The end is near: of the growing season, that is

by  Emily Cates

Were you caught off guard the other night when we got our first frost? I’ll admit I was a bit. As gardeners in northern climates well know, the first frost, no matter how mild, signals the imminent end of a growing season and the beginning of a whole new array of garden activities. Let’s take a look of some of them, including pre-frost roundups and post-frost clean-ups.

Of course, it is best to know when the frost is on its way a night or so before it happens, so that sensitive fruits and veggies like tomatoes, watermelons, eggplants, and peppers can be harvested and brought into a space above freezing temperatures. From there, we can put them into cold storage or process them into all sorts of goodies. Helpful hints: If the fruits (like tomatoes) aren’t quite ripe, it’s oftentimes helpful to pull the whole plant and hang it in a barn or shed or similar place. You might get more to ripen successfully this way than if you just harvested the fruits by themselves. Also, if the frost is light, the season might be extended simply by throwing a blanket over the plants at night. Keep in mind the benefits of cold frames, as easy as a storm window set on a frame of hay bales.

Once we get a frost, there’s no turning back. Sometimes you’ll find fruits, hiding in grass or under the cover of leaves, that are still good. However, if they succumb to the freezing temperatures, it will be obvious. Those with the characteristic frost damage will only be fit for the King of a Compost Pile. Render these “offerings” as part of the garden cleanup that should accompany a frost.

Probably one of the most important things you can do for your garden right now is to ensure the proper clean-up and disposal of garden debris. Pests and pestilence will find a happy home in a garden without this proper treatment, so don’t skip out on it. Then throw these spent plants into a hot compost pile, burn them, or send them to the dump. Remember to pull up plastic mulch and take down temporary trellises, too.

Once garden hygiene is tended to, it’s a good time to add fertilizer and amendments. So scoop out that coop, take a mattock to that paddock, haul out that stall, shovel some stuff until you have adequate material to make your garden happy. I tend to add enough manure or compost to darken the soil a few shades. When making a brand new bed, though, I like to frame it up with cedar posts, mulch the bottom and sides with untreated cardboard or plain newsprint, with and fill it completely with whatever organic materials I have on hand or access to in abundance. (Examples include manure and bedding, compost, or a mix of these.)

While we enjoy this time of year and the accompanying crisp air and beautiful foliage, let’s think about ordering and planting trees. This is a good time of year for it, and we’ll talk about it in the next article. Stay tuned!