AI Summary
5 min readThe weather in Santa Fe has been brutal on gardens this year. Janine Cabassel, the Tomato Lady, opens the September 2026 episode of the Garden Journal with a blunt confession: she had a horrible year, and if you did too, you are not alone. The monsoon barely arrived at her property, daily high temperature records were broken repeatedly, and the spring was one of the windiest she can remember. That wind shredded the row cover she uses to protect her tomatoes from the beet leafhopper, the insect that transmits curly top virus. She lost twenty percent of her tomato plants before summer even started. The takeaway is not just misery—it is a reminder that bad seasons happen in clusters. Cabassel looked back through her own podcast history and found that 2023 was bad, 2022 was not much better, and the pattern is connected to a warming climate that produces not just heat but erratic cold snaps, drought, and wind.
What struggled and what survived
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:09) **Welcome & Weather Overview** - Host Alexa Bradford introduces Janine Cabassel, the Tomato Lady, who begins with a critical weather update for the 2026 growing season.
- 2 (02:29) **Major Crop Loss: Tomatoes & Curly Top Virus** - Janine reports a 20% loss of tomato plants before summer even began due to curly top virus.
- 3 (03:56) **First Freeze Warning & October Preparation** - Janine issues a critical reminder: the average first freeze date in Santa Fe is October 15th, and gardeners must be prepared.
- 4 (04:21) **The Bad News: Crop-by-Crop Struggles** - Janine delivers a comprehensive list of crops that failed or severely underperformed in the 2026 season.
- 5 (10:04) **The Good News: Unexpected Successes** - Despite the widespread failures, several crops thrived in the extreme conditions.
- 6 (10:56) **October Chores: Winterizing the Garden** - Janine shifts to practical tasks for preparing the garden for winter.
- 7 (13:07) **Reviving the Compost Pile** - Janine explains how to restart a compost pile that dried out over the summer.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Join Host Alexa Bradford in conversation with Jannine Cabossel “The Tomato Lady” as she shares tips and information about weather, harvesting, and protecting your fall vegetable garden from the coming October overnight freezing temperatures. For more information see: https://giantveggiegardener.com/
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