Recent rains have been very encouraging to gardeners. Perhaps you are one of those who want to do some fall vegetable gardening now that you have some soil moisture. Crops that can be planted yet this year include lettuce, radish, spinach, kale and turnips.
Our frost date in the fall is Oct. 10-15. To determine if you can still plant something, figure how many days you have until frost. Then look on the package for the length of time it takes to grow the crop. Add to that a reasonable harvest period of a couple of weeks.
If you want to use some type of season extender like row covers or plastic over wire hoops over your rows to protect against hard frosts, you can extend your growing season well past the first killing frost. Check your garden centers for seeds for your late season vegetable crops.
Tomato tasting
Next week, the Penn State Master Gardeners of Franklin County will host their annual Tomato Tasting Day at the Horticulture Center on Franklin Farm Lane in Chambersburg, Pa. We will be offering anyone who stops by our tent, the opportunity to taste over 20 varieties of tomatoes and to rate them by appearance and taste. The purpose is for you to learn how some of the new tomatoes taste and what you might like to grow. We are also collecting the information to share with the local growers, so they can grow the ones you say are the best tasting. We will be open for tasting from noon to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 22. We would love to have you stop by the tent.
