The Garden Proves It: September Was Weird In Vermont

The end of September and the beginning
of October and I'm still getting piles
of fresh tomatoes from my northern
Vermont gardens. A reflection of a
September with weather really off the rails.

One year ago, on October 1, 2016, I remarked it was such a warm fall that it was the first time I'd ever picked a fresh tomato in October in Vermont.

This year, I picked several and more are on the way. Which proves what a weird and twisted month we had here in Vermont.

We had nothing like the tragedies of those hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas and elsewhere. No real harmful weather to speak of struck Vermont at all, but September, as we know, was one for the record books.

The first week or so of the month was very wet and somewhat cool, a relief from a dry August. I planted my fall crops of spinach and lettuce, knowing how much those plants like that type of weather.

However, I had lots of green tomatoes, and I knew that even if it cleared up eventually, I wouldn't get much of a crop of red tomatoes later in the month. Too cool, too frosty, too dark.

Ha! As we all know, September got hot. Way too hot. We had those four consecutive days in the 90s, the latest spell of 90 degree weather on record. By far.

The first 10 days of the month averaged about 4.5 degrees below normal. When you add up the entire month, including the long spate of warmer than normal temperatures from September 12 to 28, you end up with a September in Burlington, Vermont that was 5.2 degrees above normal.

The mean temperature for the month was 65.7 degrees. That leaves us tied with last September (2016) as the second hottest September on record. The hottest September was in 2015, so now we've had three incredibly warm Septembers in a row here in Vermont.

The result of all this sunny, warm weather was a bumper crop of tomatoes, as you can see in the photo. And I have to pick more.

The dryness has gotten rough, though. Hardly any rain has fallen since September 9. Burlington eked out just 0.01 inches in the second two thirds of the month.

Until this year, I never irrigate my gardens in October. Even if it's dry, it's too cool and cloudy for the soil moisture to evaporate much. Besides, by now, most of the vegetables and flowers have gone by, and there's nothing to save by watering.

Not this year. Last night I spent an hour watering my parched gardens. In October. Between the September heat and the dryness, that spinach and lettuce I planted at the beginning of the month are definitely suffering.

Many people in the North Country of Vermont and New York and New Hampshire had frost yesterday and today, ending the growing season. Not here in the Champlain Valley. No more frost is in the forecast for the rest of the week.

And --- Yay! -- showers are likely during the second half of the week. Maybe we'll have a semi-normal October.  Which would be good. Septembers's weather was a bit too disconcerting for me.