Cold Frame

When I read this post by Ottawa Gardener (who got 3 feet of snow) I realized that I had no excuse not to go out and brush the 4-6 inches of snow off my cold frame and peek inside. Despite all that I didn't check on it until yesterday when most of the snow had melted off of it.
Amazingly, everything was still alive. Nothing worth harvesting, but still alive! I'm getting some ideas on how to make it work better next year. It might help if I actually get around to reading Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman. The pictures are of my remaining lettuce plant(s) and my spindly little scallions.
~Sarah

You Know It's Fall When...

1. It's hard to find something in bloom
2. Plants appear in every nook and cranny of your house
3. The dirt under your fingernails starts to disappear
   
4. Your hands get so cold you consider wearing gardening gloves
5. Your compost pile gets really big
6. You have trouble finding storage space in your shed or garage (or both)
7. You spend less time in your garden and more time on the internet reading garden blogs
8. The weatherman starts talking about snow flurries
9. You wish you had a greenhouse
10. You're making plans for next year's garden

We really got spoiled with the warm fall. Now the temperatures are in the 30's and 40's and not going any higher. Buffalo, NY is having their first snowfall of the season. A possible accumulation of 5-7" is expected. The forecast for Rochester predicts a possibility of snow every day through Friday.

Yesterday we finally bought some heavy plastic for the cold frame. I put it over the frame this morning and got half the job done, but between the wind, rain and numb hands I had to stop. I'm going to try planting some scallions in the cold frame, along with more lettuce, and maybe a few radishes. I finished harvesting the veggie beds - all that's left is what's under the cold frame. The carrots were smaller than I expected. Half of them had their growth stunted from the bean foliage that sprawled everywhere. I also pulled out the beans, harvested my scallions and some lettuce that managed to survive the cold weather. The scallions are pretty small since the tomato foliage blocked out most of their sunlight.

Farewell, and stay warm!
~Sarah
Sarah

Possible Frost Tonight

When I checked the weather this morning I noticed that the temperature was supposed to get down to 31 tonight. Tomorrow night it's supposed to be 33. In fact, the nighttime temperature for the next week doesn't even make it out of the thirties. With this sad news in hand I decided it was time to start winterizing my garden. First I picked all the tomatoes and peppers and filled a half-bushel basket.

Then I started pulling out plants, knocking the dirt off, and hauling them off to my compost heap. In one bed I have a cold frame set up over a basil plant and some lettuce. I set up a grow tunnel (similar to the one here, but mine is smaller) over my scallions and another lettuce plant. I covered the tunnel with the 'fleece' that came with it and a blanket over that.
Most of the tomatoes I picked were still green, so I punched holes in some paper bags, put a layer of tomatoes on the bottom, folded the top over and took them down to the basement. I'll probably freeze most of them after they ripen. I also harvested about half a dozen peppers.


After lunch I helped Mom and Dad move one of the Russian Sage plants. It was very hard to get out of the ground - the roots were really strong. I had to break a couple, but I think most of the roots are strong and healthy. It should survive the transplant pretty well. The picture was taken in August when the Sage was a honey bee magnet.

Still on my To-Do-Before-It-Snows-List:

• Get rose cones or other coverings for Mandevilla and Mom's Heather
• Plant more Lettuce and Scallions in cold frame
• Get heavy plastic to help insulate cold frame
• Rake Grandpa and Grandma's leaves, mow over them, and spread on garden beds
• Wrap transplanted Russian Sage and Japanese Maple with burlap
• Plant bulbs
• Install edging around Perennial garden

Farewell~
Sarah