Wednesday, September 7 and 21, 2022, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Lil’ Sprouts: This biweekly program is designed to engage ages 3-5 and an accompanying grown-up into the wonderful world of gardening. Each class will build upon knowledge from the last and will be centered on what’s growing and ready to harvest! ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED AND BEGINS 8/31: 330-865-8065. 

Thursday, September 15, 2022, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM

Join Summit Metro Parks for Good Gardens: Creative Chef. Enjoying your garden produce but looking for new recipes? Come expand your palate and try some innovative recipes. Samples will be available while they last. The program will be held at Goodyear Heights Lodge.

Thursday, September 22, 2022, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Woodland Mushrooms: A walk in the woods often reveals wonders of nature otherwise overlooked. Join a naturalist on a hike to discover the beauty, variety and interesting ecology of mushrooms. Sturdy shoes, bug spray and drinking water are strongly advised.

Sunday, September 25, 2022 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Join Summit Metro Parks for Collection Next Year’s Beauty: Native Seeds. Join a naturalist as we collect native plant seeds from the areas around Wood Hollow. Learn proper seed storage and propagating techniques so you can grow plants next spring. Bring bags, clippers and a marker to label what you collect. A hat and sunscreen are recommended.  The program will be held at Wood Hollow in Hudson, 2121 Barlow Road. 

Thursday, September 29, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Pawpaw Appreciation Night: Discover Ohio’s state native fruit, the pawpaw! Learn the benefits of this fruit and how to grow it, take home recipes and taste test is delicious banana-like flavor, while supplies last. This event will be held at Liberty Park in Twinsburg.

Thursday November 6, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Seed Saving.  Join Let's Grow Akron's Garden Talks at Summit Nature Center, 411 Ira Ave., Akron, 44301 to learn all about saving seeds.  .  

 More learning opportunities:

·        Summit County Master Gardeners on Facebook

·        Follow Summit County Master Gardeners on Instagram with our user name osusummitmgv 

·        Submit questions to Master Gardener Volunteers at Ask a Master Gardener

·        Find fact sheets and garden information at OhioLine Yard and Garden 

·        Let's Grow Akron, Seasonal Cooking Workshops

It is not too late to plant crops for this year. There are varieties of lettuce, spinach, radishes, kale and arugula that can be harvested in as little as 30 days, sometimes as baby greens.  Check the dates to maturity on the seed packets and choose those that are the shortest. Depending on when we get our first frost and the frost-tolerance of your crop, you may be able to harvest into November. (According to the National Weather Service the date of the average first freeze (32F) is October 19.) Cilantro, leaf lettuce, kohlrabi, spinach, swiss chard, and turnips all can survive a light frost. Beets, cabbage, collard greens, green onions, and kale can survive temperatures into the 20s. So find an empty patch in the garden and plant something!

There are numerous reasons to save seeds. One benefit is cost savings, but there are other perks, including being able to save seeds from your healthiest, tastiest plants. Seeds from these plants will have the characteristics of their parent plants and, over time, while the vegetables will be true to type, a strain personalized to your taste, region, soil and climate, will be developed. While there are exceptions, many hybrid seeds will not reproduce true to type. Seed-savers generally recommend starting with open-pollinated, heirloom seeds. These plants will produce seeds that closely resemble their parent plants.

With some fruits, such as tomatoes and squash, the seeds are allowed to ferment in their own juices for a period of days and then repeatedly rinsed before drying. For vegetables such as beans, the seeds need to stay on the plant until they are brown and drying before removing. For leafy veggies, herbs and some brassicas, the vegetables are allowed to fully flower, pollinate and form pods before removing to dry.

The tricky aspect to seed saving is the possibility of cross-pollination. Lucky for the home gardener, many of our favorite veggies are self-pollinating. (According to the University of Maryland about 98% of tomatoes are self-pollinated, although the University of Maine notes that "many heirlooms cross-pollinate at a high frequency". Beans, peas, and lettuce also self-pollinate.  

Seed saving tips:

1. Make sure seeds are completely dry (refrigerate in airtight bags or glass jars with a packet of 2 heaping tsp of powdered milk wrapped in cheesecloth or 4 layers of facial tissue)

2. Harvest seeds from fruit that is fully mature

3. Keep pests or mice from invading your seed (place seed in the freezer to kill any insects present)

4. Always label seed with type and date

5. Don't allow seeds to ferment too long (too much soaking can cause seeds to germinate or rot)

6. Don't force the drying process (low oven temps can cause seed to lose viability)

7. When ready to plant, remove the seed containers from the refrigerator and keep closed until the seeds warm to room temperature to avoid moisture condensation.

