The weather man says it's gonna freeze hard tonight. I am so not ready to part with the tomatoes and peppers. I covered some of the tomatoes with sheets or blankets, looking for the ones that have the most fruit on them. I think I'll go back out and pick all of the peppers that are close to ready.

I planted a Long Island Cheese winter squash but had germination problems, so it is late. There are two dinner plate sized fruits on the plant, but the stem is still green and the tendril is green. The plant is just too big to cover and the weather man says covering may not do any good tonight.

We put out 45 lettuce starts this past week and they are looking good. They all have milk jugs over them and I covered the jugs with a fuzzy blanket. I sure don't want to loose them...first lettuce crop was cr@p and I really wanted to try a fall crop.

Back to the garden..peppers here I come!

Yikes!!!
And I am so not ready to hear that someone has a freeze coming! (that means mine is not too far away)

To deal with an early frost, I have set out jugs of hot water under the covers. They radiate enough heat through the night to keep the plants alive. Lettuce can usually take a nip of frost. Brassicas, like broccoli and cabbage, also.

Binny,

Good morning.

Update please.

Yes, up-date please!

I read on another board where someone else up that direction got a dusting of snow.
Toooooooooo early for that!

Update:

The weather man is full of it. Our overnight low was 36.5, probably distorted a little because the remote is on the north side of the house in a sheltered area. The airport weather station that is about 7 miles away reported a brief period of 32 degrees. Nothing in our garden shows any cold damage and the forecast for the next 10 days is good. With that forecast, I removed the blanket from the lettuces and took off about half of the jug covers...introduced those little lettuce babies (Buttercrunch, Red Sails, and Tom Thumb) to the world.

With the forecast for Little Minnie's area, I'll bet she was busy covering too.

Happy Sunday

I had a frost. I went out and covered the peppers and celery and assorted herbs. Pulled most of the tomatos off but covered 2 plants that were just too full. Good thing I covered, frost nipped the butternut squash leaves and the yellow squash plants were killed. Now I have a tablefull of semi red and green tomatos.

quote:

Originally posted by datgirl-og:
Now I have a tablefull of semi red and green tomatos.

datgirl-time to make some green tomato relish?

I did make and freeze salsa and tomato sauce. I'm going to have to try a green tomato relish. I've never made it before.

Green tomatoes will ripen. I put them on a window sill when I have to pick them all at first frost- usually mid October. I have fresh tomatoes through December!

Down to 30 in my neck of the woods Saturday night. But I am in Illinois for a few days and can't do a blasted thing about what's happening at home!

Just got home today, doesn't look like much but the nasturiums got frosted! Will be picking beans and maters tomorrow.

It's already been down to 24 here so the circle has closed on my garden. I did save 3 tomato and one jalapeno plant though, using the water jug trick GD mentioned. I don't use hot water, I just leave the jugs in the sun all day and they warm up, then put several under layers of covers. Yes the tomatoes and pepper made it through 24 degrees doing this. I'll probably get 2 to 3 more weeks out of them.

I still have some pepper plants out there. I'll have to try the water jug trick on them.