First Frost

The weather is getting cooler here and it seems that winter is in a hurry to arrive this year.  A few weeks ago the mountaintops to the south of here got a layer a snow.  This weekend a cold front brought the first frost down into the valley.  It was a couple of weeks ahead of schedule and I wasn't quite prepared for it, but I did what I could and prioritized the crops that I wanted to save.

My main concern was the tomato bed because they had been so slow to ripen this year.  The plants were huge and loaded with green tomatoes so I wasn't ready to give up on this crop yet.  My make shift plan was to simply drape a sheet of plastic over the bed, using the trellis to support it in the middle like a big tent.  I bought a large roll of clear poly plastic last year with the intention of using it to cover the chicken pen in the winter and for green house material in the future.  I am glad that I had it because it was a perfect size to cover multiple beds at the same time.

The t-posts that supported the trellis did poke a few hole in the plastic but a little ventilation is good since I will have to leave this up during the day when I leave for work and I didn't want it to get too hot in there.  The edges were held down with a number of good sized rocks from my yard and so far it seems to be holding up well.  The three beds that it is covering contain my tomatoes (middle), peppers (left) and potatoes (right).  I didn't intend to include the potatoes in the protected crops, but it made the most sense to keep the plastic from touching the tomatoes too much in the middle.

Today when I uncovered the beds, they still looked like they were in fairly decent shape so I was quite happy with my last minute decision to protect them this way.

The peppers along the outside edge took a hit, but I had already gone through and harvested the best ones so I wasn't too sad about that damage.  The tomatoes only had a little bit of frost damage on the outside edges where the leaves touched the plastic so I should be able to keep harvesting them for a while longer yet.  This was my main goal and if I keep them covered so they get good and warm during the day, I expect they will start to ripen more quickly for me as well.  The potatoes also get a brief reprieve from the cold though I am sure they are ready to harvest.  Honestly I can't remember growing potatoes that stayed green and flowering this long, but I am not complaining.  They will be keeping me well fed through the winter.

Other crops didn't fare as well, but I was ready to let them go at this point in the season.  The cucumbers were already on their way out and I had pickled about 50 quarts of them this year, so I wasn't sad to see them go.  The summer squash bed was already mostly dead from squash bugs so the frost was just a final blow for them.  The stopped producing weeks ago but I still have a few that I kept for eating fresh and have dried several quarts of chips from the abundant harvest I got while they were going strong.  The watermelons had died back as well, but I picked three good sized melons the night before so I will be able to enjoy a late summer treat even after the weather gets cold.  The final crop that died with the frost were my green beans.  They had a short but productive season and I wound up with about 25 bags of beans in my freezer before it was all said and done.

My hardier crops are still doing just fine and I think they will keep growing for at least a few more weeks.  I only have a few more heads of broccoli to harvest and I may get a couple of heads of cabbage if they can head up in the next couple of weeks.  The carrots and parsnips are safe in the ground and I will probably harvest them as needed over the winter.  I find they keep better in the garden than they do in my fridge anyway.  The peas also survived the frost and are still flowering a lot, so perhaps I will get a few more weeks of harvests from them too.

The first frost may be a signal that the garden season has come to a close, but there is still plenty more work to be done there before the snow flies.  For now I am happy that the busy days of preserving my harvests can slow down.  I think I only need to make a couple more batches of salsa while the peppers and tomatoes are still fresh and then the rest of the tomatoes that I get for the season will go in the freezer until I have the time to turn them into sauce.  I also have a box of apples that will become applesauce and apple pie filling in the next few days and then the canner just might get put away for a while for a well deserved rest.