Sunday our high was 92. Tuesday night our low was supposed to be 32 but, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s always a few degrees colder at our home since we live in a little valley.
I had been saving zucchini and Tuesday afternoon I picked everything, knowing those plants would not survive the night.
When I got up a bit after 5 a.m., it was 24 degrees outside. By the time I thought to take a picture of the weather station, it was up to 25 degrees.
I left early in the day to go visit a friend and everything was glistening with frost when I left but by the time I got home, just before dusk, it was a sad sight. The large, beautiful zucchini plants had all turned to mush, the sweet potato vines that had escaped the beds and were growing across the yard were all withered up; the tomato vines were shriveled . . overall just a sad sight but those plants did their jobs and provided us with plenty of food for the winter. Over the next few days, we’ll get the tomatoes pulled out, the sweet potato vines pulled out and the zucchini plants will go into the compost pile. We need to get some major cleanup done in the garden area.
Next year I plan to use the mineral tubs from a friend who has cows and use Leon’s method for self-wicking tubs. This year, it was so hot and so dry and I spent so much time watering. I think using Leon’s method will save some time and also help reduce the water bill which got a bit expensive this summer.
As usually happens, we have a freeze, everything dies off, and then we have another three weeks or more without a freeze. Heck . . we have another 89 degree day coming up but our next freeze is not until November 19. I could have gotten a lot more zucchini if we had not had that freeze Tuesday night! 🙁
Paula Nordt says
Kind of like down here with rain. We had a lovely beginning of summer with plenty of rain. It was extremely hot, but everything was lush and green and happy. But we have not had a drop since hurricane Beryl. Now everything is crunchy, brown, withering. My forest out back is looking sad and dusty. There is now way to water everything on three and half acres with one water well. And the way it goes here, once it does start raining, it will be a deluge.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Same here. We had such a wet spring. I was so hopeful it was going to be a good year for gardening but it just stopped raining. I think we’ve had one rain and it wasn’t much since June. It was HOT – so many days well over 100. We’ve had burn bans pretty much all summer and now we have wild fire warnings. Kinda reminds me of living in Texas!