot for 10-14 days. This helps harden the skin, make the orange even orangier, and extend how long they’ll last in your display.

Remember this TL;DR version from Martha Stewart when creating your own autumnal porch display: Same palette, odd numbers, a little foliage, and enough breathing room between the pumpkins.

If you’ve been growing productive pepper plants outdoors this summer, fall usually signals a sad goodbye. Because peppers are tropical perennials that cannot tolerate frost, autumn’s temperature drops generally mean it’s time to let them go. They aren’t hardy in most growing climates, so they tend to succumb soon after the first frost. However, there is a brilliant, creative indoor alternative: turning your favorite summer chili into a bonchi: a miniature bonsai chili tree.

This style of growing chilil peppers is about more than just overwintering. Bonchi (short for bonchili, aka bonsai chili) culture transforms your productive outdoor plants into stunning, living indoor sculptures that sit comfortably on a sunny windowsill. By hard-pruning the top growth and trimming the root mass to fit a shallow bonsai pot, you reduce the size to create a mini tree form.

So, not only does this fun project save your hard-earned plants from freezing weather, but it also gives you a fascinating head start for next year. Come spring, it's possible for your established bonchi to be kept as a productive, fruit-bearing indoor houseplant for years to come. This step by step guide shows you how to create your own pretty miniature chili tree. So grab your pruning snips, clear a spot on the windowsill, and let’s turn this season’s harvest into a lasting masterpiece.

1. Choose the Best Pepper

While all peppers (Capsicum spp.) are tender perennials, certain varieties adapt much better to bonsai cultivation. Capsicum chinense species (such as habanero, Scotch bonnet and ghost peppers) and Capsicum frutescens (like tabasco) naturally develop thick, gnarled, woody main stems early in their growth cycles, giving them an instant ancient tree aesthetic. Compact Capsicum annuum varieties like jalapeño and cayenne, plus ornamental varieties like 'Black Pearl' or 'Numex Twilight' are also stellar candidates thanks to their small leaves and abundant, colorful pods.

When selecting a candidate, look for a plant that has demonstrated outstanding vigor and heavy fruit production throughout summer. Choose a specimen with a thick main stem (at least thumb-width) near the soil line and balanced lower branching. Avoid weak, leggy plants or those showing signs of viral infections, such as mottled leaves or stunted stems. Healthy roots are important, too.

Remember, smaller-fruited varieties look much more proportionate on a miniature tree than massive bell peppers, creating a far more harmonious visual balance once your bonchi starts setting fruit indoors. It’s also worth grabbing a soil meter, such as the Raintrip Soil 4-in-1 Meter from Amazon, to give the soil a quick read as you assess the healthiest candidates.

2. Prep and Lift Before First Frost

Timing is everything when transitioning outdoor peppers indoors. You must lift your chosen plant before the first hard frost, and ideally before night temperatures consistently dip below 50°F (10°C). Chilly winds slow down the plant’s metabolism, making root recovery much harder once brought inside. Water your pepper plant deeply 24 hours before digging. Damp soil clings to the root ball, reducing transplant shock and making extraction easier. Just make sure it is damp, not soggy.

Cut a wide circle roughly 6-8 inches (15-20cm) away from the main stem, slicing down deep to free the root ball. Lift the plant gently, shaking away excess soil to expose the roots. Before taking your plant inside, conduct a strict pest inspection. Outdoor peppers frequently harbor aphids, whiteflies, or spider mites under leaves. To help with pest inspection, grab a magnifying glass or loupe such as the Carson LumiLoupe 10x Stand Magnifier, available from Walmart. This handy pocket magnifier lets you inspect leaf undersides for tiny aphid eggs or spider mites before bringing plants inside (and they are really good value to have around the house).

Rinse the plant with a gentle spray, or apply a mild insecticidal soap drench to prevent unwelcome hitchhikers from invading your indoor setup.

3. Trim Stems and Roots

Now comes the bit that might scare you if you are a beginner grower, but it is important: severe pruning. Don’t panic, peppers are resilient, and aggressive pruning is essential to force the plant into its compact bonsai habit. For this, you need the sharpest snips or scissors you can find. One team favorite is a set of Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Snips,available from Amazon. Alternatively, dedicated bonsai shears such as Garden Guru Professional Butterfly Bonsai Shears, available from Walmart, give precise cuts without harming the plant.

You need to cut the main trunk back to a height of just 4-8 inches (10-20 cm) above the soil line. Strip off all remaining large leaves and thin out weak or crossing side branches, leaving just 2-3 short, structural branch stubs to serve as your new tree framework. You’ll need to leave a few side stems in place to become branches.

Next, turn your attention to the roots. You’ll need to be able to see the taproot and side feeder roots. Trim the root ball down. reducing the volume by around 60-70 percent. Prune away thick taproots and long, straggly roots, preserving a compact, dense pad of fine feeder roots close to the base. This might seem drastic, but it balances the root volume with reduced top growth, preparing the plant for effective bonsai container gardening and allowing the plant to easily fit into a shallow dish.

4. Pot Your Bonchi

Selecting the right container can transform your pruned pepper into living art. Traditional bonsai containers are shallow, ceramic dishes featuring generous drainage holes. Choose a pot that can comfortably house your trimmed root mass with an inch of clearance around the sides. Ensure the container has adequate drainage, as standing water will rot pruned roots rapidly. Position the plant so the primary root flares sit slightly above the soil line, exposing the top of the root system to give your mini tree an established, aged appearance.

Soil choice is vital for long-term health. Avoid dense potting mixes, which retain too much water in shallow pots. Instead, use a free-draining bonsai mix, or mix 60% high-quality potting soil with 40% perlite or horticultural sand. If you need perlite, lightweight Legigo Organic Perlite from Amazon is an excellent choice, helping to prevent compaction in shallow bonsai potting mixes. Pack the substrate firmly around the roots, using a chopstick to eliminate hidden air pockets. Water thoroughly until water streams freely from the drainage holes.

5. Bonchi Care

After the shock of severe pruning and repotting, your new bonchi needs a bit of time to rest and recuperate. Place in a warm, sheltered spot, away from direct, scorching sunlight and leave for one week to recover. Once new green buds begin pushing out along the trunk, move to your sunniest south-facing windowsill, where it can receive at least 6 hours of bright light daily. If winter light is weak in your region, supplement with a grow light.

Watering requires a careful touch during dormancy. Allow the top inch (2.5cm) of soil to dry out between waterings, as overwatering cold roots is the fastest way to cause root rot. Skip heavy feeds for the first month. Once active leaf growth is established, you can feed bi-weekly with a gentle seaweed drench diluted to half-strength. I recommend TPS Seaweed Fertilizer, available from Amazon, to encourage healthy root recovery. As fresh shoots expand, lightly pinch back overly long stems to encourage dense branching and maintain a mini tree silhouette.

6. Pollinate for Peppers

One of the most rewarding moments of bonchi cultivation is watching delicate white or purple flowers blossom during the depths of winter. However, because your living room lacks natural outdoor pollinators, like bumblebees and wind breezes, you’ll need to step in as chief pollinator to help set fruit. Fortunately, pepper flowers are self-fertile, meaning each bloom contains both male and female reproductive parts.

Once flowers open fully, gently tap the trunk or flick the flower stems with your finger to release pollen. For higher success rates, use a small, soft watercolor paintbrush to gently swirl inside each flower, transferring pollen from the outer anthers to the sticky stigma. You can pick up Royal & Langnickel Taklon Art Brushes from Walmart for just a few dollars. These fine-tipped brushes are ideal for delicate pollination. Within a week, the petals will drop away, revealing tiny green pepper pods. You can then enjoy seeing fresh peppers ripening indoors while snow falls outside your window.

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Winter squash is so easy to grow but dark or soft patches around the fruit’s base is a common challenge in October, indicating end rot. Rotting bases are such a disappointment in fall, just as you’re looking forward to a harvest of butternut, acorn, honeynut and other winter squashes like spaghetti and delicata squash.

Don’t fear the worst, though. End rot on winter squash in October is easily fixed, so great work getting here to Garden ER where you'll find straightforward solutions to treat this season’s biggest planty problems. Act fast and you don’t have to lose your entire harvest. Identify and fix the issue, sand you'll save the rest of your homegrown gourds from a similar fate.

If you’re growing winter squash this season, it’s useful to know the signs to look out for, and what they indicate, even if you haven't noticed any dark patches on fruit bases, so you can take swift action at the very first whisper of a rotting bottom. Come on in to Garden ER and let’s diagnose and treat those ugly patches on the bases of your winter squash.

Triage: Take a Closer Look at That Base Patch

A winter squash rotting from the base up is easily spotted. A discolored patch on the bottom of the gourd appears: it may look darker, bruised or as if it’s been soaked in water. The spot will gradually grow larger and turn black or brown, and often becomes flat or slightly sunken. Press it and it’ll feel a little softer or spongier than the rest of the squash’s firm skin.

If the rotting base has been developing for a while, the patch may have collapsed into a hole, become moldy or emit a foul smell.

A healthy squash will have a base that's firm, with the spot where the blossom once grew having developed into a dry, pale, roughly circular patch.

Diagnosis: What’s Causing the Rot?

While you can’t help the affected squash’s rotting bottom, it’s vital to diagnose what caused it so you can save the rest of your harvest. While plants grown at ground level are vulnerable, end rot is also a common issue when growing winter squash vertically up a trellis.

Blossom End Rot

Blossom end rot is the most common reason, caused by a lack of calcium in the fruit which leads to weak cell walls. The problem isn’t typically a lack of calcium in the soil, but the plant's ability to take up and use the calcium. And the underlying cause of this is typically acidic soil, drought or inconsistent watering.

If blossom end rot is the problem, the rotting patch at the base of the fruit will look even and will have a brown, leathery, sunken appearance. Because calcium is used to build cell walls as the gourd grows from its base, deformed fruit formation is another clue that you’re dealing with blossom end rot.

Wet Ground

Contact with wet ground is the next most likely cause of end rot on your squashes. With more rain and cooler temperatures, it’s common at this time of year for the soil to remain moist. Contact softens the rinds where fruits are resting on permanently damp ground, giving pathogens like soil-borne fungi and bacteria a chance to start rotting the fruit.

Distinguishing between wet ground and blossom end rot being the cause is simple. Look at where the rot occurs: if wet ground is the cause, the fruit will likely look healthy except for the portion in contact with the soil; blossom end rot causes more even rotting, though it’s likely to be worse at the base.

Pest Damage

Pests are the least likely source of rot in squash ends in October, but it's a possibility. If pests start gnawing on the end of a fruit, the open wound can quickly become infected and start to rot. Signs of pest damage such as bites and holes will be clear, and these wounds are very likely to start rotting if they’re in contact with wet ground.

Treatment: Protect Your Current and Future Winter Squash Harvests

1. Remove Rotting Winter Squash

Squash already affected with rotting bases cannot be saved, and rot can spread and contribute to worsening conditions for the rest of the plant. Cut fruit from the plant with a sharp pair of hand pruners, as soon as you spot the first signs of a rotting bottom.

If you’ve caught the problem early and the problem is wet ground or pest damage, the squash is still safe to eat – just cut away the affected part with a safety margin of a good inch of healthy flesh. Inspect the flesh and if it’s firm, hard, smells sweet and has its usual color, it’s safe to cook.

If blossom end rot is the cause, dispose of the squash even if the patch is still tiny. Because the calcium deficiency affects the fruit’s growth, the flesh is likely to be less sweet.

Regardless of cause, throw out any fruit that has a lot of rot, is very soft or leaking, or has a bad smell.

2. Check Soil pH

As acidic soil is a common cause of blossom end rot, check pH levels. A comprehensive soil meter such as this from Amazon tests pH along with moisture levels, temperature, sunlight intensity and soil fertility so is a really handy helper when you’re growing vegetables. If you simply want a fast answer to whether your soil is acidic or not, test strips such as Rapitest Soil Test Kit, also from Amazon, is a quick and cheap method. Testing your soil is a smart move, however you choose to do it, as it'll alert you to any deficiencies that may be affecting others crops too.

Your local extension office can provide guidance on how to lower the acidity of your soil if results reveal a low pH level.

3. Water Consistently

Good watering practices lowers the risk that remaining fruit will develop blossom end rot. Aim to keep soil consistently moist rather than letting it dry out completely and then soaking it. Water at the soil line low to the ground near the stem, keeping leaves and fruits dry as excess moisture on squashes can contribute to rot, especially in cooler fall temperatures.

A soaker hose such as this Kink-Free Flat Soaker Hose from Walmart is a simple solution, or you’ll find some great deals on drip irrigation starter kits now summer’s over, like this Garden Irrigation System, also from Walmart.

4. Lift Squashes Off the Ground

Elevating developing fruits off the ground is a great way to prevent rot, keeping them off damp soil. It can be as simple as placing individual fruits on top of rocks or wood planks, or lay straw under the lot. A wheat cover straw such as CleanStraw mulch, available from Walmart, is ideal. Don’t worry about a few seeds being left among the threshed straw – wheat seedlings are shallow-rooted and very easy to pull up.

Move young fruits carefully so you don’t damage the stems.

5. Improve Airflow

Good airflow around plants will also reduce localized moisture and the risk of rotting. Adding a layer of straw over the soil will do the job of improving airflow as well as lifting fruit off the soil, but general care will help, too. Squash plants tend to get very dense with vegetation as they grow so regularly remove any yellow, damaged or mildewed leaves, being careful not to prune healthy leaves too aggressively as plants need these to make energy.

You can also boost airflow by removing debris under and around the plants, especially around the fruits. A small hand rake like Fiskars Xact Hand Rake, available from Lowe's, makes the job easier.

6. Harvest Sooner

Keep a closer eye on your squashes once October arrives, and harvest them as soon as they’re ready. The longer they sit outside, the more likely they are to rot. Signs they’re ripe and ready include a full, mature color, a hard rind that resists your fingernail, and a dried or hardened stem.

The hard rind of winter squashes mean they store well, so even if you have a glut, harvest what you can, as soon as you can.

Patient Notes: How Zone Affects End Rot

If You Garden in a Cold Zone

In colder growing zones, early cold snaps, shorter daylight hours, and damp fall weather in October can slow down root activity, making it harder for plants to transport calcium efficiently to developing fruit, making this a likely cause behind blossom end rot.

If You Garden in a Warmer Zone

In warmer zones, late-season heat and drier soil accelerates plant growth and transpiration, which can cause severe moisture fluctuations, making inconsistent watering a likely trigger for blossom end rot.

More Garden ER Help

Every week, the Garden ER series brings you simple solutions to this season's most pressing problems, for happy and healthy plants without any hassle.

Plenty of gardeners treat October as cleanup month. The tomato cages come down and the squash vines get yanked, then the beds sit bare until spring. That ground still has plenty of use left in it, though. Cooler nights and a lower sun happen to suit a whole group of crops that bolt or turn bitter in summer heat, and quite a few can go in this month for harvests running from late fall into next spring.

