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It is the last day of official summer in my part of the world.

But Autumn is often such a nice long productive season - don't despair yet.

I must admit that I got a shock when I heard on the news that it was now
officially Autumn. I'm not ready for it.

And I still don't have any ripe tomatoes (pout.) There's a
somewhat reasonable quantity of green ones. "Moneymaker" breed,
chosen at random in the spring.

There were problems this season with the weather. Incessant,
obnoxious wind (even worse than usual for this town.) Dark.
Cold. I had to keep them indoors way beyond Labour Weekend (late
October - almost end of spring.) And was still worried for their
health later. I live in a place known for it's sucky weather,
but this season has been infused with a bonus of extra suckage.

Here where I live, it's not advisable to plant tomatoes out until the first
Tuesday of November. I planted out whilst the famous race was on and
because it was so cold I put them in plastic shelters and on cold nights
covered then with more plastic and old sheets and they still got hit by
frost. But now................

Masses of tomatoes and I'm dealing with a great tomato glut.

Fortunately, the tomatoes have been getting much better sun and
heat lately, and are looking OK.

But, I'm thinking of how to start eating sooner next year.

I am thinking of taking a bit of extra effort to get cherry
tomato seedlings next year. Since they are smaller, do they
mature sooner? Are cherries the answer?

Yes they do produce earlier but every year is different even in places with
sucky weather. This year my zucchini are woeful whereas normally they
produce in huge quantities. My advice would be to try a lot of different
varieties in addition to a variety of tiny toms. I normally can't grow
beefsteak type toms becaus e of the short growing season but this year even
my one beefsteak ( "Monster" variety) is growing well. I find that Grosse
Lisse is a good variety.