SNOW !!! What more can I say...... We had our first taste of what is to come.. This is October 10th .....................
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN I still have some carrots and parsnips that come from our vegetable garden.. The carrots should last for another month if not more, but the parsnips were on the smaller side and will be gone the next time I use them..
I never did grow anything this year, other than flowers and a few toadstools. This is the first time my tomato plants haven't produced, but I did lose a few of my other plants to the drought/oppressive heat, so maybe that was the issue. Hopefully next year will be a better one for my garden. I'm glad there will be less of a need for yard work once I get the leaves taken care of, because although the lawns don't die here, they do go somewhat dormant in the cooler/cold weather.
The temperatures have been down into the 40's lately, and tomorrow night it is supposed to be as low as 37; so it is time we have to bring in the plants that are temperature sensitive. We have the orange and lemon trees in large pots, and bring those in each winter , and the little palms have to be dug up and replanted in pots so that we can bring them in, too. Everything else, we will just mulch over with leaves, which are falling everywhere right now. We always leave them on the ground all winter because the slope of the lawn causes soil erosion in the rain. The leaves help to cover and protect the dirt from the winter rains washing it away. In the spring, we always rake them and put them on the compost so that the grass can come up again.
I hope someone who likes hot peppers comes by soon. I have 5 or 6 Tabasco plants that are loaded with peppers. I've already picked more than we'll use. The temps are still way above normal here but a freeze is expected this weekend. I loaned my woodsplitter to some people in exchange for some help. They carried our potted plants and trees into the greenhouse which was a big help. I don't know how much of a garden we'll have next year but we won't need to grow peppers.
Love anything hot but you're too far away. Might be flying over your area in a month but I doubt the pilot will make a hot pepper stop just for me. Glad you got some help with the pots!
We still have a few pepper plants left, too; but no more peppers on them. I was thinking about maybe bringing one or two inside for the winter but we have enough to do with just bringing in some of the other plants that we have outside in summer, and inside over the winter. Bobby has been working on a greenhouse for us, and once we have that, we can keep a lot more of the garden plants in there over the winter. We have to grow almost everything in containers anyway because the trees have everything so shaded here that nothing gets enough sun to actually be a garden area. I am leaving the little fig tree outside this winter since you said that yours winters over just fine. Last year, it was so small that we brought it inside, but it has been growing this year, and I can mulch around the base with some of the leaves that are so prolific on the ground right now.
We were outside working in the yard today, and Bobby discovered that we still actually have a large (and seemingly happy ) tomato plant growing out back, despite the fact that it has frosted several nights already. Not only is the plant still green and growing, there are two green tomatoes on it. I am not sure what we will do with it. Bobby is still working on the greenhouse, and the tomato plant is entwined around the fence, so I don't think we can move it; but we are going to check it out and see if we can move it somewhere safer and let the little maters grow a while longer.