FIMBY: Summer-to-fall transition is time for evaluation, planning

-- Look over your tomato plants, and write yourself notes (on your Gardening Guide? notebook journal? seed collection box?) about what happened with each variety. This is information for next year. Was the Celebrity too shaded? Did the Indigo cherry's flavor fail to impress? Why was Big Beef the star this year and not Chef's Choice Orange, as expected?

Personally,  my disappointments included Speckled Roman (a blossom-end-rot nightmare that absolutely does not like our climate), but those seeds were a gift so I had to try it. Also, Dark Star was mostly a bust, and this is one I'd grown before successfully. Live and learn.

-- Having done that, it may be time to pull the disappointments and get a head start on replenishing the soil. The Dark Star will stay in my garden for now, however, because black and purple tomatoes seem to come into their own in cooler weather.

-- Now take the same approach with any other summer edibles. Really, is that little melon plant going to get any bigger? Are you done with crookneck squash? Is the eggplant at its end? Winter squash and pumpkins can stay, of course, but make sure they're getting nutrients and water. (Cut the water off just before harvesting these.)

-- There's still time to start seeds if you want to have a cool-season garden. Loose-leaf lettuce is especially easy to grow right now. Also chard, bok choy and mizuna. Start some cilantro next week, and plan a few succession plantings of it. The Sacramento master gardeners have an excellent vegetable planting chart; go to this page and roll down to find the chart (EHN 11).

I like to put lettuce in containers on a backyard table because it's less likely to be attacked by caterpillars or birds. Which reminds me: Watch out for those white butterflies landing on your cool-weather veggies. They are cabbage butterflies, and their caterpillars are munching machines. Row covers can help keep them out.

-- Order garlic now and, more important, plan where it will be planted in October or November. The plants will be in that spot until May or  June.  A bed planted now with tomatoes or zucchini is ideal, as those will be done soon (if not already) and the soil can be rejuvenated. 

Note: Want to know more about garlic varieties and planting? Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply in Grass Valley has an online "Garlic Resource Center" and "Garlic Selector Tool" to help pick the best variety for your garden. Also, the Yolo County master gardeners' regular Kitchen Garden Chat this month will include a discussion on growing garlic.  That free Zoom event is scheduled for 10 a.m. this Saturday, Sept. 6. Information and the Zoom link can be found here.