Question
Hi Elyse,
This is my first year gardening.  I am growing zucchini, yellow squash, beans, tomatoes, eggplant and onion.  We planted in late May (I'm in Chicago) and had a great zucchini and squash harvest throughout the summer.  Now the plants are still yielding a few veggies a week, but are starting to have dead leaves as well.  Is this normal?  The eggplant are now flowering fine, the beans had one good yield and are now mostly brown leaves - again, is this normal.  The tomatoes are mostly ready to pick and also have some brown/dead leaves on them.

Any guidance you have would be most appreciated - mostly whether this is a normal pattern, and do I prune off the dead portions of the plants?

Thank you!

Answer
Teresa:
Sounds like you're doing great. It is perfectly normal for any plants to develop some brown (dead) leaves towards the end of the season. It is not necessary to remove them, but you can if you like, for aesthetics.

The beans should have had more than one yield - but only if you kept them picked. If they are allowed to grow large enough for seeds to start developing, the plant stops flowering. If there are no flowers on any of the plants, they are finished and you might as well pull them out and plant some lettuce or other fall crop.

As the days shorten, the plants will be producing less and less, as with your squash. You are coming to the end of your summer season, but you should be able to plant some cold tolerant crops if you like, such as cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, spinach (for spring) or lettuce.

Elyse