Well, it's official now. The vegetable garden is done for the year. I heard we were expecting a killing frost on the news a few nights ago. I'm sure glad I listened otherwise we would have had a whole lot of wasted tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, and beans. All of the plants looked droopy and down cast. Don't be sad guys, you'll help to give my new raised garden bed some organic matter to mix into the soil.
I got anything that was a decent size worth saving, picked it , and brought them inside. Some of them were just about ready to pick anyway, though I prefer them if they are ripened on the vine. It couldn't be helped though. I was so done with hauling plant coverings around I decided I could be done. I gave it a good try, right?
Yesterday morning the tomato plants caught my eye as I was headed out for my third job of the school year. The deep white on the plants looked pretty, especially with the large crystals on them. I wished as I rushed past that I had time to take a picture of them, they were gorgeous all dressed in white. Too bad I had windows to scrape and kids to get off to school. They looked extra sad this morning. I guess I'll be pulling plants for the compost pile when I'm done chatting with you.
Seeing the van windows again this morning sure made me glad I didn't have to rush off to work again this morning! Did I ever mention how I hate to scrape my windows? I really need to make some time to get my van back into the garage so I don't have to worry about such things. The sun sure looks pretty when it glints off the tiny ice crystals. They remind me of diamonds.
My poor hydrangea never did make it's debut on my gbbd post. I can't believe I forgot to make a post in September. I suppose it was a pretty busy month. Before they turned brown they were a wonderful shade of pink.
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
13 comments:
Glad to see you're an ant, not a grasshopper. I'm trying to drag in all the plants that can't stand the winter, with my able assistants who believe the little greenhouse is a gymnasium for pets.
Good for you, Cinj! It was cold enough here that our heater actually kicked on this morning---yikes! I think it's important to bring in the harvest and be realistic about when enough's enough. Even if your tomatoes refuse to ripen, you can search Aunt Debbi's and Poor Richard's Almanac for tons of green tomato recipes. As they said in the wonderful Star Trek parody, "Galaxy Quest," "Never give up, never surrender!" Clearly, you didn't. Way to go girl!!!
You sure had a nice harvest of tomatoes from your garden this year.The poor plants are sagging now. I am just not ready for this cold stuff yet Cinj ;-) We had our first frost this morning too. Really early for Ohio but I guess it goes with the cool summer we had. I am almost afraid of what winter will be like this year.Back to school kept you busy in September.
Nell- Yup, I'm always busy so there's no way I could be a grass hopper! LOL. I sure wish I had a green house.
Ben- So true. I have quite a while to wait on some of them. There are more tomatoes awaiting canning in the fridge. I feel better giving up since I did rather well anyway. Thanks.
Lona- I sure felt bad for those poor plants. I still haven't gotten around to pulling them either. Too busy canning and stuff I guess, that's the story of my life.
Cinj, You can pull your tomatoe plants and hang them upside down in your basement, the green ones should ripen this way and still be fresh.
It looks like you rescued quite a bit. I can't believe there have already been frosts, ours aren't all that far off though either. I hate scraping windows too :)
Ugh...I guess we won't be too far behind you;( Cinj, I voted for you for an award w/Blotanical. I was hoping you'd get one--but you're still a winner to me:-) There is NO WAY anyone can say that 1 blog is 'better' than another. Different, maybe--but not 'better'.
Dawn- I've heard that. No room for them though.
Catherine- Yeah, it's just crazy. Our summer was really too cold to get a good number of tomatoes but hopefully we'll do better next year. I don't know anyone who likes to scrape windows, if they do they must be crazy. LOL.
Jan- Thanks. It was really hard choosing who to vote for. I haven't been very active lately either so it didn't help my chances. I figured I wouldn't win anyway. At least I got nominated AND I didn't come in last so I think I did pretty good.
You really have your hands full with a busy life. I think you did very well with your garden, and I don't blame you for stopping the cover - uncover- routine. I hate doing that.
Those tomatoes look great. Glad you rescued them from that killing frost. Boy does the summer go fast!
Hi Cinj,
Thanks for stopping by my blog. We are not too far behind you, I imagine. We got down to 35 or so a few nights ago. Today, Larry, our grandson, and I picked tomatoes and peppers. Larry's brother, who lives in Colorado, came over and asked what was going to happen to all those green tomatoes when it freezes. He asked if they will still ripen, and I told him most of them would if we got them picked ahead of time. I just hope my leg gets better enough to cut more things up to freeze.
It sounds like you have a good attitude about the changing season.
Always sad to see that first frost come, but luckily you were able to save some of your good stuff.
Barbee- It's not so bad in the spring but I was ready to be done!
Tina- I'm still working on using them. I think I did pretty good considering I've never grown tomatoes before.
Sue- Oh no, I sure hope your leg is better!
Teresa- Yes and no, I've had plenty of stuff besides my garden to keep me busy these last few weeks. Still lots of canning and stuff to work on.
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