I experienced my first frost with my first garden this year. I heard the weatherman warning about it yesterday morning, so I knew I had to get out there and strip my plants of veggies.
Good: 10 lbs of Jalapenios
Bad: 50 mph winds pelting rain.
Good: finding the hidey-holes that the cucumbers were using
Bad: Wind Chill of 30 degrees
Good: Hot cocoa after each bone-chilling trip outside
Bad: Throwing out my back on my last trip to the garden.
Good: enough green tomatoes to fill a paper grocery bag
Bad: Waiting for the green tomatoes to ripen in a paper grocery bag
Good: Waking up this morning to find we didn't get a frost.
Bad: Hands that are burning from picking peppers in the rain without gloves.
Good: Learned a lot about harvesting my garden.
I picked all the vegetables off all my cucumber, zucchini, tomato, bell pepper, and jalopenio pepper plants, whether they were ripe or not. It took 5 trips with a laundry basket. Thankfully, it didn't frost, so I'll still have more coming from my garden if we have an indian summer!
Oct 3, 2009 | 9:12 AM PST
You have quite a harvest there! 30 degree wind chill sounds real bad-Every winter I really like where I live! Wish I had some zucchini to pick!
Oct 3, 2009 | 10:29 AM PST
It's good you picked what you did, it might have frosted and spoiled, and now you have it picked. Take care with your back. I use a wagon to haul my buckets and baskets in from the garden, it works pretty slick.
Oct 3, 2009 | 10:51 AM PST
When early frost hits your garden, spray it off with cold water before the sun hit it. Every thing will survive. This a tried and true procedure.
Oct 3, 2009 | 1:02 PM PST
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I actually threw out my back from bending over to get a jalopenio the size of a bell pepper.
Oct 5, 2009 | 3:30 AM PST
Sounds like you had an interesting and active day in your garden. Isn't it just like a weatherman to be wrong? Well, I wish I had a job where I could get paid well to be right HALF of the time. LOL! I love your good/bad format. It made for some amusing reading. Stay out of that wind and have some more hot chocolate. I know it's hot chocolate weather where I am right now...24 degrees outside!