John M. Cropper

I never cease to be amazed by how much food you can grow in a tract of land smaller than your closet.

It’s been too long since I’ve updated the status of my backyard garden- a month at least- and in that time a lot has changed. The cucumber vines have produced more cucumbers than I could ever know what to do with. The tomatoes hesitated to ripen all through July until a week of 90 degree weather in early August coaxed them to redden, and they haven’t slowed since. My bell and jalapeno peppers are doing well, but I can’t make and eat salsa fast enough to keep up with them. When I first decided to plant this garden, I laughed at the thought of not being able to eat all the fruit and vegetables by myself. “It’s only a 21 sq. ft. plot,” I told my mom and sister when they asked what I would do with all the tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, lettuce, watermelon, basil, radishes and onions. “I’ll eat salads for weeks.”

Well, I did that, and now I’m frankly sick of cucumbers and I could probably go a month or so without another tomato and be just fine (Though I won’t. Someone’s got to eat all of these, and most of my friends are up to their ears in late summer veggies as well).

So for a change of pace, I pulled up the cucumbers. I dug out the last of the bulbed onions and I did away with the meandering and surprisingly unproductive watermelon vines. Now the plot seems simpler, and I’m deciding what to plant for a late summer / early fall harvest. Lettuce, spinach and kale are the only plants I’m sure I’ll plant. What else is good and hardy enough to withstand a few late September frosts?