I'm giving up. I'm picking tomatoes this afternoon and will remove the plants so I can prepare the beds for winter. I've have impatiens and zinnias that have been absolutely gorgeous this summer. They'll get pull after the frost hits them. I'll mulch the asparagus with hay.

I feel the same way. You can only fight the cold temps and frost for so long, and I'm tired of dragging out the row covers and blankets.

I'm almost happy it is about to freeze because once it is that cold, I seldom run into unexpected snakes in my yard or garden, and that makes me a happy camper. I haven't seen a snake in 4 or 5 days so I'm starting to feel rather relaxed about walking through the yard and garden.

Once again I am in New Mexico while the cold hits in Oklahoma. Since I am about to move AGAIN, plus not there right now, nothing will be "saved".

Another yard, and another chance to make it look great loom in my future. :)

Moni

Moni, I hope you're enjoying the visit with your family members there. How's the new little darling? And, of course, the older darling too?

You're moving?

Dawn

Well, since I only have six tomato plants and two peppers (a bell and a banana)left, it only takes me about 3 minutes daily to cover and uncover everything, so I am fighting until the bitter end.

I am picking at least a pint or two of cherry tomatoes daily (enough to share with the neighbors), and there are still hundreds more coming in. I've just been pulling the blankets off every morning and letting them lay right there until evening. When it's all over I will wash and fold and store them.

My spinach, lettuces, herbs are going nuts, and I dug up pounds and pounds and pounds of sunchokes yesterday from one plant...I still have at least 80% of my sunchokes left that I will dig as needed. I may or may not get rutabagas. Not sure how cold hardy they are or if they will size up before dying.

I've worked in all the Elbon rye, and aside from what I have mentioned, my garden is done.

Yesterday's harvest:
{{gwi:1136192}}

Jo

Jo,

The harvest looks great. Are those tomatoes in the same area where earlier plants had nematode problems or are they in a nematode-free area?

I am toying with the idea of covering up 3 or 4 tomato plants and trying to keep them going, but our local forecaster doesn't give us much hope. He says that early on the next couple of mornings "the usual cold spots" (which clearly includes our low-lying area) will drop into the mid- to upper-20s while many other areas likely will be right about 32. He thinks we'll all have frost though, and the colder spots likely will see a freeze.

I think I'll miss all the flowers more than the veggies. After all, I have lots of veggies, herbs and fruits preserved for us to eat over the next year, but I don't have any flowers 'preserved'. Once the flowers are gone, they're really gone.

Rutabagas are pretty cold hardy and should be fine until your temps drop into the mid-20s or lower. If they are well-mulched, you can usually keep them going for quite a while, which ought to give them time to size up nicely. Most rutabagas mature in about 70-95 days.

It is nice outside right now but I sure can feel the chill in the air.

Dawn

Yup Dawn, all of my beds have nematodes. Most of my cherry plants and two of my full sized tomatoes don't seem to be bothered by them.

I will mulch the rutabagas.

Any ideas on what I should do with my Chicago Hardy figs, which were shipped REALLY late, and just went into the ground about 10 days ago? Should I just bury them in straw?

Jo

Just came in from watering and covering. At noon the local liars, (4&9) had come off of the freezing forecast for Sat. morning with a warmer 7 day forecast. If I can make it past tomorrow morning just might make it till Thanksgiving!

Keith

Jo,

Do they have leaves or are they dormant? I'd mulch them as well as possible (water first so the root zone is moist but not soggy) but if they have foliage, I'd be inclined to cover them with a blanket instead of straw. Sometimes straw invites field mice and voles to come snuggle in it and stay warm and then they might knaw on your fig trunks or limbs. Uncover them before it warms up too much in the morning.

You might want to start a 'fig care' thread and ask a general question about how Gary and others protect their fig plants in winter.

How worried do you have to be about cold weather? Probably not much, unless they've been kept indoors at the seller's greenhouse or warehouse. If they've been kept indoors for months, they might not be very hardened off to the cold temps. If they came from a retailer in the north, I bet they are pretty hardened off though.

Keith,

I never know whether to trust the constantly changing forecast at this time of year or not, but last night we went six degrees lower than forecast so I expect about the same variance for the next two cold mornings.

Dawn

Keith, the way I see it, if I can keep my garden alive past Saturday, it's good for another week at least :)

Dawn, they have LEAVES (the figs). I've been covering them with cut milk jugs most nights, but the figs are a little taller than the jugs, so they don't quuite meet the ground. If you think blankets would be better I will do that.

I have an insane groundhog on the property and don't want to give him anything new to destroy.

Oh and BTW, I was just thinking how nice the bug free weather was...KILLLED THREE stinkbugs on my tomatoes today. What in the world????

Jo

Well, I am in the pretty aquamarine area on the map, Dawn! I went ahead and watered and covered the tomatoes, but harvested any that looked like they were beginning to turn a golden shade. The last ones I did that with are getting very ripe now, so apparently I am getting slightly more adept at pulling the ones that are in the process.

Watered the ornamentals in beds, too, but don't know if they'll survive or not. Lots of blooming going on still with the annuals. Maybe, but I've resigned myself to the inevitable. Won't be long before the catalogs start arriving, and I'm already beginning to peruse the online nurseries and seed sites for next year. Winter sowing will begin right after Xmas, so I want to get ready.

Gotta check out Dawn's list.....

Susan

Susan, I got a Thompson and Morgan catalog on Tuesday, but it was my first.

The National Weather Service JUST issued a Frost Advisory for about a dozen counties in southcentral OK for 1 thru 9 a.m. Friday morning. Gee, guys, thanks for all the advance warning.

Luckily, I wasn't waiting for them to advise us to cover up or bring in plants (I did both those things late this afternoon) but the Advisory is kind of late for anyone who wasn't already watching the weather and figuring it out for themselves.

Jo, You may have to put something around your young fig trees' trunks to keep them from being gnawed on this winter.

It has been warm enough during the day that bugs are still around even though we've had cold nights. Some years I see insects even into December in surprising numbers. I think a lot of them can handle cold weather if they hide under mulch or plant debris or whatever.

I still have grasshoppers, including new small ones that hatched in September.

Susan, I brought two containerized tomatoes into the garage, and covered up two that are out in the garden. We are expecting a freeze here, though, so if it gets cold enough, the covered-up ones won't make it.

After covering up those plants and dragging the containerized plants (the 2 toms, a few peppers, and some brugs) into the garage, I harvested the last of the purple hyacinth beans for seeds and stripped the peppe plants of any peppers of decent size.

Then I took one long last look at the Texas hummingbird sage, tithonias, petunias, marigolds, morning glories, black-eyed susan vines, zinnias, begonias, periwinkles, salvias and four o'clocks and sighed because by Saturday they'll probably be frozen and it really will be over for this year. They just look so beautiful right now that I hate to say goodbye to them. It has been really chilly here today so a lot of the flowers, though still blooming, are looking a little ratty. The okra and pepper plants started dropping leaves this week too as if they knew their days were numbered.

I hate the morning after the first freeze...seeing all that blackened foliage.

I haven't received any catalogs yet except for HPS's, but have received a few e-mails from companies that have their websites updated for 2011 and also saying "the catalog is in the mail" (that one was from T&M).

Susan, It's a long tomato list!

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Text of the Just-Issued Frost Advisory for SC OK