Timing is where it gets tricky. Anyone starting a vegetable garden this late in the year still has options, but much depends on USDA zones (or your equivalent growing zone for non-Americans) and first frost dates. A gardener in mild zone 9 has months of planting weather ahead, while someone in cooler zone 5 might see the soil freeze solid by Thanksgiving – pretty different situations.

The solution is to choose crops that are suited to shorter days and chillier evenings. From leafy greens that thrive with fewer pests in fall to root vegetables that overwinter underground, and even hardy herbs that normally bolt in the high heat of summer. Plenty of options are available for anyone who wants to keep planting seeds in October and enjoy a home-grown seasonal bounty.

How USDA Zones Shape October Planting

One detail catches a lot of people off guard. USDA zones are built on average extreme winter lows, not frost dates, so two towns sharing a zone can see their first frost weeks apart – elevation and coastal influence skew things quite a bit. Zones still work as a rough guide to what can sit in the ground over winter. Frost dates tell when to stop sowing; zones hint at what survives after that.

Count back from the average first frost date using the days to maturity on the seed packet, then add a week or two. Growth slows as fall days shorten, and packet numbers usually assume summer conditions. Overwintering crops are a different story – they only need roots down before the soil freezes.

Cool-Season Vegetables to Sow in October

A few of these work across most of the country this month. Others only pay off where winters stay mild, so it helps to know the zone before buying seed.

1. Garlic

October is prime time for growing garlic, with cloves going in a few weeks before the ground freezes in zones 3–8. However, planting times for garlic vary slightly by region. Down in zones 9 and 10, there's no rush – November or December works fine.

Break the bulb apart and set individual cloves pointed end up, roughly 2 inches (5 cm) deep and 4–6 inches (10–15 cm) apart.

You can plant grocery store garlic, but it is usually a softneck variety grown in mild winters, and it can struggle in colder regions, unlike hardneck garlic types. A garden center or seed catalog is the better source – you can pick up a flavor sampler organic garlic bundle from Botanical Interests, which includes two hardneck varieties and elephant garlic.

Up north, pile on straw mulch once the soil cools – 4–6 inches (10–15 cm) is typical. Freeze-thaw cycles can heave bare cloves right out of the ground otherwise. Harvest comes next summer as the lower leaves brown.

2. Spinach

Spinach sown in early October across zones 5–7 often overwinters as small rosettes. Come spring, those plants are usually ready to cut weeks before anything sown in March. Zones 8–10 get the easier deal, with steady cutting straight through winter.

Bloomsdale Long Standing, available from Eden Brothers, is a lovely, rich heirloom spinach that performs well with fall planting, while Noble Giant produces huge sweet leaves that do not turn bitter as temperatures drop.

Plant seed ½ inch (1 cm) deep. Germination tends to suffer in warm soil, roughly 75°F (24°C) and up, and a warm spell in early October can push beds into that range. In colder spots, row covers, like these Agfabric ones on Amazon, or loose straw help young plants through hard freezes.

3. Radishes

Small round radishes rank among the quickest crops around, going from seed to harvest in three to four weeks. That speed makes them a safe October sowing in zones 6–10, while zone 5 gardeners can sometimes squeeze in a crop during the first week or so.

The big winter types are another matter – most need closer to two months, so they're better started in late summer outside the South.

If the idea of classic white and red radishes bores you, then try black radishes. This resilient variety thrives in cool seasons across USDA Zones 3–9 when planted in well-draining soil and full sun. Pick up a pack of Round Black Spanish Radish Seeds at Botanical Interests.

When planting radishes, sow seed ½ inch (1 cm) deep. Crowded radishes tend to put everything into leaves, so thin seedlings to 1–2 inches (2.5–5 cm) apart.

4. Lettuce

Lettuce tends to get filed under spring crops. Through much of zones 8–10, though, October is when its best stretch begins. Loose-leaf types may be ready to cut in six or seven weeks, and light frost rarely does much damage. A hard freeze is another matter – expect mushy leaves.

Zones 6 and 7 can pull it off with shelter – a cold frame similar to the Zenport folding cold frame at Lowe's can trap enough daytime warmth to keep leaves coming into early winter. Crack the lid on sunny days, though. It gets hot in there fast.

There are so many varieties of lettuce to choose from, and so it's worth getting a mix pack of seeds, like this Survival Seeds 10 Heirloom Lettuces Collection, from Amazon. Many can be harvested as cut-and-come-again.

Scatter seed thinly with barely any soil on top; often lettuces germinate better when a little light reaches them.

5. Fava Beans

Snap beans rarely survive a frost. Fava beans are a different animal, a cool-season legume that can take a fair amount of cold. Gardeners in zones 8–10 can sow them anytime from October to December, and growth crawls along all winter before pods show up in spring. Zone 7 is more of a gamble – seed labeled for overwintering helps, but a rough winter can still set plants back.

Windsor fava beans from Botanical Interests are tasty and look pretty in beds. You can eat the young pods like snap peas.

Plant 1–2 inches (2.5–5 cm) deep with about 6 inches (15 cm) between seeds. By spring, the stems may be tall enough to need a stake. After the last pods come off, cut plants at the soil line and leave the roots where they are. They return some nitrogen to the bed for whatever goes in next.

6. Carrots

This one mostly belongs to Southern gardeners. October-sown carrots in zones 8–10 typically need two to three months to size up, and a carrot pulled in January often tastes noticeably sweeter than a summer one. Cold soil pushes roots to turn some starch into sugar. Farther north, there usually isn't enough time before the ground freezes.

Organo Republic sells a 10 Unique Carrot Seeds Variety Pack on Amazon, which offers all the flavor variety you could want.

Seed goes in ¼ inch (6 mm) deep, and it's slow – sometimes two weeks or more to sprout. Keeping that top layer moist is honestly the hard part. A strip of burlap laid over the row helps, as long as it comes off the moment seedlings appear.

7. Herbs

From parsley to cilantro, starting an herb garden is a great way to fill your life with fragrance and flavor in the months to come. Get started with Home Grown's 15-Variety Herb Pack on Amazon; if you're worried about cooler temperatures, you can always keep them in pots on a sunny windowsill. Most, however, should cope in zones 5–10, making them ideal crops to plant in October.

October is best for planting cool-season herbs such as parsley, cilantro, chives, dill, and chervil, which can handle lower temperatures and may keep producing into fall. You can also plant hardy perennial herbs like thyme, sage, oregano, and mint in many areas while the soil is still workable. Some herbs will need winter protection in colder regions.

8. Snow Peas

Snow peas are cool-season vegetables that are quite frost-hardy, but don’t worry; they require no more work than growing other varieties of peas, making them one of our favorite low-maintenance vegetables to plant in October (particularly if you’re based in USDA zones 8 and 9).

Just make sure you get them in the ground about 6 to 8 weeks before your area's first fall frost to allow the roots to establish before a hard freeze – and mulch well, too. We’re fans of the Dwarf Grey Sugar heirloom snow peas, available from Eden Brothers.

Plant snow pea seeds directly into loose, well-drained soil about 1 inch deep and 2 inches apart, ideally beside a trellis or other support for the vines to climb. Choose a spot with full sun and keep the soil consistently moist. Harvest the flat pods once they reach a useful size, before the peas inside begin to swell.

9. Shallots

One of the easiest vegetables to plant in October, shallots are very similar to garlic in lots of ways; all you need to do is sow sets or seeds, like the sweet, mild Zebrune Shallots from Botanical Interests, in loose, well-drained soil amended with organic matter, then wait until June or July to harvest.

Fall planting is generally most successful in USDA Zones 4–10, although gardeners in colder Zones 3–5 may need to add a thick layer of mulch or plant in raised beds for extra drainage and protection. In the coldest areas, spring planting may be more reliable.

10. Beets

Of course, beets are on our list of vegetables to plant in October; these tasty red crops can be grown all winter long in many southern states (though you’ll need a soil temperature of at least 40°F in the north).

Sow beet seeds directly into loose, well-drained soil around ½ inch deep, spacing them roughly 1–2 inches apart. Once seedlings emerge, thin them so the remaining plants have room to swell, or harvest the thinnings as baby greens. In warmer Zones 7–10, October sowings can provide a steady winter crop, while gardeners in colder areas may need to use row cover or a cold frame.

Most will be ready for harvesting after seven to eight weeks, although beet greens can be picked earlier. And, if you want to up the ante, try something like Organo Republic's 10 Rare Beet Seeds Variety Pack from Walmart; it should make for a truly spectacular display!

At the risk of sounding nosy, I love seeing what's in other people's gardens. It's always exciting to discover the crops they've chosen, what's looking plentiful, and how they've laid out their growing space.

Sir David and Lady Beckham are certainly no strangers to a bit of yard work. David regularly shares glimpses of their vegetable garden on Instagram, while Victoria often films him as he tends the beds, harvests produce, and shows off what they're growing. Their posts offer a fascinating running look at how their garden develops throughout the year.

So, if you're thinking about starting your own vegetable garden, the Beckhams' growing space is a great place to find inspiration. Here's a closer look at what they're growing and discover the easiest vegetables you can plant in your own garden this fall.

1. Onions

The Beckhams appear to grow several types of onions. In David’s Instagram video, he is seen harvesting a Shakespeare onion, while another video shows red onions harvested elsewhere in the garden.

Shakespeare is a fall-planted variety that can establish before winter and continue growing when temperatures rise again in spring. However, onion planting times vary across the US, so check that any variety you buy is suitable for overwintering in your USDA zone.

If you’re a beginner, onion sets are usually easier than growing onions from seed. Small, partially developed bulbs, they establish more quickly than seeds and make things easier. A mixed pack, such as the TomorrowSeeds 3 Colors Mix Onion Sets from Walmart, gives you red, white, and yellow onions in one planting, making it an easy way to create a colorful crop similar to the Beckhams’.

Plant onion sets in full sun, in loose, well-drained soil, with the pointed tip just above the surface.

2. Lettuce

David and Victoria are also fans of growing their own lettuce, and in his video, David highlights the variety Black Seeded Simpson, a loose-leaf lettuce with light green leaves that is well suited to cooler growing conditions.

That makes it a good option to plant in September. Lettuce can be sown directly into the soil in many areas, although the best timing depends on your first frost date. Choose a sunny spot with well-drained soil, and keep the soil consistently moist while the seeds germinate and the young plants establish.

You can find Black Seeded Simpson lettuce seeds from RDR Seeds on Amazon. When harvesting, leaving the center intact allows the lettuce to keep producing new leaves rather than pulling up the entire plant at once.

3. Strawberries

In a video from earlier this summer, David shows off his healthy cluster of strawberry plants. The plants are surrounded by borage, whose blue flowers can help attract pollinators while adding extra color to the vegetable garden.

Strawberries are another crop worth considering adding in the fall, to give roots time to establish before winter and get off to a productive start next year. The exact timing varies by region, but aim for roughly 4 to 6 weeks before your first expected hard frost. You can pick up a pack of Bonnie strawberry plants from Walmart.

Check that the types of strawberries are suitable for your area, plant them in full sun, in fertile, well-drained soil, and make sure the crown sits level with the soil surface rather than being buried.

Shop Vegetable Growing Supplies

You don’t need the Beckhams’ space – or their gardening experience – to make a start. Lettuce, strawberries, and onions are all useful crops for beginners, and with the right varieties and planting times for your area, they can help turn even a small garden bed into a productive growing space this fall.

If you're wondering how to ripen green tomatoes on the vine for maximum flavor, this quick trick will force tomato plants to put all their energy into producing red fruit, fast. It’s been a fantastic year for growing tomatoes and finishing the season will be all the better if you’re picking juicy ripe tomatoes rather than green hard-as-a-bullet fruit that fill your windowsills for weeks.

Tomato plants are driven by an incredibly strong survival instinct, and this simple gardening hack flips this force of nature into panic mode, hoodwinking plants to crack on with ripening fruit that’s already formed. You’ll enjoy far more flavorful late-season tomatoes, and have a free windowsill to boot!

Part of the Weekend Win series, persuading a tomato plant to ripen its last fruits fast is one of those easy jobs that brings a big reward, and guess what? All you need is a pair of hand pruners.

How to Trick Tomato Plants into Ripening the Last Fruits

1. Understand How a Tomato Plant’s Survival Instinct Works

Tomato plants have stronger survival instincts than humans – and that’s a fact. With around 25% more genes than we do, many of a tomato plant's genes come in pairs: one to look after the necessary day-to-day basics of life, and one that only comes into play when the plant is stressed. That means tomato plants adapt incredibly quickly to growing conditions, and we gardeners can use that to our advantage to ripen those precious last fruits.

In late September, days are still warm enough that a tomato plant thinks there’s time to grow more fruit, and so produce more seeds for survival. However, nights are cold enough to halt the ripening process on its already-formed green tomatoes. So while the tomatoes are still ripening, it's a very slow process. This simple task, however, will trick the plant into panic mode so it puts all its energy into ripening tomatoes, pronto.

2. Halt All New Growth

Before you perform the magic trick to focus tomato plants on ripening fruit, you need to prevent it wasting energy on new growth. You may well have done this already as it’s a regular part of September tomato care, but if not, use hand pruners such as these Fiskars Bypass Pruners from Lowe’s to snip off the main growing tip at the top of the vine. Cut off any yellow flowers and newly-formed tiny green tomatoes, too, and keep checking leaf joints and removing any fresh sucker shoots.

3. Strip Away Lower Leaves

Now you’ve got your tomato plant’s attention, you need to strip off all the leaves on the bottom third of the plant. Cut stems flush with the vine so the base is completely bare apart from any lingering fruit trusses. This stresses the plant, which now thinks winter has arrived early, so it puts all its efforts into ripening fruit to ensure the seeds it's already produced survive.

Pruning tomato plants in this way looks harsh but it's common practice in commercial tomato-growing operations, so don't worry a jot! The plants now only need enough energy to finish ripening already-formed fruit rather than fuelling new growth, so they'll be just fine.

4. Cut Watering

The next step to trigger your tomato plants to move into full emergency mode is to cut the water supply to stress them a little more. The plant will think it's about to die and, when a plant goes into this survival-at-all-costs state, it physically releases a heap of ethylene gas, the ripening hormone, as a last-ditch measure. This surge sends a strong signal to green fruit to rush seeds to maturity, so tomatoes ripen far more quickly.

To ripen tomatoes growing in the ground, you should stop irrigating completely, as plants will still be able to source some moisture from the ground. In containers, grow bags or a greenhouse, drastically reduce watering to the bare minimum to trigger this survival mode and accelerate the ripening process. A light watering once a week if it doesn't rain at all, or if you see the main stem starting to droop, is all a plant needs to stay alive at this late point in its life.

5. Keep Plants Warm

It’s not sunshine hitting the skin that ripens toms, but the warmth of its rays. We all know what it’s like to bask in the warmth of late-season sunshine so, in all zones, cut off any foliage that’s directly shading fruit trusses higher up the vine. This lets sunlight – and levels are getting lower all the time as fall approaches – hit the fruit directly for maximum warmth.

