Frost Bouquet

These are actually from a few weeks ago.

Little did we know, as we snipped a few blooms, that it would frost that night!

Makes me wish we had cut a few more.

 

Linking up to the Garden Appreciation Society.

 

So, official first frost date this year: Oct 4

 

'Burgundy Iceberg' rose, burgundy guillardia, coleus, salvia.

 

There are a few hardy souls out there who have survived multiple frosts now. I should probably cut a few of them to bring in and enjoy, before winter hits.

 

Last of the garden

Jacob and Becca helped me harvest the rest of the potatoes and onions last week.

Then, the forecast said it was going to frost!

Unfortunately, time got away from me all day to go out and harvest the all the other vegetables.

It was a dark and stormy night. (I should have started with that, right?)

I grabbed a flashlight, a jacket, and my trusty basket and went out to harvest whatever I could.

A few more tomatoes.

There were a bunch of green cherry tomatoes, which I left on the vine.

I could have been out there all night picking those off, and it was cold!

Those 3 great big ones were about all I got from the Early Girl variety.

Potatoes--of several varieties.

 Chock full of potatoes and onions.

I plan to peel, chop, and freeze all the onions.

Also, I'm going to peel, dice, cook, then freeze the potatoes.

Otherwise I'm sure they would go bad before we got to them.

We don't have the cold storage to really keep them a long time.

I didn't get a picture of the sunflowers peeking out from behind the corn, but they did finally do it.

Picked these tiny corn cobs.

I actually haven't even husked them yet, since I'm pretty sure they will be worthless.

I may use them for an art project with the kiddos tomorrow.

I was glad I had picked everything. I think it has frosted every night since then, with the possible exception of last night.

If I'm going to get another shrub put in the back flowerbed, I had better hurry!

Garden put to bed

While Jason's parents were here, they helped clear out the garden, including picking all the rest of the tomatoes.

I was going to put them on a table in the garage, covered by newspaper, and all that, but as I procrastinated that task I discovered them ripening up in the box. So last Wednesday I went through, picked out all the ripe or almost ripe ones, threw away all the rotten ones I could find, and left the rest to do their thing. I came out with about 1/3 of the box, with probably another 1/4 trashed due to rottenness. So not too bad. I know what to do with ripe tomatoes! So once this batch gets completely ripe, I'll get them processed and ready for tomato sauce, along with the other 3 bags-worth in the freezer. 

All cleared out. The tomatoes you see left on the dirt were all half-rotten anyway, so we left them there as compost.

Only things left are the nasturtium on top and the oregano bottom left. 

In lieu of an actual compost pile, we threw all the vines and such down the side slope.

Maybe if nothing else they'll help keep the weeds down.