8. Accept the fact that some seeds won't germinate the following year (sweet corn and parsnip seeds, in particular, have low germination rates).

For a more detailed introduction check out An Introduction to Seed Saving for the Home Gardener from the University of Maine.

FINALLY, don't forget that you can save leftover seeds that you purchased this year, saving you money next year.  According to the Colorado State University Extension Service "all vegetable and flower seeds will store on a shelf at room temperature for at least one year without  significant loss of germination."  

And you can prolong that by keeping them cool, dry and dark (think the opposite of what they need to germinate).

We wait and wait for our first tomatoes to ripen, then all of a sudden we have so many ripe that we don't know what to do with them. Then, with fall and frost coming we have lots of green tomatoes still on the plants. What to do!

As far as the late-summer bounty, the University of Wisconsin has a PDF publication "Tomatoes Tart & Tasty" that includes procedures and recipes for safely preserving tomatoes. If you are going to try preserving, it is important that you use up-to-date recipes from reliable sources. Food safety is too important to you and your family. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has current research-based recommendations for most methods of home food preservation such as freezing, drying, canning, pickling, and jams and jellies. Look under the "How do I?" section in the left-hand column for the topic that interests you. You can also check under the publications link, for publications like the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, 2015 revision. You may also want to look into So Easy to Preserve, a 375-page book with over 185 tested recipes, along with step by step instructions and in-depth information for both the new and experienced food preserver, available from the University of Georgia. 

For the green tomatoes still on the vine there are some things you can do as fall approaches to push them along. Pinch off the growing tips of stems to encourage the plant to put energy into ripening fruit. Just don't prune off too many fully formed leaves since these supply nutrients to fruit. Remove flowers; new blossoms won't have time to set fruit before frost and by removing them the plant can focus its energy on what is still on the vine. (Standard sized tomatoes require 40 to 50 days after blossom set to reach maximum green size.) Same thing with very immature fruit; pick them off because they will never mature before frost. As the first frost approaches (mid-October for us) pick the fruit that is starting to show color and bring them inside to ripen. This will also encourage the plant to ripen those still left on the vine. And finally, keep your eye on the weather. Cover your tomatoes on cold nights to keep them going a bit longer. But according to Colorado State Extension, "research shows that chilling injury on green fruit occurs at temperatures of 50 degrees and decay losses rise markedly on fruit exposed to 40 degrees F. Red ones well on their way to ripening tolerate colder temperatures."

Once frost is imminent, pick your tomatoes with a very short stem piece left on. Stems ripped out of fruit, as well as splits or cracks, will open them to decay. Do not try to ripen really green fruit as research shows it's more likely to spoil than ripen and never develops much flavor. You can use green tomatoes for tomato pickles, tomato relish, green tomato mincemeat, stewed green tomatoes, green tomato pie, and green tomato marmalade. Mature green fruit, on the other hand, will develop good flavor. Mature green tomatoes are well sized and have turned light green to white. Ripen tomatoes in well-ventilated, open cardboard boxes at room temperature checking them every few days to eliminate those that may have spoiled. Mature green tomatoes will ripen in 14 days at 70 degrees F and 28 days at 55 degrees F.

Colorado State Extension suggests sorting and storing fruit by groups that will ripen at similar speeds. Fruit may be mature green, "turning" with a tinge of pink color showing, "pink" with 30 to 60 percent color showing, "light red" with 60 to 90 percent color present, and "fully red" but not soft.

Store mature green tomatoes at 55 to 70 degrees F. Once fruit is fully ripe, it can be stored at 45 to 50 degrees F with a relative humidity of 90 - 95%. Recommended refrigerator operating temperatures of 40 degrees are certainly too cool to ripen mature green tomatoes. Ripening enzymes are destroyed by cold temperatures whether in the garden or in a refrigerator.  

With a little luck and planning you can have home-grown tomatoes well past frost! For more information visit The last of your garden’s tomatoes from Michigan State or Colorado State's How to Ripen Green Tomatoes.

Cold frames are noting more than a box that is open top and bottom. The sides are often made of wood, but cement blocks and straw bales are also used. The bottom rests on the ground or on a raised bed and the top is covered with glass or plastic. Old windows, storm doors or sliding glass doors are often recycled into cold frames. Just be sure to build your box to fit your cover. If you can't find used material you can also make a frame and cover it with plastic. Your cold frame should face south, toward the sun, and should have a slope from back to front of about 1 inch per foot of length to maximize solar gain. Your cold frame will also need a prop to hold the cover open. On a sunny day your cold frame can overheat and cook your plants. Used double-hung windows are great since they can be opened and closed to allow venting.