The ripening process shuts down as soon as air temperatures drop below 50°F (10°C) so, depending on your zone, you may need to take additional steps to keep tomato plants warm. Having a garden thermometer – whether it’s a handsome analog thermometer like this from Amazon or a weatherproof digital thermometer such as this, also from Amazon, takes out the guesswork and helps you make good decisions.

If you want to ripen tomatoes in a greenhouse, then the simple task of closing the door and vents in late afternoon, then opening them in the morning, traps warm air inside.

Having some horticultural fleece ready to throw over plants when a cold night is forecast is a smart move if you’re growing tomatoes outdoors. A breathable plant cover like this from Walmart is cheap, light enough not to damage plants and is easily pegged to tomato supports, and will help to keep the ripening process on track.

Try this simple fall trick and you'll have rapidly ripening tomatoes, and I'll wager you’ll be surprised how fast it works, and how strong a tomato plant's survival instinct is. And that's just as well as, depending on your USDA zone, you may not have much ripening time left. Tomato plants have zero frost tolerance and, with such a high water content, fruit that freezes is immediately ruined. Keep an eye out for your impending first frost so you can cut unripe fruit beforehand and ripen any remaining tomatoes indoors – but you won't have many, if any, green tomatoes left if you tried this simple fall trick.

Do remember to save tomato seeds for free plants next year before the end of the season, too, selecting good-sized toms from your strongest plants.

If you do have a few left to ripen, it’s good to know that popping green tomatoes in a brown paper bag with a banana or simply putting them inside a closed kitchen cupboard is a far better method than a sunny windowsill, and cuts ripening time down to a week.

More Weekend Wins

This feature is part of the Weekend Wins series, packed with quick and easy 10-minute tasks and gardening tips and tricks that bring a big reward.

As summer blooms begin to fade, autumn flowers and plants are ready to shine and take center stage in the cooler weather. Traditional fall borders are typically dominated by classic fall perennials like hardy chrysanthemums (aka mums), late-season asters, goldenrod, and sedums. However, limiting your displays strictly to conventional ornamentals means you are missing out on an incredible opportunity for creative texture, vivid color contrast, and dual-purpose productivity.

Why not add in some edible fall border fillers that thrive in the gentler weather of the season? Key edible plants showcase a surprising spectrum of jewel-toned colors and architectural foliage. From ruffled, crimson-stemmed leafy greens to intricate, lace-like herbs and blue-hued upright brassicas, cooler-weather crops offer striking visual interest that easily rivals traditional bedding plants. Tucking these edible gems in between your late-season flowers elevates the overall aesthetic of your beds and borders, while offering a continuous harvest for seasonal meal times.

Integrating edibles directly into ornamental borders is also a clever space-saver for home gardeners with limited plot space. Rather than isolating your veg in rigid rows, you can enjoy them in a unique way as part of your seasonal displays. Make more of these dynamic edibles before you have to clip them for soups, salads, and stir-fries. Here’s how to give your fall flower borders a very tasty visual upgrade.

Growing Veg in Fall Borders

Conventionally, a fall border is built around late-season floral heavyweights like mums and asters, with the seedheads left for winter bird foraging. While these classics deliver reliable fall color, they often leave awkward, leggy gaps as lower foliage dies back in cooler weather. Incorporating cool-season edible plants for flower beds fills gaps in spectacular fashion, using jewel-tones and ruffled frills to create depth and dimension, so borders look lush and hearty through first frosts.

From a practical perspective, integrating crops into flower beds offers a brilliant dual-purpose solution if you have limited plot space. Key edible greens and herbs thrive in autumn, provided you can give them full sun or light partial shade and free-draining soil. You just have to make sure you can maintain good drainage through fall, adding coarse sand or perlite where necessary.

Zonal considerations play a major role in fall border success. In northern regions (USDA hardiness zones 3-6), cool-season edibles perform as vibrant annuals that withstand light frosts before winter sets in. In warmer southern climates (zones 7-10), many of these crops will happily overwinter, providing continuous color and harvests straight into spring. Just check packs carefully before sowing direct outdoors

Before tucking young transplants or sowing seeds between fading perennials, take time to prep the soil. Clear away fallen leaf debris, gently aerate the top few inches of earth, and work in a generous layer of organic compost. Give your plant roots a helping hand with the mycorrhizal fungi present in Espoma’s Organic Bio-Tone Starter Plus from Amazon, for faster establishing plants with stronger roots. Prepping now enriches the soil for both these spectacular edibles and any spring-flowering bulbs sleeping beneath the surface. Let's meet our dazzling edible stars…

1. Rainbow Chard

Rainbow chard (Beta vulgaris) gets its name from the neon hues that run through its central stalks. Growing it directly in your flower borders creates an extraordinary display. Featuring glossy leaves supported by stems in fiery crimson, hot pink, vivid yellow, and bright orange, chard cultivars like Bright Lights and Celebration provide a lively backdrop to lower-growing sweet alyssum, violas, or trailing pansies.

Hardy in zones 3-10, chard is typically grown in fall as a cool-season annual. Just aim to set out transplants or sow seeds 6-8 weeks before your region's average first hard frost. Chard prefers rich, fertile, well-draining soil and a location with full sun or partial shade. You can harvest individual outer leaves continuously through autumn without disrupting the plant's stunning upright rosette. If heavy frost threatens, mulch around the base with straw to protect the crown for continued late-fall harvests.

You can currently get a luminous crop of orange, yellow, pink, white and red stalks with a single packet of Rainbow Mix Swiss Chard Seeds from Eden Brothers to add some bargain-friendly razzle-dazzle to borders.

2. Ornamental Kale and Cabbage

Ornamental kale and cabbage (Brassica oleracea) are cultivated specifically for their visual appeal. While technically 100% edible, their leaves tend to be tough and bitter compared to standard culinary varieties. However, what they lack in raw flavor, they more than compensate for in lush fall color and dramatic geometric forms. Popular cultivars like Peacock Red, Chidori, and Nagoya offer feathered, ruffled, or tightly wavy leaves arranged in dense, low-growing rosettes.

These ornamental brassicas form tight, low-growing rosettes featuring tightly ruffled, feathered, or wavy leaves. As temperatures drop below 50°F (10°C), the centers of these plants transform into vibrant shades of cream, royal purple, coral, and magenta. Set near the front edge of a fall border, they really pop near dark-leaved sedums or autumn crocuses. Extremely cold-hardy, they hold their color well into late winter, frequently surviving light snow cover.

Plant in mid-fall in a full-sun location with sharp, fast-draining soil. Don’t overwater once established, though. Soggy soil leads to yellowing lower leaves and root rot. If you fancy experimenting with purple rosettes, you can pick up a packet of Tomorrow Seeds Smooth Mix Ornamental Cabbage Seeds from Walmart for just a few dollars.

3. Tuscan Kale

Also known as Lacinato kale, dinosaur kale, or Cavolo Nero, Tuscan kale (Brassica oleracea var. palmifolia) offers exceptional culinary value and sophisticated beauty. This heirloom variety produces dramatic, upright leaves that curve outward like tiny palm trees. The foliage features a deep bluish-charcoal green hue with a pebbled texture that catches morning light and frost beautifully. All this makes it a real looker.

Tucking Tuscan kale alongside fine-textured fall flowers, golden marigolds, or orange mums creates an immediate, high-contrast focal point. Hardy in zones 7-10, it thrives as a fall annual in cooler northern regions. Plant Tuscan kale in a sunny garden spot with rich, well-drained soil. Wait until after your area experiences its first frost before harvesting, as the cold snap will make these leaves sweet and tender.

If you’ve missed the boat for direct sowing, plant nursery starts in a sunny location with rich, well-drained soil. Oh, and when harvesting, leave at least 6-8 top leaves intact so the plant continues growing upward like a small palm. Bring a dash of ruffled structure with a packet of Lacinato Kale Seeds from Burpee. Or for readymade plants, buy Clovers Garden Dinosaur Kale Live Plants from Amazon.

4. Red Veined Sorrel

Red-veined sorrel (Rumex sanguineus) is a hardy perennial herb that deserves a prominent place in every fall border. Hardy in zones 4-9, this striking plant forms neat, compact rosettes of vibrant apple-green, lance-shaped leaves with rich burgundy vein patterns. This bold contrast makes it a satisfying ornamental edging plant along pathways or beneath taller, leggy perennials.

Beyond its obvious beauty, red-veined sorrel offers a delightful, tangy lemon flavor. Harvest young leaves continuously to add a citrus bite to fall salads, or cook older leaves into soups and sauces. Red-veined sorrel grows happily in full sun to partial shade and prefers moist, well-drained soil. Because it is a true perennial, it will return every spring, offering long-term beauty and flavor. Just ensure clay soils are amended with coarse sand or perlite. Buy Ohio Heirloom Seeds Store Blood Veined Sorrel Seeds from Amazon, for striking heirloom leaves with a zingy twist.

5. Mizuna

Mizuna (Brassica rapa var. nipposinica) is a rapid-growing Japanese mustard green that can add a feathery, fern-like texture to fall beds. Its serrated leaves contrast beautifully with broad-leaved perennials like coral bells or densely packed mums. To maximize visual impact, seek out colorful cultivars like Beni Houshi or Rubra. Mizuna flourishes in full sun or partial shade with moisture-retentive yet well-drained soil.

Hardy in zones 4-9, mizuna thrives in the crisp, cool air of fall. Sow seeds or set out young transplants at least 4 weeks before your first frost date. Because it matures quickly, you can begin harvesting outer leaves using the cut-and-come-again method just a few weeks after planting. Snip outer leaves an inch (2cm) above the soil line to encourage rapid regrowth. Don’t let the soil dry out completely, though, as moisture stress causes the leaves to become excessively tough.

You can buy Mountain Valley Seed Company Red Leaf Mizuna Mustard Seeds from Walmart for a quick-developing color that adds a feathery splash of fire to cool season borders and hungry bellies!

6. Curly and Flat Leaf Parsley

Never overlook cool-season herbs when styling your autumn borders! Parsley is one of the most versatile foliage fillers you can add to late-season beds. Whether you choose the tightly ruffled, cloud-like texture of curly-leaf parsley (P. crispum var. crispum) or fern-like Italian flat-leaf parsley (P. crispum var. neapolitanum), this humble herb adds delicate visual softness around the bases of leggy fall flowers.

Parsley is a hardy biennial grown primarily as a cool-season annual in zones 4-9. Because parsley grows quite slowly from seed in cold soil, using established nursery transplants is the best way to get an immediate fall effect. Plant it in full sun or partial shade within rich, organic, well-draining soil. You can harvest several fresh stems from the outer edge for cooking without disrupting the bushy accents of your border. Grab a pack of The Seed Plant’s Triple Curled Parsley Seeds from Amazon for just a couple of dollars for a lush, fluffy border statement.

Mixing fall-blooming perennials with edible foliage plants is a lovely way to increase texture, color, and productivity in beds and borders as the new season gets underway. The vibrant hues of autumn flowers pop when framed against unique vegetable foliage, rewarding you with a gorgeous display and a fresh harvest. So don’t be afraid to mix and match for spectacular fall ensembles that will have all the local tongues wagging!

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Stanley Tucci recently shared a fascinating lesson in growing tomatoes from the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. While filming his series Tucci in Italy, he visited Ercolano (Herculaneum) in Italy’s Campania region to explore the heirloom tomatoes grown in its volcanic soil. In an Instagram post, the actor praised the “really special tomatoes that grow in the shadow of Vesuvius,” calling them the best he had ever tasted. The crew was also seen enjoying the tomatoes and commenting on their sweetness.

There may be more to their exceptional flavor than the tomato varieties themselves. The volcanic soils around Vesuvius, formed from layers of ash and weathered rock, can be rich in minerals while remaining loose and free-draining – two qualities that support strong, healthy plant growth. And it’s not just tomatoes that benefit. The region is also famed for its citrus fruits, olives, grapes, apricots, grains, and vegetables, including different types of root vegetables.

While you may not be able to recreate the conditions of an Italian volcano in your backyard, there are ways to capture some of the benefits of volcanic soil and improve your own growing conditions. I spoke to soil and crop experts to find out whether horticultural volcanic rock dust or similar amendments can help at home, and how to use them safely. Here is what gardeners should know before adding them to vegetable beds or potted citrus trees.

What Makes Volcanic Soil So Special?

Soils near volcanoes are not exactly the same as the soil in your backyard. Around Mount Vesuvius, two features are particularly important for growing flavorful produce: the minerals supplied by volcanic ash and weathered rock, and the soil’s ability to drain excess water.

Gardeners can replicate part of this mineral-rich environment by adding a horticultural volcanic mineral amendment to their soil, like this Down to Earth All Natural Fertilizers Organic Azomite Minerals Powder, available from Amazon. It comes as a fine powder that you simply mix into soil or potting mix.

Lindsey Boney, Grocery Manager and Produce Expert at Windmill Farms Market, explains why volcanic soil is prized for its drainage properties. “One aspect of volcanic soil that many people forget is that it does not hold excessive water. As a result, this naturally avoids dilution, which helps with richer flavor. That’s why the tomatoes often grown in this area of Vesuvius have been known for their unique sweetness, acidity, and richness ever since.”

Tomatoes need consistent moisture, but excess water can leave fruit tasting less concentrated. In contrast, well-drained soil can help prevent waterlogging and may support a stronger concentration of sugars and flavor compounds as the fruit ripens.

Steve Corcoran, gardening expert and co-founder of Lawn Love, points to volcanic soil's nutrient content. “Volcanic soil is packed with nutrients that really help tomatoes to thrive, like potassium and phosphorus.”

Potassium and phosphorus are both commonly found in quality tomato fertilizers, although the nutrients in volcanic soil are not necessarily available to plants in the same amounts. The same combination of mineral content and good drainage may also benefit fall root crops, which need loose soil to develop properly, and citrus trees, which are particularly sensitive to waterlogged roots. A volcanic amendment can support good soil conditions, but it should not replace compost, organic matter, or a balanced feed where those are needed.

What to Add to Your Soil for Vesuvius-Inspired Growing

How to Recreate Volcanic Growing Conditions at Home

The best way to grow a delicious Vesuvius-inspired crop of tomatoes is to focus on the conditions in which the plants grow. You cannot recreate Mount Vesuvius in your backyard, but you can replicate some of the features associated with its growing environment.

Start with soil testing to check the pH and nutrient levels in your garden. The MySoil test kit, available on Amazon, is a great all-round test kit (and was recently reviewed by Content Editor Kathleen). Tomatoes and many other crops need fertile, well-drained soil, plenty of full sun, and consistent moisture without becoming waterlogged. If your soil is heavy or depleted, improve it with organic matter and a suitable horticultural volcanic rock dust or mineral amendment, following the product’s instructions carefully.

