The yellow school bus may be chugging down the street and children may be back in class, but that doesn’t mean the summer growing season is at its end. Like you, I’m still harvesting tomatoes by the baskets full, along with green beans, peppers, and herbs galore.

I’ll admit though, I’m a bit tired. August was a fruitful month, and September will attempt to give me all she can. And honestly, what can I do with all that parsley?

But I know my days of brushing by knee-high basil and releasing its fragrance or reaching sky high for the just-unfurled sunflowers are numbered. These are the gardening days to relish.

Fall seed sowing

You may recall that I began sowing seeds of cool-season crops such as lettuce, chard, spinach and so forth at the beginning of August. Torrential rains early in the month followed by spectacular but dry weather have resulted in, well, fewer seedlings than I had hoped for.

Luckily, I was austere in my seed sowing, planting just a third or half of a packet of beets one week and of chard another. Now that the lazy days of summer are over, I’ll attend to my fall seed sowing like so much required schoolwork. Time’s running short, I know, but in just a few weeks I should have a crop of seedlings and a few weeks after that, some delectable greens for fresh, late-fall salads.

Summer Tomatoes and Herbs

I’m also taking this time to get the most out of my existing plants. My tomatoes are looking a bit haggard, so I’m removing all the spent leaves from the bottom of the plants and taking care to keep coaxing growth from the growing tips. They’ll also need an additional application of fertilizer, which I’ll apply as an organic compost tea. As for my herbs, I want the basil and parsley to keep going at least until the first frost. Once flowers appear, it’s a signal for the plant to start winding down. To extend their season I’m removing their flowers, which have been popping up on my basil and bolting from my parsley for several weeks now.

Assess the season

These are also the days to assess your veggie gardening season. The garden is at its most lush right now and is really pushing its boundaries. Take a tour through your plantings—did you give your peppers enough growing room? Did you underestimate the umbrella-like spread of your rhubarb’s leaves? What about the late-summer shadows cast by surrounding trees and buildings? Are the paths you created in early spring now impractical?

I’m surveying my plot for all of these situations, and even though it breaks my heart, I’m making plans to remove my irises and two of my four massive rhubarb plants. An unused corner of the plot that receives plenty of sunlight and is easily accessible by the garden hose will become a seedling nursery next spring. Right now that area is full of brick rubble, which I’ll use to create a new path or two elsewhere in the garden during my fall cleanup day.

Yes, it has been a long summer. But the flip of the calendar and the promise of the fall garden has reenergized me for the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, I’ll keep scouring my cookbooks for tomato and parsley recipes.