Monday, October 27, 2008

A Season in the Garden

The vegetable garden has been hit by a killing frost. It has actually been a long time coming for my area, we usually receive a hard frost near the end of September so we have been lucky this year. After the frost there is very little variety left in the garden with brussels sprouts, broccoli, beets, radishes and a few hardy herbs being the only things left.

I spent the afternoon cleaning up the plants hit by frost and doing some clean up in the perennial borders. I miss the summer garden but it will be nice to have a reprieve from the majority of garden chores until next spring.

I have found a window to use for the cold frame I am wanting to build. I ended finding a double glazed window that is 2'x3' at the ReStore. The ReStore is a nonprofit store that sells used/donated building materials and the proceeds are used to build low income housing. I have not made up my mind what plans I am going to use. I have two plans: The first is for a cold frame that will fold up via hinges. The second one is for a cold frame made of plywood that is fastened together with metal brackets & bolts which then can be dismantled for storage. I will have to figure what I am doing soon or it may be to late to even use a cold frame.

I will end with a series of photos from the beginning of the vegetable garden this spring to fall:

April

Early June

Late August

Today, October 27th

11 comments:

  1. I love that Re-store! I go to all I find, no matter where I am and finally our town just opened their own. I started cleaning my garden, tomorrow for the rest. Good pictures.

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  2. That was quite a transformation throughout the year! Sorry that the frost killed your plants, oh well...the season has to end sometime.

    EG

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  3. I just dropped in on my community garden plot in Boston and it's just so dramatic what an overnight frost can do. Last week I harvested an eggplant; today the plant could be mistaken for a dead fallen tree branch. All I the vegetables I have left are a few carrots in the ground and some stunted lettuce plants. Great photos in your post and nice work building those plant beds.

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  4. I did not realize that yours was a brand new vegetable garden this year. You did well.

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  5. Tina - I love the restore too and have picked up many things there during renovations. I especially like finding things sent from homedepot that are a quart of there original price. Good luck with your clean up

    EG - this is the time of year I wish I lived on a tropical island, then there is never a frost warning. Not sure if I want to trade frost for tsunami's though.

    Sally - I'm surprised my plants lasted this long. Good job growing eggplant to fruit, mine didn't amount to anything.

    Marcia - I have dabbled with vegetables before and have grown tomatoes in pots for five years now but yes this was my first year growing a full on vegetable garden.

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  6. Lovely garden, Dan...I think I enjoyed it as much as you did! Your photos and your blog were absolutely delightful. Now breathe a sigh of relief, of a job well done, and dream about next year!

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  7. What a fun transformation and picture series that let us travel in time. So sad that your plants are dying from the frost and cold weather, but they will be back next year!

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  8. It is amazing how things can change with time! I brought in all the porch plants yesterday and this is way to early for our part of GA so not happy with this unexpected cold snap. Hopefully the warm sun will return and soon as I am not quit ready for winter just yet....

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  9. granny- its going to take a lot of dreaming in jan/feb when we are under 18" of snow. :-)

    dp- next year should be even better!

    skeeter- we are supposed to warm up over the next few days. That is after the temp drops to -10c(14f) tonight, burr!

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  10. Always sad when the garden season ends still winter gives us time to dream about what we can do next spring and you look like you are well on the way to new plans.

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  11. rosemary - yes, next year is going to bigger and better! The garden starts again in Jan when I have to start the onion seedlings inside so there is not to long of a break.

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