The Mediterranean climate around Vesuvius also provides abundant sunshine and relatively dry conditions, while the volcanic soil allows excess water to drain away. Together, these conditions can help fruits and vegetables develop a more concentrated flavor. However, this does not mean allowing plants to become severely drought-stressed.

To grow your own tomatoes like the ones Tucci was enjoying, Lindsey recommends tapering off watering. “When fruit begins to ripen, reduce water gradually while avoiding severe plant stress. It produces more sugars and flavor compounds.”

However, fall root crops still need even moisture while they develop, and citrus trees need good drainage without being allowed to dry out completely.

For all of these crops, the most useful lessons from Vesuvius are to provide plenty of light, avoid waterlogged soil, and supply nutrients based on what a soil test shows they actually need.

Admit it, we sometimes think of container gardening as a bit of a compromise. We may see it as a way of doing things on a smaller scale, perhaps because we feel limited by natural light, regional issues, or just space. For urban growers and small space gardeners, container growing is a way of trying things to see what happens. Yet the truth is that pot-based living isn’t always a compromise, but a step up!

While many of us grow herbs in pots, container gardening isn’t always our first choice for vegetables. We might squeeze a few pots of small crops in around the edges as an extra, when the reality is that certain edibles genuinely perform better in pots than in traditional ground beds. Growing vegetables in containers means you have more control over soil texture, moisture retention, pests, and ambient heat.

Containers provide an unmatched seasonal advantage as summer shifts to fall, providing excellent cultural benefits for a range of classic-sunseekers and cool-season crops. So if you’ve ever dreamed of growing veggies but don’t have the space for a bed, the dream is still alive. Whether you want to extend late-summer harvests or kick off a rapid fall crop, these vegetables thrive with pot life. Here’s why containers are about to become your secret weapon for lush late-season flavor.

Growing Vegetables in Containers

Growing vegetables in pots helps you dodge several big issues of garden beds. You can eliminate the risk of weeds and better isolate and manage pest issues. Without rocks or heavy clay to obstruct growth, root crops can expand into neat, unblemished shapes. During early fall, containers unlock another superpower. As sun angles shift and night temperatures drop, pots allow you to maneuver crops into microclimates, parking heat-lovers against sun-baked brick walls to retain warmth, or tucking tender plants under eaves during unexpected cold snaps.

Navigating USDA hardiness zones in containers does require a slightly different approach than ground beds. Because potted soil is exposed to ambient air on all sides, container roots generally experience temperatures that feel one to two zones colder than the surrounding earth. While annual cool-season crops thrive across zones 2-11 (depending on planting time), warm-season crops you started earlier in the year rely on container mobility to dodge frost snaps in cooler zones.

If prepping your pots in fall, be careful with feeds. Heavy nitrogen fertilizers should be avoided in fall, as they force weak, sappy growth that is vulnerable to frost damage. Instead, you can top-dress tired pots with rich worm castings or finished organic compost, and feed with a diluted seaweed tonic such as diluted TPS Seaweed Fertilizer, available from Amazon, which helps to strengthen root resilience in young plants in a gentle way.

Protect your plant life and reduce your own ongoing daily workload by making sure you’re using a fast-draining potting soil. Where necessary, top up drainage with a few handfuls of horticultural sand or perlite to keep potting mixes light and free-draining. Elevate planters on pot toes, such as the excellent Lemon Road Terracotta Pot Feet, also available from Amazon to keep drainage manageable right through fall.

1. Fast Radish

Although it seems unlikely a root vegetable would be ideal for container growing, radishes are surprisingly versatile. Their roots are shallow, the plants are compact, and they grow quickly. In traditional beds, their delicate roots collide with stones, or heavy clay. In a shallow pot filled with fluffy potting mix, they expand effortlessly into smooth, uniform globes. You can cultivate dense, high-yield crops in window boxes, shallow bowls, or trough planters without taking up too much space.

September is ideal for a second-wave of this cool weather crop in zones 2-11. Choose rapid-maturing cultivars like French Breakfast, Cherry Belle and heirloom Watermelon radish for peak crispness in 21-28 days. Sow every 2 weeks for continuous succession harvests. Choose a vessel 6-8 inches (15-20cm) deep and blend a lightweight potting mix with coarse horticultural sand or perlite. Keep evenly moist, as erratic watering causes expanding roots to split open. For a crispy fall treat that also roasts beautifully, buy Cherry Belle Radish Seeds from Burpee.

2. Dwarf Peppers

Peppers are natural heat lovers, making them ideal candidates for container life. As nighttime temperatures drop in fall, potted peppers can be wheeled against brick walls or into garages overnight to retain the ambient warmth needed to develop tasty mature reds, oranges, and purples. Opt for prolific dwarf varieties like Apache, Redskin or Shishito. You can still buy Bonnie Plants Shishito Live Starter Plants from Amazon if you hurry. These starters save you a few weeks of waiting, so you can crank out the crops even quicker.

Provide a 3-5-gallon container for each plant, with ample bottom drainage, and grow in the sunniest spot you can find for the season. Make sure the potting mix is amended with coarse perlite and add a diluted liquid seaweed or potassium tonic to support late pod maturation. Pinch off tiny late flowers so the plant channels all remaining energy into ripening existing fruit before hard freezes arrive. Grow as annuals in zones 3-10 or tender perennials in zones 9-11.

3. Baby Beets

Beets grown in beds can turn tough or misshapen when they hit rocks or heavy clay. In containers, smooth, stone-free potting mix allows beet roots to swell into flawless baubles of flavor. You can snip tender greens for fall salads while waiting for the sweet roots to mature. Choose compact varieties such as Early Wonder, Baby Ball, or Bull's Blood (renowned for its magenta foliage). Everwilde Bulls Blood Beetroot Seed Packs from Walmart are budget-friendly and give you 200 seeds for pots.

As the air cools, these cool-season plants convert starches into natural sugars, producing exceptionally sweet roots. Use a wide, 10-inch (25cm) terracotta bowl or fabric pot. Fill with a lightweight potting mix blended with perlite and coarse horticultural sand. Sow seeds half an inch (1.25cm) deep and top-dress with worm castings to provide gentle organic nutrients. Thin seedlings to 2-3 inches (5-8cm) apart so each root has room to expand to lush, ruby loveliness in zones 2-11.

4. Dwarf Tomatoes

Tomatoes are classic container crops and in many ways they can be happier in the right pot than in the ground. They can be picky about garden bed soil, water, and light, so a container is an ideal way to provide the perfect conditions in zones 3-10, especially for dwarf and tumbling varieties. Keeping vines elevated off damp dirt drastically cuts down on leaf diseases, allowing balcony gardeners to harvest sweet, vine-ripened fruit from tight footprints. While tall indeterminate vines decline in fall, potted toms give you late-season agility. Compact determinates like Tumbling Tom, Micro Tom, or Patio Choice thrive in pots and hanging baskets.

Use a 5-gallon container for upright cultivars, or a 10-12-inch (25-30cm) hanging planter for trailing cherry varieties. Use a high-quality potting mix enriched with organic matter and a pinch of garden lime to supply calcium and prevent blossom end rot. As temps drop, hanging baskets and small pots can be carried indoors. Wheel heavier tomato pots and trellis combos inside using a caddy like the Bloem 14-Inch Terracotta Rolling Plant Caddy from Amazon.

5. Short Root Carrots

Carrots are notorious for becoming stunted or twisted in rocky or clay-heavy beds. Containers eliminate those obstacles entirely. In a deep pot filled with fine, loose potting soil, root tips push downward effortlessly, producing tidy shapes as well as delectable flavors. Choose a pot 10-12 inches (25-30cm) deep with clear drainage holes. Fill with a fine blend of coconut coir, potting soil, and perlite. Sow thinly across the surface, dusting lightly with vermiculite, and keep damp until the fronds appear.

Fall carrots harvested after crisp nights are extraordinarily sweet, and this is a great month for sowing fast-maturing short-root varieties. Look for round or short-conical cultivars like Paris Market, Chantenay Red Core, or Nantes Half Long. You can currently get great deals on short root options such as Thumbelina and Royal Chantenay Carrots, both available as seed packs from Eden Brothers. Just avoid high-nitrogen feeds, which cause carrots to grow bushy tops at the expense of roots.

6. Salad Greens

Just about any type of leafy salad green is easy to grow in pots: leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, chard, kale. Greens have shallow roots, so they don’t need a lot of space. They grow quickly and benefit from being elevated, so that the leaves don’t trail in the dirt and lure as many slugs on board. Greens can suffer from too much heat in summer, so pots also allow you to move them around to catch the sun, but also move into partial shade during unexpected heat spells to prevent bolting.

Greens have shallow root systems and thrive in wide, shallow bowls 6 inches (15cm) deep in zones 2-11. Leaf lettuce is easier to grow than head lettuce. Select cut-and-come-again loose-leaf varieties like Lollo Rossa, Buttercrunch, Toscano Kale, or wild arugula. ust water consistently and add a diluted liquid seaweed tonic every 2-3 weeks. Grab a bargain with Back to the Roots Organic Gourmet Blend Lettuce Seeds from The Home Depot, which you can harvest in 35 days. Snip outer leaves as needed, leaving the central crown intact for crops up to hard freezes.

Shop Veggie Pot Essentials

To get the best performance from your potted vegetable garden through fall and beyond, these curated container essentials ensure optimal drainage, gentle health boosts, and effortless mobility when seasonal weather turns cold. Then all you have to do is sit back and wait for the yummy fall harvests to see you through to winter.

Fall Container Trio

A vegetable garden doesn’t require a lot of garden space. If you have a sunny patio or balcony, you can grow many veggies and herbs in containers with total confidence – and plenty of tasty benefits! You can double up with some of these crops in pots to make even more of having less space. Use this list as a starting point for growing inspiration, and have fun experimenting with compact, tasty container crops.

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Tomato plants in September sit in a strange spot. Days still feel like summer, but nights have cooled and the light is shorter, and the plant keeps throwing out flowers it has no chance of finishing. Most gardeners let it ride until frost takes the whole thing down. That leaves a lot of fruit on the table.

Most of the advice on how to grow tomatoes covers the first half of the season, back when more of everything was the goal. September flips that. The work now is mostly subtraction – cutting off what will never finish so the plant spends what daylight is left on fruit that can.

Here are the top tasks to do in September to get the most out of your tomato plant before the season ends.

What to Do With Tomatoes in September

How urgent these tasks are come down to your average first frost date. Count backward from that date to decide what to tackle first.

1. Top the Vines

Pruning the growing tip off each main stem of your tomato plants and they will stop growing and ripen the existing fruit instead. The energy will go into swelling and coloring the fruit that's already set. Four to six weeks ahead of the average first frost is the window for this type of tomato pruning, which for much of the country, puts it right about mid-September.

Indeterminate tomatoes are the plants that need this pruning technique. Determinate tomato varieties wrap up on their own and tend to get set back by early topping.

Make the cut just above the highest cluster with a realistic shot, and leave enough leaf cover that the fruit underneath doesn’t scald. Use a sharp, clean pair of pruners. Home Depot carries the Fiskars classic bypass pruning shears that get through green stems without crushing them.

2. Strip Late Flowers & Fruit

It feels wasteful to pull blossoms off a healthy plant. It isn’t. A tomato flower needs roughly six to eight weeks to become ripe fruit, and cool nights stretch that out further. Any flowers opening now are a draw on the plant's energy resources, but produce nothing to show for it. The same goes for fruit that's no bigger than a marble.

Pinch off flowers and small fruit with your fingers as you walk the row. Go back through in a week or two to do another pass. Topping usually prompts a flush of side shoots that also waste energy. Pluck off any tomato suckers that appear as well.

3. Remove Diseased Foliage

Small round spots with pale centers on the lower leaves point to septoria leaf spot (Septoria lycopersici). Bull’s-eye rings inside a dark spot usually mean early blight (Alternaria solani). Both need wet foliage to spread and both overwinter in plant debris, so removing diseased foliage is vital to keep next year's garden healthy.

Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) is the one to move fast to remove. Greasy dark patches creeping in from the leaf margin, sometimes with white fuzz on the underside in damp weather.

Bag infected material instead of composting it and wipe your pruner blades between plants. It’s a containment measure, not a cure. But it's important to clean up diseased plants now to prevent issues next summer.

4. Keep Watering Evenly

September rain often arrives in bursts after dry stretches, and that swing is a common cause of splitting tomatoes. Fruit that's already at full size pulls water in faster than the skin can stretch. Watering tomatoes steadily at the root zone is the fix rather than more water overall.

A soaker hose handles this better than a wand and keeps the foliage dry, which is half the battle with leaf disease. Walmart stocks the Expert Gardener soaker hose that's cheap enough to buy two without putting much of a dent in your wallet. Tuck mulch over the top of it if there isn’t any down already.

5. Get Frost Covers Ready

Frost warnings rarely give more than a day or two of notice, and hunting for a tarp at dusk is how plants get missed and accidentally frozen. A floating row cover buys somewhere between 2 and 8°F (1-4°C) depending on weight, which is often the gap between losing everything and picking fresh tomatoes for another two weeks.

These Agfabric plant covers from Lowe’s are the light-duty option. Heavier grades hold more warmth, but cut more light. Old bedsheets work in a pinch. Run whatever you use down to the ground and weigh the edges with rocks or bricks to prevent heat escaping out the sides.

6. Harvest Mature Green Tomatoes

Green tomatoes that you pick ahead of a freeze ripens well, but only if they have hit maturity – full-sized with the skin shifted from flat dark green to pale whitish or yellow-green. Anything still small and dark won’t color up properly and is better off in a jar of relish.

Chilling injury sets in around 50°F (10°C) out on the vine and wrecks flavor before you ever pick. Clip each fruit with a short stub of stem attached. Sorting by ripeness helps a batch finish together. Hold them between 55 and 70°F (13-21°C). Add a banana to the box to speed up ripening.

7. Save Seeds From the Best Plants

This one’s easy to skip and easy to regret, but saving tomato seeds is a great way to save money next year and grow more of your favorite crop. Squeeze seeds and gel from a fully ripe fruit off the best plant in the row into a jar, add an inch (2.5 cm) of water, and leave it loosely covered on the counter.

Three to five days on, a film forms across the top and the viable seeds have sunk to the bottom of the jar. The fermenting process strips the gel coat, which carries germination inhibitors and can shelter seedborne disease. Rinse seeds clean and spread them to dry, then label and store in an envelope. Open-pollinated heirloom tomato seeds come back true; hybrids don’t.

Two tomatoes on the same vine can have completely different futures. One has finished growing and is only waiting on warmth and ethylene to turn it red. The other is still filling out and probably won't get the chance. Every trick below works on the first one and does almost nothing for the second.

Most of what gets written about growing tomatoes in the closing weeks comes down to a single move: take jobs away from the plant so it finishes the ones it started. That part is sound. Past it, ripening runs on ethylene and temperature, and temperature is the variable a gardener can still nudge in late September.

