October 12, 2016

Frost Bouquet & Late Fall Chores

 The light frost 2 nights ago was just a warning.
Forecast predicted a hard frost for last night.

It was time to bring in the last of the flowers and veggies.

Making a frost bouquet is easy--you just cut everything you possibly can!
I did not get to all of the cosmos, and I left some things that are a little tougher than most--the salvia and catmint, among others.

The other thing to bring in were the last of the tomatoes and squash.

I was surprised how many little squashes there were.

I've still got one small patch of carrots out there to harvest, but that's about it.

Sure enough, we had a hard frost last night.
The garden's looking pretty withered and sad this morning.
It will be time to start clearing out the vines and plants that are left, now.
As much as I love the vegetable garden, it's always satisfying to me to get it cleared off and "put to bed" come late fall. 

Other late fall chores to do:
** Empty flowerpots and put away in the shed.
Although it's the more expensive route, I always dump all the dirt from the flowerpots into the garden and start fresh the next year. I don't usually add fertilizer to my flowerpots over the summer, so the few times I've re-used the dirt, my plants did not thrive; the soil was too depleted. 

** Put deck chair cushions away in the shed, as well.
My kids have a clubhouse in the top of our shed--they will be delighted to have some nice soft cushions to sit on up there! The trick is catching a long enough break in the weather so that they're all dried out before I put them up there.

** Empty hoses as much as possible and put them away in the shed.

** Blow out sprinkler lines and turn it off (we get someone to come do this for us.)

** Weeding or last transplanting.

Ready, set, go!

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