What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Dirtmechanic]

I cleaned and lubricated all the hose reel boxes in the yard, mounted a new one out back on the wall. We turn off irrigation when it starts freezing but its only 49 so far. Less to do later. Cleaned and staked tomatoes. They have lots of fall fruit and flowers but I do not think much will happen past Oct and thats probably pushing it. Started pulling up the garden. I am going to remediate it over winter most likely so I took down some fence for dumping the soon to come leaves. Cut grass, strimmed. Replanted a small bucket of naked ladies. I thought there would be just a few bulbs from the volunteers in the woods but each had 10-20 bulbs. More than I bargained for but spring will be showy. Relocated 3 sky pencil hollies that B was trying to shade with a japonica. Also 2 lilies of some white sort, forgot the name. Big Brother or something like that. Big flower, standard height. I have more lilies to move, or at least put in a bed where they wont fight grass as hard. Me as well. I think I am staying in the yard because the tea olives are blooming and their fragrance is hypnotic to me for some reason.

 

[Zeedman]

We had a light frost last night. Nothing at home was affected, but there was some leaf burn in the rural garden, and plants close to the ground (such as the gherkins and cowpeas) are toast.

Another frost is forecast for tonight, and while it is still a "frost advisory" (not a "freeze warning"), the predicted temp is close to 32 F. So DW & I spent most of the afternoon in the rural garden, picking & covering what we could. We picked all of the sweet peppers, and closed the covers over the hot peppers, which are just starting to ripen. We also picked all of the large tomatoes from Slankard's, San Marzano Redorta, and Czechoslovakian... which turned out to be a very large amount. A good portion of tomorrow we will be washing & sorting out the "keepers", I'll post a couple photos then.

We covered the Tromboncino, which still has a lot of young squash set... so we hope it makes it. We also picked all of the remaining bean pods except for Garafal Oro, which we hope will have enough leaves remaining to ripen a few more pods. In the case of Madeira, we harvested just enough dry seed to attempt a second seed crop next year, and the rest will be used for their very large shellies. Schwarze Witwe has already produced a lot of dry seed, DW picked all of the ripe pods to try as shellies.

Two peppers at home (Greygo and Bacskia) have also been covered. After tonight, it is likely that only the peppers, Tromboncino, and chard will remain in the gardens. The good news is that there is a long warm spell starting tomorrow, so anything which survives has about another 10 days of 60's-70's to ripen.

 

[ducks4you]

Covered ALL of my tender annuals yesterday, except the flowers in the north garage beds, which had some crunchy leaves. Doesn't mean they are dead, though.
We had a REALLY EARLY freeze last night, down to 31 degrees F, only predicted to be 35 several days ago. Here is my behind the barn

pasture and the beds north of the garage.

 

[Zeedman]

We had a REALLY EARLY freeze last night, down to 31 degrees F, only predicted to be 35 several days ago.

I was watching that same downward shift in the temp forecast, inching closer to a freeze. This "frost" probably ended the growing season for many open/rural areas. Too busy today to check on the rural garden, I'm not in a hurry to remove the covers anyway.

 

[ducks4you]

I took ALL of my covers off bc it will be warm for the next 10 days, maybe longer.

 

[flowerbug]

...
Two peppers at home (Greygo and Bacskia) have also been covered. After tonight, it is likely that only the peppers, Tromboncino, and chard will remain in the gardens. The good news is that there is a long warm spell starting tomorrow, so anything which survives has about another 10 days of 60's-70's to ripen.

i was really faked out by the first frost here. all the plants on the ground looked like they'd been through something but almost everything growing on the fences looked like nothing had happened so i didn't worry too much about them. a few days later the leaves were yellow and the pods were shot.

i double checked some things today to make sure they weren't going to be very good and yep, they're done.

hope yours came through much better! we've had frosts four times since then (again last night too).

 

[baymule]

I started fall cleanup. I opened the gate and called the sheep.

 

[flowerbug]

I started fall cleanup. I opened the gate and called the sheep.

i hope they don't develop a taste for weed barrier fabric @baymule!!!!

 

[baymule]

i hope they don't develop a taste for weed barrier fabric @baymule!!!!

I pulled up half of it. I need to take loppers and lop off the cornstalks at the ground and pull up the rest of it.

 

[ducks4you]

My corn stalks are horse treats for this week.
Still have an arm's worth of cleanup jobs here to do. We will SEE what I get done today.