Which Tomatoes Will Ripen?

Size and shade tell you almost everything. A tomato that has stopped swelling and gone from dark green to a pale, nearly whitish green has reached what growers call mature green. That one finishes ripening on its own, whether on the vine or indoors, and the flavor holds up fine. A hard, matte, undersized tomato is still in the middle of growing. Fruit at that stage tends to rot before it turns.

The calendar backs the eye up here. Pollination to full size runs something like six to eight weeks, so a blossom that opened in early September was never in the race. Pinching those off costs nothing. Whatever survives that triage is the real crop, and it's usually a smaller pile than it looks from the driveway.

Three Moves That Work

Three to four weeks ahead of the average first frost date is when this becomes useful. Earlier and you're ending the season by hand. Later and there's nothing left to work with.

1. Snap Off the Top

Take the growing tip off each main stem, then strip the flowers and marble-sized fruit underneath. It feels harsh. A plant only has so much sugar to hand out, and every blossom opening in late September is a claim on sugar that could be finishing a tomato instead. Amazon sells a classic bypass hand pruner if the stems have gone woody, though a thumbnail handles soft new growth. One caveat: this suits rangy indeterminate vines. Determinate types set a fixed crop and can lose yield when they get cut back heavily.

2. Water Less

Advice to shut irrigation off completely turns up everywhere, and it overshoots. Once fruit stops getting bigger, it's good to cut the amount you water tomatoes in half – that is shown to raise sugar content consistently across trials.

Going bone dry is a different animal. Plants swing back sharply when water returns, and split tomato skins and blossom end rot follow. So taper it down instead. The payoff here is flavor more than speed, which is useful to know before rebuilding a watering schedule around it.

3. Trap Heat at Night

Color development wants 68-77F (20-25C). Push past 85F (29C) and the plant quits making lycopene altogether. Drop under 50F (10C) and green fruit collects chilling injury instead of color. September nights sit right at that lower edge in a lot of places, which is where a cover earns its keep.

A floating row cover from Home Depot goes straight over cages and buys back a few degrees. Throw it on before sunset rather than at bedtime, while the ground is still radiating the day's warmth. Clear plastic holds more of it and has to come off by mid-morning. Fruit already showing a blush responds to all this far more than hard green fruit does.

The Spade Trick, and Why It Probably Doesn't Do What You Think

Here's one floating around. Sink a spade into the soil about 6 inches (15cm) from the stem, sever the outer roots, and the plant supposedly panics and rushes everything to ripeness. It's a satisfying story. The trouble is that a tomato past mature green ripens on its own ethylene, more or less independent of what the roots are up to, and there isn't much research pointing either way on the technique. What root cutting reliably produces this late in the season is a wilted plant. The gentler tug-the-base version probably does even less.

If the Frost Wins Anyway

Pick before the first hard night rather than after it. Green fruit that sits through a 40F (4C) night comes indoors already compromised. Hang a wireless min-max thermometer from Walmart out in the bed and you'll know what the plants are getting, which is rarely what a countywide forecast says.

Clip tomatoes with a short stub of stem attached; a torn shoulder is an open door for rot. Then sort the harvest by color so like ripens with like, and hold it at 55-70F (13-21C). A cardboard box in a spare bedroom is close to perfect. The refrigerator strips flavor out of anything not fully ripe, and a sunny windowsill overheats by afternoon.

Anything still hard and dark green when the vines come down is headed for the fryer or the relish jar. That isn't the worst ending for a September that got away from you.

If you’re growing heirloom tomatoes this summer, then it’s a simple September garden job to save tomato seeds so you can grow free plants next year. What’s more, harvest tomato seeds and you won’t only save money but create plants that are perfectly suited to the growing conditions in your garden or greenhouse. Save your own tomato seeds every year and you will create stronger, happier, healthier plants. And you know what that means: you'll grow even more tasty tomatoes, year after year!

One average-sized tomato typically carries a hundred or more seeds, so you don’t need to sacrifice much of your precious crop. Strong tomato seed – and this method magically separates the strongest seeds to harvest – remains viable for five years, too.

You can only save seeds from heirloom or open-pollinated tomato varieties (those that are pollinated naturally by bees) but this encompasses most of the tomatoes we all love to grow at home from Brandywine beefsteaks and San Marzano plum tomatoes to smoky heirloom Black Cherry and tangy Green Zebra. Don’t bother saving seed from F1 hybrid tomato varieties as it won't produce the same plant.

Here’s how to save tomato seeds and store them safely to enjoy free plants and abundant harvests next year.

1. Pick a Perfect Tomato

Select your strongest, most productive tomato plant, and pick the very best tomato you can find that’s fully mature and slightly overripe.

2. Extract the Seeds

Slice the tomato in half then scoop out the seeds and their jelly-like pulp into a glass jar. With smaller tomatoes, you can simply squeeze the seeds straight into a clean glass jar. Label each jar if you’re saving a few different tomato varieties.

3. Soak the Seed

Next you’re going to soak the seed. Fermenting tomato seeds in this way separates the seed from the pulp, which is vital as this gel inhibits germination. Pour water into the jar, aiming for a 1:1 ratio so there’s a roughly equal volume of tomato seeds and water. Lay a square of paper towel over the opening and secure with a rubber band around the jar rim to keep out flies without obstructing airflow.

Now wait a few days for the mix to ferment and the gel to break down. Keep the jar out of direct sunlight but in a warm spot where you’ll see it, because you need to remember to agitate the mix by giving it a gentle swirl every day. A kitchen countertop next to the kettle is perfect!

4. Separate the Seed from the Pulp

The mix is ready when, looking at the jar from the side, you can see it has started to separate with the pulp floating to the top and some seeds sunk to the bottom. This typically takes 4-5 days. A layer of mold or scum may also form across the surface when fermenting tomato seed, and that’s nothing to worry about. Pour in more water and, as the seeds settle, those that sink to the bottom are the heavy, viable seeds you want to keep. Those that float to the surface along with any scum or mold should be discarded.

Slowly tip the jar so the pulp and scum layer runs out but the viable seeds remain in the jar, or use a spoon to scoop that top goop out. Repeat the process of adding water to the jar, letting the heavy seeds settle and pouring off the top layer, to clean the remaining seeds. For a final rinse, tip the seeds into a fine-mesh sieve and hold under running cold water, rubbing seeds with the back of a wooden spoon to remove any last bits of gel if needs be.

5. Dry the Cleaned Seed

Tip the seed onto paper towel and pat dry, then put on a non-stick surface such as a glass chopping board or a glazed plate. Leave them to dry for 2 weeks out of direct sunlight but in a warm spot with good airflow, gently separating any clumps after a couple of days.

6. Store Seeds Safely

Once seeds are fully dry, put them in a paper envelope and store in a dark, cool, dry spot. A tin in a frost-free garage is ideal, and adding a sachet of silica gel to your seed tin will hoover up any damp and prevent seeds molding. If you're a keen tomato grower and saving seed from lots of different varieties, a seed storage box with separate compartments like this 64-Slot Seed Organizer Box from Walmart makes it easy to sort seed, and it effectively blocks moisture to retain 98% seed viability.

Easy! And now you have a store of tomato seed that you know is well suited to the exact growing conditions in your garden or greenhouse, for a bigger, better crop next summer. Keep growing tomatoes and harvesting and storing seed for a few years and, especially if you have the room to grow a few plants, you can evolve the variety to suit your tastes too. You’ll find one plant produces particularly tasty tomatoes, grows extra-long trusses of fruit, or brings a heavy harvest in a relatively compact space, and by selecting those seeds you can bring that beneficial trait to the fore. And then you have the exact right tomato to grow in your garden space and you’re not just growing heirloom tomatoes but your very own heirloom tomatoes.

You'll no doubt save far too many seeds, but tomato seeds make great little gifts. Write growing instructions on the envelope, pop it in a terracotta pot along with a couple of coco coir soil pellets such as these from Amazon and tie with a ribbon to give to family and friends at Christmas.

Can I Save Seed from Shop-Bought Tomatoes?

Most tomatoes sold in grocery stores are produced from F1 hybrid tomato varieties, so it's not worth saving the seed. Grow your own heirloom tomatoes from seed next year, then save the seed from the harvested fruit. A great place to start your journey is with Burpee's Rainbow Blend of heirloom tomato seedswhich has a colorful mix of six varieties including yellow 'Golden Sunburst', orange 'Djena Lees Golden Girl', red 'Bonny Best, pink 'Brandywine Pink', purple 'Black Krim' and green 'Evergreen'.

Every tomato patch hands over a second harvest at the end of the season, and almost nobody uses it. Spent tomato vines hold minerals the plant spent all summer collecting, and they hold enough structure to be built with. Sending them to the curb in a bag wastes both. What narrows the options is disease, not the material itself.

Good end of season tomato plant care starts with sorting the vines. Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) and powdery mildew (Pseudoidium neolycopersici) do the most damage during the season, though both need living tissue and die along with the plant. What lingers on dead stems is early blight (Alternaria linariae) and Septoria leaf spot (Septoria lycopersici), and a cold heap carries either one straight through to spring. One rule runs through all of it: only clean material gets a second life.

1. Burn the Dry Vines and Save the Ash

Vines have to be bone dry before they burn cleanly, so stack them somewhere sheltered for a few weeks first. Check local burn regulations before lighting anything. Plenty of counties restrict open burning outright, or allow it only in certain months. A contained burn can from Walmart keeps embers off dry grass in a way a loose bonfire pile can’t.

What is left is the mineral fraction of everything the plant pulled up all summer. Garden ash behaves much like wood ash, carrying potassium, a good deal of calcium, and enough liming effect to move soil pH in a single season. Spread it thin, no more than a five-gallon bucket's worth over 1,000 square feet (93sqm) of ground already sitting close to neutral. Keep it off blueberries and anything else that wants acid. Skip the potato bed altogether, because higher pH is what favors scab.

2. Char Them Instead if You Want Biochar

Burning and charring are not the same operation, and the difference matters here. Complete combustion leaves nothing but mineral ash. Pyrolysis – burning with the oxygen choked back – leaves biochar, which holds the carbon skeleton and the pore structure that makes it worth putting in soil.

Stems this thin do not give up much. One whole season of vines might char down to a few handfuls. This works best as an add-on when woodier material is going into the same burn anyway, like prunings or spent stakes. Crush the finished char and let it sit in compost or a bucket of diluted fish emulsion for a couple of weeks. Raw char pulls nutrients out of soil before it starts giving any back.

3. Bury Them Deep... Just Not under Next Year's Tomatoes

Burial beats a cold heap outright. Soil biology is faster and more thorough. Dig a trench 12 inches (30cm) deep, lay the chopped vines in, and cover it back over. Chopping matters more than it sounds. A bypass lopper from Amazon run through the thick basal stems turns a tangle into something that packs flat and breaks down evenly.

Placement is where this goes wrong. Never trench tomato debris under ground slated for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, or potatoes next season. Early blight and Septoria both persist in soil and old debris. Two to three years away from solanaceous crops is the standard rotation. Brassica and allium beds are both fine. Beans work too, and the nitrogen they fix offsets some of what the decomposing stems tie up.

4. Weave the Sturdiest Stems into a Trellis or Wreath

Clean vines only, and only ones still supple. Main stems on an indeterminate tomato plant turn properly woody by September, and pulled fresh they bend without snapping. Give them an hour in the sun to lose a little water first, then coil the longest ones into a ring and tuck the loose ends back through themselves.

Expect one season out of it. Those stems are pithy and go brittle as they dry, so a woven trellis is a summer object rather than a permanent structure. Wreaths last better indoors where they stay dry. Green stems shrink as they cure, so weave tighter than looks right and bind the coil at three or four points with jute. Loose rings fall apart by November.

5. Lay Them Down as a Path Liner

Walkways between beds are the easiest place to absorb a lot of bulk. Lay the vines flat down the middle of a path, overlap them, and cover the lot with wood chips or straw. They block light well enough to hold weeds back through fall and winter. By spring most of what is underneath has flattened into a mat.

One trade-off comes with it. Damp mats of vines and chips are the shelter gray field slugs (Deroceras reticulatum) hunt for over winter, so keep it on the path itself and off the bed edges. Skip any path bordering next year’s nightshades for a separate reason. Rain splash onto lower leaves is exactly how early blight gets started in the first place.

6. Steep Clean Foliage into a Pest Spray

This one carries more caveats than the rest. Tomato foliage contains tomatine and related alkaloids. The old kitchen method steeps two cups (475ml) of chopped leaves in a quart (950ml) of water overnight, then strains and dilutes it before use. Gardeners have used it on aphids and small caterpillars for generations. Hard evidence is thin – the whole practice is anecdotal rather than trial-backed.

Two rules are not optional. Use foliage only from plants that showed no symptoms all season. Tomato mosaic virus survives in dried debris for up to two years and travels by simple contact. A sprayer full of infected leaf water is about the most efficient way to spread it that anyone has invented. Never put it on other nightshades. Keep the finished solution away from pets and children, and run it through a dedicated pump sprayer from Home Depot rather than one that also handles herbicide.

Heavily diseased plants get none of this. Bag them, leave the bag in full sun for a few days so the tissue and whatever lives in it die off, then put it out with household trash. Everything else in that pile is just material nobody has sorted yet.

Summer may end in September, but vegetable gardening doesn’t have to. The soil is still warm from the summer, air temperatures are dropping, and many cool-season veggies actually perform better this time of year. Now is the time to plant crops that mature quickly for a fall harvest and those that are hardy and will establish over winter, providing an early spring harvest.

Here are some of our favorites to plant in fall along with some tips for healthy plants and an abundant harvest. And if you’re new to growing veggies, check out our comprehensive guide to starting a vegetable garden.

1. Spinach

Spinach thrives in cooler weather and tends to bolt in summer heat, so now is a great time to grow it. Start with seeds, and you’ll have baby greens in as little as 30 to 40 days. You can harvest the older leaves too, as long as you pick them before you get freezing temperatures. If you have a lot of time left in the season, sow seeds in weekly succession for a staggered harvest.

If you have a milder winter in your area, you can also overwinter spinach for a spring harvest. Use a light row cover and mulch around the plants to keep them warm enough to survive and provide a harvest of mature leaves in early spring.

2. Kale

Kale is one of the most cold-hardy of all veggies, so definitely consider planting it this fall. In fact, cooler temperatures produce sweeter and more tender leaves. You can sow seeds, but kale won’t grow as fast as spinach, so consider getting transplants, depending on when you’re starting and your winter climate.

You can harvest baby leaves and also let the plants mature. They’ll still be harvestable well into fall and even into winter, depending on the climate and weather. If your winters are mild, kale needs no protection. Use a cloche or fabric to protect plants in colder winters if you plan to keep harvesting past the first freeze.

3. Radishes

Radishes both like cool weather and grow very quickly, among the fastest maturing of all vegetables. You can sow seeds for radishes in September and have a harvest in as soon as three weeks. Sow seeds in succession to get a few harvests out of the season.