You can use your cold frame to grow crops like spinach, kale and lettuce well into November. Then, in the spring you can use it again to harden off your seedlings before transplanting them. For more information and some tips on construction see Cornell Extension's Cold Frames & Hot Beds and Illinois Extension's Cold Frames Extend the Garden Season.

• Modify the "days to harvest" for your fall crops. Cooler temperatures and less sunlight mean that you should add about 2 weeks to your schedule. And don't forget to factor in a harvest period too.

• Do your jalapeno peppers have cracks on them? Those cracks are often called "corking." According to the University of Maryland Extension: Jalapeno pepper pods develop very superficial cracks regardless of weather conditions. The cracks usually begin to appear as the pods turn from green and black to red. The cracked tissue becomes calloused and eating quality is not affected. The cracks form because the pepper is growing faster than the skin can keep up. They are like stretch marks! UC Davis notes that: For U.S. markets, corking (corky striations on the fruit surface) is considered unattractive. However in other markets, corking is a recognized characteristic of certain cultivars...." In many countries corking is considered a good thing, so do not let those cracks keep you from enjoying your corking good peppers. 

• According to Ohio State University Extension's Farm to Health Series: red tomatoes are known for large amounts of the phytonutrient lycopene, a type of carotenoid that gives tomatoes their red color. Lycopene acts as an antioxidant in the body and may reduce inflammation. High tomato intake is related to reduced risk of prostate cancer and possibly other cancers, as well as heart disease. Lightly cooked and canned tomatoes are a good option for optimizing lycopene content. However, there is some loss of vitamins A and C. Vitamin C is better preserved when canned or cooking liquid is consumed. Eating tomatoes with a little oil can help your body absorb the lycopene.

• Blanch a whole stem of basil in boiling water for 6-8 seconds (this stops the leaves from breaking down), then pinch off the leaves stack them, and roll them up like a cigar. Wrap the "cigars' in plastic or wax paper and freeze in an airtight container. To use them, unwrap and slice thinly cross-wise into ribbons for pasta or pizza.  

• No need to cook your tomatoes for sauce. While your pasta is cooking dice some fresh tomatoes and put them in the bottom of a large bowl. Add some extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic, ribbons of fresh basil, salt and pepper and toss gently or mash together as you prefer. When the pasta is done, drain it and dump it on top of the tomato mixture. Let it sit for 5 minutes to warm through, then toss to mix,sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and serve.  

Cover Crops are plants that are grown to help improve your soil rather than for food. Cover crops store nutrients as they grow, which they then return to the soil when they are turned in. While they are growing cover crops help prevent soil erosion, reduce weed problems by choking or shading them out, and can provide a home for beneficial insects. Working cover crops into the soil also adds organic matter, which improves the soil's structure, which in turn improves the soil's nutrient and water-holding capacity. 

There are a lot of cover crops you can try, but for first-timers Cornell University recommends ryes. Cornell notes that "Grasses are easier to grow than legumes such as clover because they germinate more quickly and do not require inoculation." 

Annual rye "is a vigorous grower with an extensive root system that occupies the same root zone as the garden plants." Because annual rye does not survive the winter it is easier to work with in the spring. But, for the same reason, it needs to be sown early enough to get good growth before frost--mid August to early September. For those areas of the garden that are still producing you can sow rye while the crop is still in place. The cover crop can become established while the vegetable crop is still in the ground.

Winter rye is better for late planting, and can be sown into October. It will overwinter, and so may be more difficult to work in in the spring. One approach is to till it in. It is also possible to cut it short and cover it with black plastic for several weeks before planting. 

To plant cover crops, just rake an area smooth, scatter seeds at the appropriate rate for the cover crop you are using, rake again, and water gently. 

For more information see Michigan State's Benefits of Cover Crops in Urban Farms and Gardens

or Cornell's Building Healthy Soils in Vegetable Gardens: Cover Crops Have Got It Covered

Summit County Master Gardeners

Submit questions online to be answered by Master Gardener Volunteers at  Ask a Master Gardener

OhioLine Yard and Garden provides fact sheets and information on a variety of gardening topics. 

The Michigan State Tip Sheets,and the Cornell Growing Guides also offer lots of gardening information that is suitable for Ohio gardens.

Umass Soil Test Lab

Buckeye Yard and Garden onLine provides timely information about Ohio growing conditions, pest, disease, and cultural problems. BYGL is updated weekly between April and October.