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Pretty soon, it will be time for our houseplants to leave their outdoor summer setting to return indoors.
It’s best to bring houseplants indoors in early September, before evening temperatures stay in the 50s, and definitely before we have a frost or freeze.
You want to make sure that what you bring indoors are the plants and not unwanted hitchhikers. Before moving plants indoors, give them a good shower. Use the showerhead nozzle on the hose and be sure to spray the undersides and tops of leaves. Pay special attention to where the leaves attach to the stem to make sure no tiny insects are hiding in any crevices. Give the soil a good soaking, too.
Keep the plants you are moving indoors separated for a week or so from those that stayed inside, if you are worried about possible insect or disease contamination.
Keeping up
Continue to pick tomatoes, peppers, squash and other vegetables as they ripen. Harvesting keeps production strong for the next several week. Preserve what you have too much of, or share it with family, friends, neighbors, soup kitchen or food pantry. Keep watering vegetable plants, too. As you pull out warm-season crops, replace them with lettuce, spinach, chard and other greens.
Tidy up any summer plants in pots to keep them looking good until it’s time to change them out for a fall scheme. Make sure to keep the pots watered and plants fertilized. Pull out what has lost its usefulness.
New okra
Candle Fire okra. Photo courtesy All-AmericaSelections.com
I’m not an okra fan, except for the flowers, which are beautiful and reveal their ties to the hibiscus family. And the fruit is attractive, whether it’s green or red. All-America Selections recently announced Candle Fire okra is a 2017 winner. Judges deemed Candle Fire’s fruit a brighter red than other red fruited varieties on the market, and the pods are rounded without ribs. Harvest is 60 days from sowing seed or 30 days from a transplant. Look for it in spring mail order catalogs and online seed merchants.