Because they mature so quickly, you probably won’t need any cold-weather protection for your radishes. If some are still going as temperatures drop significantly, use a floating row cover and mulch to protect roots.

4. Winter Salad Greens

Sow seeds for a few types of cool-season leafy greens for a fall salad garden. Arugula and mesclun are good options. You’ll be able to harvest baby leaves within a few weeks. Sow seeds in succession for a continuous fall harvest of salad greens.

Depending on your weather and if you provide some protection, like row covers, you can continue growing these greens throughout fall or even into winter. Cloches, row covers, and cold frames can significantly extend the season. Also, consider growing greens in containers, which can be more easily protected.

5. Garlic

Planting garlic now allows it to establish roots over winter. You’ll get your harvest next summer, so this is one to plant if you don’t need instant gratification. Plant cloves of garlic pointy side up several inches apart. Cover the soil with a good layer of mulch to protect the cloves and roots from cold and frost heaving.

Your garlic will be ready to harvest next summer when the foliage begins to yellow and die back. Be sure to get good quality cloves to plant. Grocery store cloves don’t always work.

6. Hardy Onion Sets

As with garlic, you can plant onions now for next year’s harvest. Look for hardy onion varieties that are meant to overwinter. Plant the sets root side down in prepared soil with plenty of space for each one based on the expected mature bulb sizes.

Add mulch over the plants to protect them from cold winter weather. If you have more extreme winters, you might also need a row cover. Depending on the variety you choose and your climate, the onions will be ready to harvest next spring or early summer.

7. Broad Beans

Broad beans, or fava beans, can easily be overwintered in gardens with mild winter weather. Sow seeds directly outside, but be sure to choose a variety that has some cold hardiness. Your autumn-sown seeds should give you an early spring crop next year.

Use mulch around plants for some protection, and provide some type of vertical structure as it grows, especially if your garden gets a lot of wind. If your winter weather is borderline or you expect an unusual cold snap, use a row cover or cloches to protect young plants.

Tips for Fall Vegetable Gardens

To make the most of your fall plantings, take time to prepare the soil first. Remove any spent summer crops and weeds. Add compost or other organic matter to lighten and enrich the soil. Break up any soil that has become compacted and ensure it drains well.

After sowing seeds or putting in transplants, remember to water regularly. Generally, you can ease up on watering in the garden in fall, but your seedlings and young plants will be thirsty, so keep them watered if it doesn’t rain. Water container plants more frequently.

Never assume fall and winter weather will be consistent or predictable. Check weather often, and provide protection if you expect early frosts and freezes or an unusual cold snap. Use row covers, old sheets, cloches, or containers that you can move for protection and warmth.

September is a transition month, but it doesn’t have to be the end of growing vegetables. Extend your season with quick-growing veggies and use the winter as a time to establish plants like garlic and onions. Good preparation and an eye on the weather will allow you to keep your vegetable garden going long after summer ends.

If you’ve been enjoying ripe tomatoes off the vine all season, then suddenly the merriment stops, there is cause for concern. Tomato plants can be finicky and if something is lacking in its care or the environment, the plant holds back. If your tomato plant is flowering, but not fruiting, there are a few common reasons why and ways to fix it before the season ends.

Keeping your tomatoes healthy with proper care should help get production back on track. But at this time of year, the specific causes can vary. I'll walk you through several reasons why a tomato plant flowers, but has no fruit. Then I'll share how to solve these issues before the growing season comes to a close.

Follow these tips now to resolve these issues and ensure you get a big harvest of tomatoes before fall weather arrives.

How to Turn Tomato Flowers Into Fruit

After reviewing possible causes of no fruit set, there are a handful of tasks you can do right now to fix problems before the season ends to ensure you still get a huge harvest.

1. Keep Plants Cool

If your weather is consistently hot, above 88°F (31°C), your tomato plants may be heat-stressed and cause flowers to drop off before setting fruit. But you can cool the temperature by as much as 10 degrees by adding a shade cloth to your garden.

You can use a light-colored sheet, a window screen, row cover fabric or a shade cloth, like this one from the Home Depot, that allows a percentage of light to come through and also provides UV protection. Attach it to the side facing west and also lay some fabric across the top of your plant to shade the midday sun. You can leave it up until the heatwave passes or put it up each afternoon.

If you don’t have mulch around your tomato plants, you can do that now to conserve moisture and cool the soil. Use wood chips, straw, grass clippings, or chopped leaves and apply a 2 to 3 inch (5-8 cm) layer. Also, be sure you are watering consistently so the soil does not dry out.

2. Water Well

If the temperature is moderate, make sure you are watering tomatoes properly. Tomatoes need 1 to 2 inches (2.5-5 cm) of water a week. Two or three deep waterings are better than daily shallow watering. Deep watering encourages deep roots and shallow watering encourages roots to stay near the top of the soil where they dry out faster.

The soil should stay moist, but not wet. Drip irrigation puts water right where it is needed and avoids a lot of runoff. Content Editor Laura has used this easy-to-use drip irrigation kit from the Home Depot in her garden for years.

If you are hand-watering, avoid splashing water onto the lower leaves. If that is a problem, remove the lower leaves to prevent soil-borne diseases.

3. Feed With the Right Food

Continue to fertilize your tomatoes, but lighten or remove the nitrogen from the mix. At this point in the summer, your plant doesn’t need to grow stems and leaves, it needs to concentrate on fruit set and ripening.

If you aren’t already, use a liquid tomato fertilizer with a higher middle number (phosphorus) than the first number, or nitrogen, such as 1-3-1. This tomato-specific fertilizer from Burpee is a good option. Apply it every two weeks according to the product instructions.

4. Hand-Pollinate Plants

In case of poor pollination, you can do the job yourself and hand-pollinate tomato plants. Since tomatoes are self-pollinating, both the male (anthers) and female (stigma) parts are within each flower. So all you need to do is throw a little jiggle its way to release the pollen.

To do this, you can gently toggle the flower cluster back and forth as you walk by each morning or simply aim a fan in the plant’s direction. You also can take a paintbrush and move the pollen from the anther to the stigma. Another option is to tap a vibrating electric toothbrush behind the flower. Do this every day for several days to make sure the job gets done.

5. Catch Problems Early

Monitor for common tomato diseases and pests that strike at the end of summer. White flies, aphids, caterpillars and diseases such as verticillium wilt and fusarium wilt affect tomato production.

When necessary, use organic controls such as insecticidal soap and neem oil, both of which are available on Amazon, or a blast of water to repel pests. Caterpillars can be removed by hand. Unfortunately, there is no cure for wilt diseases. The best defense is to grow disease-resistant tomato varieties to prevent problems.

Keeping your tomatoes healthy with proper watering, fertilizing, and monitoring for pests and disease should help get the tomato production back on track. Pollinating the plants and using a shade cloth in the afternoon also can ensure you will once again enjoy ripe tomatoes until the end of the season.

My kitchen garden and veg beds look a bit crumpled around the edges. Beans have gone a bit stringy this last week, and my favorite butterhead lettuce has turned bitter. Pulling out spent zucchini vines feels like conceding the season: it’s not over yet, though. Soil that’s still this warm is a precious commodity, so why not put it to work?

Salad greens sit near the top of any list of easy vegetables to grow, and in late summer they get easier still. Seeds that might sit sulking for a week in April can be up in three days at the moment. Sow before the month is out, and there’ll be pickings by mid-September, with more coming clear through to the first hard frost. The bed need not be empty first, since these new crops can go in wherever a crop came out.

So treating these empty gaps as lost space is a wasted opportunity. Warm August soil can accelerate germination, root development, and subsequent nourishment. By growing fast-maturing crops in the warm, vacant pockets left by cleared peas or early potatoes, you’re fast-tracking your next harvests. You can dodge peak summer pest cycles, enjoy early maturing flavors, and fill salad bowls straight through to late fall.

Fast Salad Crops to Grow in August

Before you rush to fill those gaps, think about the condition of the earth, and the general light and drainage. The spent crop has left a space, sure – but what gets left behind will be lumps and root holes that fine seed has no chance in. So before you sow these crops, rake the space until the surface resembles coarse sand. An inch (2.5cm) of compost forked into the top 3 inches (8cm) can help restore a little of the goodness. It will also hang onto water better than sun-baked ground. Skip the deep digging, though: none of these crops will root far enough down to notice.

While warmth is appreciated in the earth, baking heat can be problematic. Lettuce and spinach flatly refuse to germinate once the soil is baking, and corn salad is no better about it. Water the furrow before the seed goes in (rather than after), since watering over the top washes fine seed into clumps. Add some sifted or aged compost or a fine potting mix, such as Espoma Organic Land & Sea Compost from Amazon, which restores critical nutrients and moisture for late summer plantings. Anywhere that puddles in a downpour will need a raised row.

Regional climate differences will have some bearing on sowing success. Gardeners in USDA hardiness zones 3-6 need to move quickly to ensure crops reach maturity before daylight drops below 10 hours a day. Growers in zones 7-10 face 90°F (32°C) heat spikes, so an overhead shade cloth can help to keep seedbeds under 75°F (24°C). Direct sowing is usually better than plugs for these fast crops, as transplant shock can waste precious growing days. Don’t forget to keep the seedbed damp to prevent surface crusting once you get these fast-growing crops in the ground…

1. Arugula

Nothing else in the salad bed moves this fast. Arugula (Eruca vesicaria) germinates in 3-4 days in warm ground and gives a picking of baby leaves inside 3 weeks. The August advantage is flavor as much as speed: summer-sown rocket leaves are fiercely peppery. Cooler nights soften it back toward something usable. Wild rocket has a narrower leaf and more heat. You can buy Organic Arugula Seeds from Eden Brothers for a nutty kick that matures in 28-40 days and also flourishes in large pots.

Thriving in zones 3-10, arugula prefers full sun and requires rich, moist soil with a pH between 6-7. Flea beetles are the biggest threat, so cover with a lightweight mesh. Plant alongside carrots or bush beans, which won't crowd its shallow roots. Protect dense growings from downy mildew with some Arber Biofungicide Spray from Walmart. Cut outer leaves for harvesting. One sowing can carry on for 6-8 weeks.

2. French Breakfast Radishes

Radishes (Raphanus sativus) are the usual recommendation for a child's first crop, and the reason is timing. They take 3-4 days to germinate, and less than a month to be ready to pull. Little else in the garden moves that fast. Sow the French breakfast type instead of a globe. Crops come up tapered with a white tip, and stay milder in warm weather than the round sorts do. Snatch up packs of French Dressing Radish Seeds from Burpee for crunchy pink and white gems that mature in 25-35 days.

Thinning is the step nobody bothers with. Crowded radishes make tops and nothing below. Pull one at 20 days to check. An inch (2.5cm) between plants should do it. The thinnings can go in the bowl too, since the tops taste like mild mustard. Suitable for zones 2-11, radishes just need light, well-draining soil. Uneven watering can cause roots to crack or turn woody, so maintain consistent moisture.

3. Mizuna and Tatsoi

These Japanese greens, both forms of Brassica rapa, behave almost identically. Mizuna throws up feathery, deeply cut leaves with a faint mustard bite. Tatsoi makes a flat, glossy rosette that shrugs off frost. Both give baby leaves in 3 weeks and full heads in 6 weeks. You can buy Tatsoi Spoon Mustard Seeds from Eden Brothers for hearty Asian greens that mature in as little as 30 days, and Mountain Valley Seeds Red Streaks Mizuna from Amazon for a vigorous red and green leaf in 45 days.

Reliable in zones 4-9, they thrive in full sun or partial shade. Tatsoi is impressively cold-hardy, surviving to 15°F (-9°C). Flea beetles are the only problem, but throw a floating row cover over the bed at sowing time, and it won’t be an issue. The Hortifan Plant Cover from Amazon is great for repeat use. To harvest, shear baby leaves an inch above the ground or let the rosette mature for a single-harvest cooking green.

4. Corn Salad (Mache)

Corn salad (Valerianella locusta), or mache, rewards a little more waiting. Its seed sulks in hot ground, so the end of the month works better than the start. Performing best in zones 5-9, mâche requires soil temperatures below 68°F (20°C) to break dormancy, making late August and early September the sweet spot for sowing. What it gives back is cold tolerance: the small rosettes of soft, nutty leaves even keep going under snow. Buy minty sweet Ohio Heirloom Seeds Lamb’s Lettuce (Macha) from Amazon for frilly rosettes of nutritious leaves that mature in 40-45 days.

It tolerates poor soils well, but benefits from light, moist ground in full sun to partial shade. Pair with slow-growing winter brassicas or garlic, and avoid overwatering once established. It requires little feed and is largely ignored by late-season pests. Harvest the rosette with a knife just below the crown. Nothing else here will still be standing in February.

5. Land Cress

The sticking point with watercress is that its feet have to stay wet. Land cress (Barbarea verna) gives the same hot, peppery hit and grows in ordinary ground, which is why catalogs also sell it as upland cress. Either does fine in a pot sat in a saucer of water, topped up daily, but land cress gives you another option with veg bed gaps. Buy Tomorrow Seeds Upland Cress from Walmart for a zippy, vitamin-rich fresh green leaf machine that’s perfect for small spaces and containers.

Hardy in zones 5-9, land cress thrives in full shade where other greens struggle. It behaves as a biennial, often overwintering to produce spring greens before going to seed. Plant alongside moisture-loving herbs like mint or chives. Keep soil wet to maintain its crisp, peppery bite. Usable pickings follow within 5 weeks. Cut sprigs from the outside, and it regrows.

6. Spinach

Half-empty rows can often be the story with August spinach (Spinacia oleracea), as the seed can stop germinating reliably once the ground warms past a certain point. The fix is to cool the ground first to under 75°F (24°C). Place a shade cloth, like the Coolaroo 70% UV Block Shade Cloth from The Home Depot, over the bed for 4-5 days ahead of sowing, and you’re golden. After that it behaves, with baby leaves in around 30 days, then repeated cuttings from the outside right through fall.

Thriving in zones 3-9, spinach needs neutral-to-slightly alkaline soil (pH 6.5-7.5). Plant alongside radishes or strawberries to maximize space efficiency. Stick to deep watering to encourage strong taproots to withstand cold snaps. You can buy lush and hearty classic Heirloom Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach from Burpee for a late summer fiesta of nutty goodness that is slow to bolt but quick to mature (40 days).

7. Red Mustard

Deep purple over green, with veins darkening almost to black as the nights cool, is not a color combination the salad bowl often sees. Red mustard (Brassica juncea) earns its place on looks alone. Then there is the heat, which is close to horseradish and builds as leaves get bigger. Suitable for zones 4-10, it thrives in full sun and adapts well to most soil types if drainage is good. Try Red Giant Mustard from Eden Brothers for lush leaves that are bolt-resistant and take only 40 days to mature.

