Because it’s late summer, you may be thinking it’s time to finish harvesting fruits and vegetables and wind down your activities in the garden. Think again!

When it comes to fruit crops, September is a great time to do the following:

Raspberries. Cut back the fruited canes of raspberries, if you haven’t already, leaving the new green canes for next year’s crop. Tie in next year’s raspberry canes to support wires or fencing.

Apples. Pick apples. To test when they are ripe, gently lift them in the palm of your hand or give them a gentle pull. They should come away easily.

Strawberries. Tidy up strawberry plants and clear away any used straw to prevent pests and diseases from overwintering. Pot up strawberry runners to add extra plants for next spring.

Fruit trees. Pick off rotting fruit from apple, pear and stone fruit trees, including peaches. They will spread disease if left on the tree. Mow long grass under fruit trees to make it easier to spot windfall fruits.

Vegetable gardens in fall

In the vegetable garden, keep harvesting. If you have a lot of fruits and vegetables, try freezing, drying or pickling and storing them. This is a great time to use plentiful tomatoes to make salsa and fried green tomatoes. Here are tips for other vegetables:

Sweet corn. Harvest sweet corn as it ripens. If you have three dozen or more ears of ripened sweet corn or your friends or relatives share several dozen ears of sweet corn with you, husk it, blanch it, cool it in a sink full of cold water and cut off the kernels on a large cutting board. Bag up kernels in quart-size freezer bags and fill your freezer with the sweet taste of summer.

Potatoes. Pull or cut off the foliage of potatoes at ground level about three weeks before harvesting them. This will prevent blight spores from infecting the tubers as you harvest them. Spread newly dug out potatoes to dry for a few hours before storing them in a cool, dark place.

Herbs. Pot up some chives and parsley to put on your kitchen windowsill for fresh herbs through the winter.

Pumpkins. Help pumpkins ripen in time for Halloween by removing any leaves shading them. Raise pumpkins and squash off the ground to prevent rotting. Place them on a piece of wood.

Fall flowers

In your flower garden:

September is no time to give up on your garden and call it quits. What you do in your garden now will boost the quantity and quality of your harvested crops and will set the stage for a successful garden next year.