EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: Maryann James posts on vegetable gardening every Tuesday. 

Michael Tortorello of the New York Times is pondering pure poetry as he meditates on the summer/fall transition.

What can I plant in the warm dirt this week and still have a chance to harvest before the numbing times come? My vegetable beds have vacancies—nice, sunny spots where the previous residents checked out on the way to my salad bowl. There are three mostly empty rows where lettuce used to grow, and scattered pockmarks where American rapa and turnips once lived.

I recommend giving it read -- it's an enjoyable diversion. However, there were some nice tidbits to take away for fall planting, including one suggestion I haven't heard: It's too late to grow corn, of course, but you can plant now for harvests of baby corn!

I chatted with a garden guy at Valley View Farms, and he was skeptical. OK, he was completely down on the idea. It's too late in the season to think about corn, baby or otherwise, he said. "Can't do it," he said. "Frost is gonna kill it." By the time it gets tall enough to produce the miniature cobs, he says, it'll be too late and (more importantly) too cold to get any fruitful bounty.

So there goes that idea. Anyone have any fun veggie plans for fall?

Photo by missy & the universe @ Flickr