Baby leaves are ready in about 3 weeks, while plants left to size up can survive cold snaps that flatten everything around them. Excellent plant partners include onions, garlic, and rosemary, which help to deter brassica-loving pests. Harvest frequently using a cut-and-come-again approach, leaving the central growing point intact to ensure a steady supply of fresh, spicy foliage until heavy frosts set in.

8. Claytonia

Claytonia perfoliata makes small heart-shaped leaves on tender stems, each one eventually holding a little cup with a white flower at the center. Thriving in zones 4-9, claytonia prefers cool, damp, partially shaded conditions, making it ideal for tucked-away garden corners or under taller crops. Soil should be rich in leaf mold or compost and kept moist. Buy MYS Miner’s Lettuce Claytonia From Amazon for a rich vitamin load at a bargain price that should flourish well into winter.

This fast-growing salad green is ready in 40 days and is super-hardy, carrying on under a cloche long after the rest has stopped. It germinates better once the ground cools, like mache, so treat it as a late-August job. Plant with mâche or winter pansies in cold frames. Snip stems gently near the base to encourage multiple harvests, and allow a few plants to flower at season's end for free self-sown crops next year.

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Whether you are growing pumpkins for Jack o’ lanterns, fall decor, fairs, or food, now is the time to push that extra oomph to ensure a bountiful autumn harvest. August may be a challenge in your area due to excessive heat, drought periods, or an increase in bug and disease activity. That is why it is important to keep up with consistent watering, proper feeding, and insect scrutiny this month.

The vines should have ample fruit set by now so it’s important to support their development in the final stretch rather than coaxing more fruit or leaves. Decreasing nitrogen fertilizer and ramping up the potassium will focus plant energy on the developing fruit.

Growing pumpkins doesn’t need to be overwhelming, but following a few tried-and-true suggestions will keep your pumpkins from withering on the vine or becoming a bug buffet.

What to Do for Pumpkins in August

Here are four tasks to perform in August to keep your pumpkins on the right track to maturity and harvest.

1. Water Deeply

Water pumpkins deeply once or twice a week. They need from 1 to 2 inches (2.5-5 cm) per week. Pumpkins are 90 percent water, so keeping up with consistent watering will ensure your pumpkin vines are hydrated and can carry nutrients from the soil to the pumpkins.

Water will prevent leaf wilt and stress, but often wilting pumpkin leaves occur on hot afternoons then perk up in the evening. If they don’t perk up by morning, there is cause to suspect vine borers.

Always water from below and keep the water from splashing on the leaves to prevent fungal diseases. Drip irrigation is ideal. Content Editor Laura has used this easy-to-install drip irrigation kit from Home Depot for years and loves it.

Cleaning up the vines and removing them to the trash at the end of the season also will help prevent fungal spores from overwintering in the debris. To keep the fruit dry and rot free, place a thin board, shingle, tile, or stone under developing fruit. Also, carefully rotating the pumpkins every week or two keeps them developing evenly.

2. Reduce Nitrogen Fertilizer

The pumpkin vines are already set with fruit by now. They do not need more vegetative growth, but they do need a potassium boost to support strong stems and fruit quality.

If you have been fertilizing pumpkins regularly, reduce the nitrogen from now on and supplement with a fertilizer that's higher in potassium, like this one from Espoma on Amazon. Or you can sidedress the pumpkin patch with compost to enrich the soil.

About 4 to 6 weeks before you expect to harvest, stop all feeding so the pumpkins focus on ripening.

3. Monitor for Insects & Disease

Squash bugs, squash vine borers, and powdery mildew are still a threat to pumpkins in late summer. Check the undersides of leaves for orange to red squash bug eggs or the grayish adults. Pick off these common pumpkin pests when you see them and drop them in a bowl of soapy water. They will be slower in the early morning. Lightly squash the eggs or remove them with masking tape.

Vines that stay limp likely have a squash vine borer tunneling inside the vines. Inspect the limp vine for an entry hole with frass below. If there is only one entrance, you may be able to save the vine by removing the larva.

Using a clean blade, make a vertical cut an inch or two (2.5-5 cm) from the entry hole. If you see the larva, remove it, kill it, and cover the cut with soil. With any luck new roots will grow at the nearest node. If unsuccessful, remove the failing vine so the borers do not pupate in the ground to emerge next year.

Powdery mildew thrives in humid, shady conditions and is characterized by a white, powdery substance on the leaves. Keeping water off the leaves helps with prevention. But once the problem starts, you can’t cure it. However, you can stop it from spreading.

Remove the leaves that are most infected with the mildew and increase air circulation. There are organic and chemical controls available, but they work better when used as a prevention. You can use a sulfur-based fungicide now, according to label directions, to stop the spread. This copper fungicide from Bonide on Amazon is another good choice.

Powdery mildew doesn’t usually kill the vines, but it is unsightly. If powdery mildew is a problem every year, you might consider starting a spray program before it starts or at the initial onset until the humid weather subsides. Some resistant pumpkin varieties are available, too.

4. Stop New Fruit Production

To stop any new pumpkin production that probably won't mature by fall anyway, pinch off new female flowers and new growing tips at the end of main vines. Female flowers have a bulbous growth below the petals. Pruning pumpkins this way redirects energy to the existing squash.

Any new fruit that sets after mid-August should be removed as well. This forces the plant to focus its energy on ripening the existing fruit and encourages bigger pumpkins. Though you may be sacrificing more squash, each pumpkin will be larger.

Pumpkins are a popular and fun plant to grow, and providing consistent water, feeding, and vigilant care right up until pumpkin harvesting time will ensure your squash make it to the finish line.

Tomato plants spend August pushing out side shoots faster than anyone can keep up with. Most of those suckers end up on the ground, forgotten by evening. Something else happens when one goes into a jar of water instead. Tomato stems carry the cells that become roots along their whole length, so a cutting never starts from scratch the way a seed does.

Anyone who has learned to grow tomatoes from seed knows the wait involved, since a spring transplant needs six to eight weeks before it is anywhere near ready for the garden. A rooted sucker skips nearly all of that. The tissue is already mature. It flowers on its own schedule rather than growing up first.

Which Shoots Are Worth Taking?

A tomato sucker sits in the crotch where a leaf branch meets the main stem, angled up at roughly forty-five degrees. Left alone it becomes another branch, and that branch will carry flowers of its own by autumn. Two things get cut by mistake here – the thick vertical stalk running up the middle, and the horizontal leaf branch itself. Neither one should come off. At 4 to 6 inches (10-15cm) a sucker holds enough stored energy to support itself without carrying so much leaf that it wilts before roots arrive. Smaller than that tends to be weak. Much bigger and the cutting spends its first week in shock.

Parent choice matters more than size, though. A clone carries whatever the parent has. A vine already spotted with early blight or curling from virus hands those troubles straight down to the new plant. That is a rough way to spend eight weeks. Pick from the healthiest plant in the row, ideally one still putting on fresh growth, snip just below a node with something clean and sharp, then strip every leaf off the lower half of the stem.

Water or Soil?

Rooting tomato cuttings in water is the method most people reach for, mostly because the roots are visible. A jar on a bright windowsill works well, kept out of direct sun, with only the bare stem submerged and the leaves held clear of the surface. Any leaf touching water will rot and foul the jar. Fresh water every couple of days prevents that. A clear jar makes progress easy to check. Roots usually show in seven to fourteen days, and once they reach an inch (2.5cm) the cutting is ready to pot up. I'm a big fan of this propagation station from Amazon, which turns the whole process into a work of art.

Rooting straight into moist potting mix skips a step. Water roots and soil roots are not quite the same structure, so cuttings moved from jar to garden often sulk for a few days while they adjust. Push the stripped stem two inches (5cm) into damp mix. Keep it shaded and evenly watered. A gentle tug after ten days will say whether it has taken. A tray of 4-inch nursery pots from Amazon can handle a dozen at once, about the right number to lose a couple and still come out ahead. Rooting hormone is optional at best on tomatoes. If you do want to use it, go with this one from Amazon.

Getting Them Through the Heat

A rootless cutting in August has no way to replace what it loses. Afternoon sun is the main threat for the first two weeks. Morning light with shade from noon onward is about right, whether that comes from the east side of a building or from a panel of shade cloth from Home Depot stretched over hoops. The same goes for a cutting set in the ground rather than a pot.

Humidity helps as well. A clear plastic bag propped over the pot for a few days keeps the leaves from drying faster than the stem can supply them, though it has to come off once new growth appears. Keep the mix damp rather than wet – cuttings rot about as easily as they root. Once the plant is pushing fresh leaves, a week of gradually longer sun gets it ready for a permanent spot.

Racing the First Frost

Timing is the honest catch here. Rooted cutting to ripe fruit runs somewhere around eight to ten weeks in decent conditions, which puts an early August start into fruit by mid October across much of the country. Cherry tomatoes and the smaller plum tomatoes ripen fastest. Their fruit sizes up in a fraction of the time a big slicer needs, and a plant loaded with twenty small tomatoes beats one holding two green softballs.

Cold is manageable up to a point. A frost cover from Walmart thrown over the row buys several degrees on the nights that would otherwise end things. Anything growing in a pot can move to a porch instead. Tomatoes picked at the first blush of color finish ripening indoors, so a late flush never goes to waste.

The whole thing costs a jar and some patience. There is something quietly satisfying about eating fruit in November off a shoot that was headed for the compost pile in August.

As you read and learn about a specific plant’s pruning needs and preferences, you may develop some pruning anxiety. With such specific pruning rules, you may feel like you need a diagram next to a plant to prune it properly.

But not all plants are fussy about pruning. Many plants are much more laid back. One of my favorite forgiving plants to care for are tomato plants. But even though growing tomatoes and pruning them the right way is easy, there are still some important guidelines you need to follow for the best results.

Pruning tomatoes the proper way and at the proper time can increase your yields, make harvesting easier, and keep plants pest and disease-free. Here’s how to prune tomatoes for healthy plants and bigger harvests.

Should You Prune Tomato Plants?

The answer to this question is actually a personal one. Some people assert firmly that pruning tomato suckers improves the production and health of a plant by improving airflow, which can reduce the spread of disease. Others claim that pruning tomato suckers damages the plant unnecessarily, opening it up to disease without providing considerable benefits.

Your tomato plant won't instantly grow three new stems in the place of every stem you cut, but it will reward your pruning efforts with a bounty of delicious fruit. Regularly pruning tomato plants will help the plant produce more fruit.

Plants need foliage to create energy from photosynthesis, but the growth and development of foliage uses up a lot of the plant’s energy that could be used for fruit production. Cutting off tomato suckers redirects the plant’s energy away from growing new stems in favor of producing more fruit. Pruning off extra stems also means that your plants will produce less tomatoes that are bigger in size.

It is possible to get overzealous when pruning tomatoes and wind up with an over-pruned plant. First you need to understand which types of tomatoes benefit most from pruning and then I’ll walk you through how to prune tomatoes the right way for the best results.

Pruning Different Types of Tomatoes

When it comes to cutting back tomato plants, there are some things you need to know. Tomato plants fall into two categories: determinate and indeterminate.

Determinate Tomatoes

Determinate tomato plants are shrub-like. They grow to a certain height, then stop growing up and instead fill out and grow bushier. Determinate tomato plants also go to flower and fruit all at once.

‘Patio’, ‘Roma’, and ‘Celebrity’ are a few popular varieties of determinate tomato plants. Because they fruit in a shorter time span and grow as more compact plants, determinate tomato plants need less pruning.

When you first plant a determinate tomato, you should prune off any tomato flowers that form before the plant is 18-24 inches (45.5-61 cm) tall. This will redirect the plant's energy from flower formation to developing strong roots.

As the plant grows, prune out any crossing, crowded, damaged, or diseased stems and foliage to keep the plant open, airy, and free of pest and disease. Removing tomato plant leaves that grow just beneath the flower sets will send more energy to fruit formation.

Indeterminate Tomatoes

Indeterminate tomato plants are more like vines. They grow long stems that continually bear new fruit sets. You can save space in the garden and focus on fruit production by growing indeterminate tomato plants vertically up poles, arbors, trellises, or fences.

They can be trained and trimmed easily to grow as single stemmed, heavy fruit-bearing plants by removing excess tomato plant leaves and sucker stems that form along the main stem.

Many heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and ‘Better Boy’ tomatoes are popular varieties of indeterminate tomato plants. In late summer, they can be top pruned to redirect the plant’s energy into ripening its last fruits.

When pruning tomato plants, or any plants, focus first on removing foliage, fruits, or stems that show any sign of disease or pests. Then sanitize your tools and wash your hands to prevent the spread of any common tomato diseases or pests that may have been present.

How to Prune Tomato Plants

If you have decided that pruning tomatoes is the best course of action for your gardening goals, you need to make sure that you do it the correct way to help reduce the chances of disease.

1. You want to start pruning tomato plants when they get to be about 1-2 feet (30-60 cm) tall. Any smaller than this, and the plant may not recover from the shock of being pruned.
2. By the time your tomato plant gets to be this size, the plant will have branches coming off the main stem. Where these branches meet, you will see an additional branch growing. This is called a tomato sucker. Using a sharp, clean pair of pruning shears, snip these small sucker branches off.
3. The best time to prune tomato plants is in the early morning on a dry day. This will allow for the wounds from the pruning to heal cleanly and will reduce the chances of the plant being infected by disease.
4. If you choose to prune tomato plants, make sure that you use irrigation methods that water tomato plants at the soil level (like this soaker hose from the Home Depot) rather than from above (like sprinklers). This will prevent soil splashing up onto the tomato plant and the tomato plant's wounds, which can introduce disease pathogens.

Essential Tomato Pruning Tools

Bare stems with fruit still hanging on them make an alarming sight in the middle of August. The plant looks like it is dying. Peppers left behind start scalding in the sun without any canopy over them. Something is wrong, though the plant is rarely as far gone as it appears.

Most trouble with growing peppers this late comes down to four causes, and they leave different fingerprints. Where the shedding starts, what the fallen leaves looked like on the way out, and what the weather has been doing will narrow it down fast.

1. Heat

Peppers stop cooperating when days push past 90F (32C) or nights stay above 75F (24C). Pollen turns tacky at those temperatures and pollination fails. Pepper blossoms drop before they ever set fruit. Leaf loss follows as the plant sheds what it cannot keep hydrated through the afternoon. Wind through a hot spell makes it worse by stripping moisture faster than roots replace it. The tell is the order: flowers go first and foliage follows, not the other way around. A stretch of shade cloth from Home Depot over hoops takes the edge off a heat spike without cutting light enough to matter.

None of that is fatal. Plants that shed flowers through a hot spell start setting again once nights cool. That means early September across most of the country. Resist the urge to tidy up in the meantime. New fruit comes off wood the plant already has, and cutting peppers back hard in August leaves less of it to work with. The leaves still hanging on are shading fruit that would scald without them.

