Long Winter Shadows and Cold Summer Fruit—What to do

Should I or shouldn’t I?

Should I rip out my tomato plants or shouldn’t I?

Should I pick the tomatoes and then see if they continue to get ripe?

Or should I rip out some of them and leave the ones that have the most tomatoes on them?

But if I rip out some of the tomatoes then the ones that I rip out will no longer act as insulators.

Should I harvest my gourds or shouldn’t I?

I read that you should harvest them before the first hard frost.

But we don’t get hard frosts here.

But we did last year.

I read that you shouldn’t harvest birdhouse gourds until their stems are brown,

Their stems are still green.

Should I water my lawn or should I just wait till it rains?

We’re in the middle of a drought.

What if it doesn’t rain for a long time?

I’m so confused.

I think I’ll go shopping.

Comments

[kate]

When in doubt, you can never go wrong by going shopping (or having a nap)! Those tomatoes look amazing and I can't quite imagine ripping them out. I'm just enjoying seeing some green and red that isn't Christmas stuff!

[Katie]

Good choice!

If you don't have fruit flies buzzing about, I'd say leave them until it gets really cold!

[Sarah]

Those tomatoes look so good! My plants got pulled up before the first frost, and all the green tomatoes were put in paper bags to ripen in the basement. They taste better than store-bought tomatoes, but I can tell they weren't sun-ripened. Enjoy your plants for as long as you can!
~Sarah