It is 9am and it is snowing in Cambridge!

Waaaaaahh!!!

Linda

Besides tarp, what else can be used to cover the plants? My roses are still blooming. My tomato has 10+ green ones still on the vine. I will be sad if they all get killed tonight.

Ying

We had ice on the cars last night, but no killing frost. I've brought in most of the potted plants to see if I can get a couple more weeks from them. Have also potted up 4 hibiscus bushes that I had set in front of the bay windows. The marigolds, asters, and honeysuckle are just beautiful but if they go they go. The roses though, that's another matter. Ying, I picked a gorgeous huge bouquet of roses, light and dark pink, and tucked in some pretty lavender. Like yours, they are still blooming and are just beautiful. At least I'll have this one big bouquet to get me through a few more days.

I'm set, I dug the dahlias last night and brought in a number of pots too.

Tarps probably won't help cause the forecast is for a low of 25 tonite. If you want to save the tomatoes I'd pot them up (or pick them) if they're not already done. Mine are dead already but we've had a couple nights of light frost.

Last night I picked the last peppers, took some cuttings to root, took some suckers from the bananas and said my last good byes.

By bedtime (11pm) everthing was already frozen.

It is about 25 degrees now. It is a sad sight outside.

I covered the roses and tomatos with blanket last night. je148, I wish I saw your note ealier. I'd cut the roses, pick the tomatoes and bring them inside too. This morning when I uncovered them, I found they are frozen despite the protection. Everything got frozen - pinks, coreposis, cosmos, mums...my colorful garden is now such a sorry sight. I guess it is time to say good-bye. I start to think that global warming might not be a bad thing after all... Clark106, you are right, living in Minnesota really build characters.

I guess you have to think of winter as time to plan that perfect garden, you know the one. Everything blooms on your schedule, no pesty bugs, no drought, no hail, soft gentle rains just when you need them, no foliar diseases, and hey no weeds either. It's nice to dream. While I'm at it I might as well add in the perfect loam soil too.
I've already taken cuttings of plants that I plan to winter over, I brought in a couple of pots that I'll try to get a couple more weeks out of. Most of my pots are already empty and put away. I cleaned off the veggie garden a couple of days ago. I did cover my parsley last night. That can usually take temps down to the low twenties so am hoping that made it ok. Don't think I'll even uncover it until tomorrow.

Geeze- ready or not- here it comes!
I - uh- I didn't get to everything- I thought I was being good and thorough- but walking around tonight after work- I saw a few heartbreakers-
Oh- well- the house is full to the brim of plants already- and the Dahlias and cannas and 4 O'Clocks are still to come-
I gonna have a busy weekend...

begonias and my three cannas to come in this weekend, but I managed to get all my tomatoes harvested bar the whimpy little no-pointers, and a box full of peppers too. Some of each will ripen, some will stay green. I have friends who like green tomatoes so they'll be happy. Brought in all the herbs in pots and one extremely late Red Current tomato in a small pot - hey - it had flowers on it! The shelf next to my parakeet's cage looks very jungle-like, she's happy :)

-Marie

I kept telling myself yesterday that if it were January I'd be thinking it was a very nice day. Perspective! Unfortunately that little voice in my head wouldn't shut up about it being October. Today we have 40 - 45 mph winds. Yes, gardening in MN certainly does build character and a varied wardrobe.

I've been down with a nasty bug the last two days, so haven't really even peeked out to see how everything fared. Just now, I opened the garage door and saw that a nice hibiscus bush that I'd dug up is looking pretty sad. I suspect that, as cold as it got, it was just too much for it even though it was in the garage. Oh well... it's not as if I didn't have 2 others indoors already! Just couldn't resist trying!

When I picked my tomatoes yeaterday, they were already all frozen. I had to throw them away. Learned my lessons. Need to bring everything inside before frost. Covering with blanket won't work.

You can usually save things with a blanket if the temp doesn't drop too low. The temps we've had though, not much will make it through. My parsley looks good yet, not sure if it would have made it through the 22 degrees the other night without a cover. 27 this morning again. If it warms up as they're saying, guess I'll grind horseradish today so I can do it outside without freezing my fingers.Have a good day all.

Going to dig up the Dahias, Elephant Ears, Calla lily and Amaryllis tomorrow.

Got a Japanese Maple on sale/planted it last week-I've been covering it with a garbage can at night trying to give it a little more time to settle in before its leaves freeze off.

I lost my hibiscus too. *sigh* I just forgot about it, until the herbs next to it wilted away and revealed it in all it's frozen glory. Oh, well, it was getting too big to winter over on the sun porch. Time to start over.

Erica

and yet...... DH picked endive tonight, and pulled a couple of onions, and found a pepper that hadn't frozen (at least part of one), and we chopped up a couple of small tomatos that were picked green last week... and had the tastiest garden salad! Yum...

I was away from the computer for a few days. My garden looks so sad. We went to our cabin on Thursday to close it up before the pipes froze and it was so cold when we got there I thought the place would never warm up. All of my plants there were frozen, they are all natives so there is noting to bring in anyway.

When we go home yesterday everything that didn't freeze on Wednesday was frozen. What a change. I don't grow anything that I can bring inside so there was none of that to do. Now it is too get some more seed before that is all gone. Who knows with this weather what will happen to the seed.

Well, the nasturtiums under the tarp only half froze, so there were a few blossoms, but they were so sad I just let them go in the next freeze. The lady-in-red salvia usually survives a light freeze, but crisped up with this one. Victoria salvia survived, as did lisianthus, surprisingly, and uncovered snapdragons and petunias. The asters and chrysanthemums are still looking good. Mind you, this is 8 blocks from the river, so a little warmer than other places. Swiss chard also did OK.

All my annuals have pretty much kicked it (except nasturtiums - which look somewhat ok).

I was surprised to see a few of my perennials still flowering/going strong after the freeze. Mallow looks great(and about 4 feet tall). My asters, geranium (rozanne), and sedum still look good too.

Just about all of my shrubs, herbs, and non-flowering ground cover look like temps haven't dropped below 50. Hydrangeas are about the only shrubs that look yellow and ragged at this point.

clark106-you seconded my suspicions about petunias and snapdragons-they seem to be very cold hardy for annuals.