2. Water Swings

Erratic watering does more damage than watering lightly. Roots that go from saturated to bone dry and back lose fine feeder tips every cycle. The plant balances that loss by dropping leaves, lowest first, while the top stays green. Container peppers get hit hardest. A pot can swing from wet to dry in a single hot afternoon, where peppers in open ground shrug off a missed day. A soil moisture meter from Amazon pushed down near the root zone answers the question faster than poking a finger in the surface.

The fix is rhythm rather than volume. Water deeply on a schedule the plant can rely on. Mulch keeps the top few inches from swinging between extremes every day. Here is the confusing part. Overwatering yellows pepper leaves exactly the way drought does, since roots in saturated soil cannot pull oxygen either. Dig down and squeeze a handful. Soil that holds its shape and glistens is too wet, and soil that will not clump at all has gone past dry.

3. Nutrients

A heavy crop is a hungry crop. Peppers pull nitrogen out of older foliage and move it into ripening fruit. The lowest leaves pale first. They yellow, then they let go, while everything above them looks perfectly healthy. That gradient from the ground up is the signature. It tends to show right as the first fruit starts turning color. Nothing is diseased here, and the plant is doing exactly what you asked of it, just at its own canopy’s expense.

Feeding peppers lightly helps, but you should leave it at that. Too much nitrogen this late pushes soft growth that will not ripen before frost. High-nitrogen fertilizer is itself a documented cause of blossom drop, which turns one problem into two. Peppers draw heavily on potassium while fruit sizes up, which is the argument for leaning that way rather than skipping the feed altogether. Something balanced or potassium-leaning at half strength supports fruit already set without redirecting the plant back into leaf production. This one from Amazon is a good bet.

4. Disease

Two diseases spot pepper leaves in August, and the shape of the spot tells them apart. Bacterial spot begins as water-soaked flecks on the undersides of older leaves, darkening to brown or black inside a narrow yellow halo, with angular edges where a vein stops them. Cercospora, the fungal one, makes rounder lesions with pale tan centers and dark rims. Gardeners call it frogeye. The name explains itself once you have seen one. Either way the centers dry and drop out, the leaves go shot through with holes, and defoliation runs from the bottom up until the fruit is sitting exposed. A copper fungicide from Amazon slows both, so the diagnosis can wait until after the first spray.

Handling matters as much as spraying. Both travel on splashing water and on hands moving through wet plants. Stay out of the row until the foliage dries and water at soil level from here on. Neither has a cure once a plant is far gone. Pull the worst ones and keep the debris out of the compost. Clean seed and a resistant variety are the real answer next spring.

The bottom of a tomato goes tan, then dark, then flat and leathery. It looks like something contagious tearing through the plant. Blossom end rot is not a disease at all. No fungus or bacterium started it – the plant just could not move enough calcium into that tomato while its cell walls were going up.

Anyone who has spent a season or two growing tomatoes might know the pattern, since the first flush tends to take the worst of it. What matters now is the crop already hanging out there. Some of it is worth saving. Some of it is costing the plant energy for nothing.

What Is Blossom End Rot?

Blossom end rot isn't a disease. It's actually a lack of calcium. Calcium builds the glue holding cell walls together. It travels one direction only – up from the roots through the xylem, riding along with water. Soil moisture that swings from soaked to bone dry and back again stalls the delivery. Farthest from the stem, the blossom end is where it runs out. Cells there collapse, the tissue dries into a dark leathery patch, and the scar stays for the life of the tomato. Peppers and squash do the same thing under the same conditions, a decent clue that no pathogen is involved.

Most garden soil already holds plenty of calcium. The popular fixes miss for exactly that reason. Foliar sprays cannot deliver it. Calcium sitting in a leaf has no route into a tomato, and the skin will not take it in from outside. Then there is Epsom salt. It's made of magnesium sulfate and has no calcium in it whatsoever. In fact, the extra magnesium competes for uptake at the root. Don't try it!

Calcium nitrate applied around the drip line is a good bet. You can find it on Amazon. This is best for preventing blossom end rot in future fruit.

Toss It

Some tomatoes with blossom end rot are a lost cause.

A green tomato with a sunken black patch across the bottom third is finished – dead tissue stays dead. It will never fill out or ripen evenly. The plant goes on pouring sugars and water into it regardless. Pulling those off frees all of that up for what is still coming. Think of it as triage rather than loss.

Take them at the stem with a snip or a clean twist. They can go on the compost pile without a second thought, since nothing infectious is involved. The only reason to bin the mushy ones is that secondary mold has usually moved into the open tissue by then. That mold is a squatter, not the cause. Either way, the plant is better off without them.

Pick It

A tomato that has started coloring up with only a small dry patch underneath is a different case entirely. The lesion stays where it is. Damage at the blossom end does not creep up to the shoulders, whatever it looks like from below. Everything above the patch is normal in every way that counts. Half a tomato is still a tomato.

Bring those in a couple of days early and let them ripen on the counter, out of direct sun, because sitting on the vine only gives the soft spot more time to work outward.

Cut generously, an inch (2.5cm) past the dark edge. The rest slices, cooks, or freezes like any other tomato. There is no toxin here and nothing to catch. Canning is the one real exception – damage of this kind can push pH higher than clean fruit runs, and extension guidance keeps it out of the canner for that reason. Fruit ripened off the vine also runs slightly less acidic, one more reason the canner is the wrong destination for these. Fresh use and freezing carry no such worry.

Leave It on the Vine

Undamaged fruit stays put. The fix from here is water rather than anything sold in a bottle. Aim for a deep soaking that wets the whole root zone, on a schedule the plant can count on. An inch (2.5cm) a week covers most gardens, and a hot stretch takes more. Guessing is where this falls apart – a soil moisture meter from Amazon pushed 4 inches (10cm) down settles it faster than a finger test. On the weeks that get away from you, an inexpensive hose timer from Walmart keeps the schedule from slipping. Containers dry out fastest, so they need checking more often than a bed does.

Mulch handles the other half. Two to three inches (5-8cm) of pine bark mulch from Home Depot over the root zone slows evaporation. It also steadies the soil between waterings. A hoe worked in close does the opposite, since chopped roots cannot take up water they never reach. High-nitrogen feed can wait until the plant has recovered. Anything already half grown is past the window where this happens, so it will stay clean.

New tomatoes sitting on a plant with steady water usually come in perfect. That is the reward for treating the cause instead of the symptom.

August is when a tomato garden stops being a project and starts becoming a serious workload. Plants sag under the weight of fruit, harvests outpace your kitchen, and the gear that seemed optional back in June suddenly is not.

It’s typically best to buy your tomato growing gear early in the season, when the plants are small and the summer still looks manageable. By the time a vine is six feet of tangled growth loaded with fruit, the gap between what is on hand and what is needed becomes obvious fast. Luckily, that gap doesn't cost much to close.

The tomato growing tools that earn their place this late are not glamorous. They hold plants upright or help move fruit from the garden to the kitchen. Here are the essentials you should snap up now, if you didn’t buy them at the beginning of the season.

Essential August Tomato Tools

Most of the tools you need for growing tomatoes in August remain useful for years. Late-season tomato problems are often mechanical rather than mysterious. Plants fall over. Fruit gets bruised on the walk indoors. A countertop fills faster than anyone can eat through it. Here are the tools you need to help solve these common issues.

1. Heavy-Duty Tomato Cages

The flimsy tomato cages sold every spring are the first thing to fail. An indeterminate tomato in August weighs far more than that wire was built to carry. A plant that goes over in a storm snaps stems and drops fruit onto wet soil where it rots. Damage at this stage in the season does not grow back. Fruit on the ground draws slugs besides.

A square tomato cage from Home Depot in heavy-gauge steel holds a mature plant without leaning and the wide openings make picking easier than a cone cage ever did. Fitting one over a grown plant takes patience, but still beats staking a collapsed vine after the fact. Anything already flopping can be tied to a stake driven at least 12 inches (30 cm) deep.

Another great alternative is to use modular tomato cages – Senior Editor Liz swears by this trellising method. You can easily install modular cages even when plants are large and full of heavy fruit. Just snap them together around the plant.

2. Potassium-Heavy Fertilizer

Fertilizing tomatoes in August isn't very important – or so the thinking goes. But plants still setting fruit draw hard on potassium and container tomatoes in particular have run through all their nutrients by midsummer. A plant that quits flowering in the heat needs reserves ready for September, because a second flush is usually there for anyone who feeds it.

Espoma Tomato-tone from Amazon is a 3-4-6 mix, which puts potassium ahead of nitrogen. That's important where fruit quality is concerned. This mix includes calcium, too. Blossom end rot is nearly always a watering problem rather than a soil calcium shortage. Steady moisture corrects more cases than any product would, though. Granular feeds go in around the drip line rather than against the stem, then get watered in.

3. Sharp Bypass Pruners

Harvesting tomatoes by hand can tear the vine. Twisting a stubborn one may snap the branch it grew on. An August plant is carrying too much fruit to spare the stems. Lower leaves need removing now as well, since foliage touching the soil gives early blight a route up the plant. Tomato suckers are worth pinching out too, since a plant this size gains nothing from more foliage.

A pair of bypass pruners from Lowe's makes clean cuts that seal quickly, unlike the crushed stubs left behind by anvil-style tools or bare fingers. Wipe the blades between plants to prevent spreading diseases. That takes seconds and slows whatever is already loose in the patch.

4. Harvest Basket

Shirt hems and buckets both fail when you have a hefty tomato harvest in August. A shirt holds a limited number of tomatoes before something drops and a solid bucket lets the bottom layer get crushed under whatever lands on top of it. Ripe fruit bruises easily, too. Anything bruised has to be used the same day.

The Fiskars harvesting basket from Amazon has a colander side, so a load can be rinsed with the hose and drained before it reaches the counter. The flat bottom sits rather than tips, which sounds minor until a full load goes over. Rinsing outside turns a two-trip job into one and soft spots show up under the water.

5. Water Bath Canner

A big glut of ripe tomatoes always seems to land all at once. A short row of healthy plants puts out more in two weeks than the average household can eat in a month and freezer space runs out long before the vines do. Tomatoes are acidic enough for water bath canning, which is the simplest way to preserve your vegetable harvest. New lids are single-use, though the jars themselves will last decades.

A Granite Ware water bath canner from Amazon holds seven quart jars and comes with the rack, which matters more than it sounds. Lifting hot jars out of boiling water without one is how people get burned.

USDA guidance calls for added acid in every jar, usually bottled lemon juice or citric acid, since many modern tomato varieties sit close to the safety line. This step is not optional for safe consumption of canned tomatoes.

6. Frost Cloths

Your local first frost date is an average of past years' first frosts, not a promise. One cold night in late September can end a plant still carrying thirty green tomatoes and the forecast rarely gives more than a day or two of real warning. Anything still green when it happens will ripen indoors in a paper bag, though it never quite matches vine-ripened taste.

A floating row cover from Home Depot draped over the plants ahead of a cold night traps enough warmth to carry them through the cold snap. It goes on before dusk and off in the morning, since trapped heat can do as much harm as cold. Using frost cloths can extend your tomato harvest for two or three weeks, which is enough to separate a decent growing season from a great one.

August is upon us, which means that my annual panic over my green tomatoes refusing to turn red has begun in earnest. Every morning, I make my way outside and inspect them closely, searching for the slightest hint of blush. A tiny patch of pink? A warm orange glow? Any sign that my beloved tomatoes are finally ready to become the pasta sauces, salads, and summer lunches I have been imagining since I planted them.

You guessed it, folks: none whatsoever. Instead, they remain stubbornly green and completely uninterested in my plans – and nobody shares my pain, as I am far more invested in this tomato harvest than anyone else in our house. My four- and two-year-old children have already informed me (several times) that they will never, ever eat a tomato, and my husband’s taste preferences are apparently not much more adventurous.

I am the only person eagerly waiting for that perfect moment when I can finally pick my tomatoes and turn them into something delicious. This year, though, my husband (who, as well as being an avowed tomato hater, is also a professional gardener with two decades of experience under his belt) has shared his secrets with me. Finally.

Why We Shouldn't Panic Over Green Tomatoes

As it turns out, green tomatoes are not necessarily a sign that something has gone wrong. In fact, this summer’s extreme heat could be the reason they appear to have pressed pause.

Yes, while tomatoes love sunshine, they have a surprisingly specific comfort zone when it comes to ripening – specifically temperatures around 70°F to 75°F (21°C to 24°C). This is the sweet spot when it comes to efficiently producing the pigments that create their familiar red and orange colors. And so, when daytime temperatures consistently climb beyond around 85°F to 90°F (29°C to 32°C), the plant can temporarily slow down pigment production.

"That means your tomatoes might look perfectly full-sized, plump, and ready, but they will remain stuck in the 'mature green' stage until conditions become more favorable," my husband explained.

Considering he is the most zen man in the world (the joys of working outdoors), it's hardly surprising that my husband’s first piece of advice for my annual green tomatoes anxiety was to "stop panicking and give them time".

Thankfully, he knows me. He knows that, as someone who has been emotionally checking the same tomatoes every day, this is easier said than done. And so, to help soothe my torrid thoughts, he shared a few things I can do to help my tomato plants focus their energy on ripening the fruit they already have.

Shop Tomato Cooking Essentials:

1. Strip & Pinch

If you want to coax your green tomatoes into turning red, the first thing to do is to remove some of the lower leaves. By stripping away leaves near the bottom of the plant, you can improve airflow and allow more light to reach the developing fruit.

You can also pinch out the main growing tip of the plant. This stops it from putting energy into producing new flowers and encourages it to concentrate its remaining resources on ripening the tomatoes already growing.

2. Don't Let Them Bake

My instinct has always been to assume that more sun must equal faster ripening, but my husband says green tomatoes (and red ones, too) are at risk of sunscald, which appears as pale, leathery patches on the skin.

"A tomato doesn’t need to be baked to ripen," he reminds me. "If you notice a tomato showing even the faintest hint of color, pick it and bring it indoors. You can leave it ripening on a kitchen counter, where conditions are often much more suitable."

3. Water Consistently

Inconsistent watering? Apparently a cardinal sin if you're trying to shift your green tomatoes into the red zone.

Regular watering at the base of the plant helps support healthy growth and can reduce problems such as fruit splitting and blossom end rot, where the bottom of the tomato becomes dark and sunken.

"The aim is consistency," my husband says pointedly (almost as if he's been watching me and sighing when my back is turned). "Not a dramatic rescue mission every few days when the soil looks desperate."

Shop Watering Essentials:

My husband’s final piece of advice was perhaps the hardest one for me to accept: this is usually just a temporary pause, and patience (as ever) is a virtue. "Once temperatures drop and conditions become more comfortable, tomatoes often get back to the important business of ripening," he says.

I suppose I have to admit that, while my husband may not enjoy eating tomatoes, he sure does know how to grow them; reluctantly, I have to admit he might know what he’s talking about. And if a few particularly stubborn green tomatoes should still refuse to cooperate, even after all of this advice? Well, I have a backup plan. Green tomato chutney.

Wish me luck...