1st Killing Frost

The 1st Killing Frost for these parts averages October 25.  This year, ours was the morning of October 21. 

All those Warm Season crops (beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) are pretty much toast.  We are so grateful that we were able to pick all that we could earlier in the week. Now, their leaves hang on the vine in an unfamiliar distorted reality.  Their color has shifted from vibrant growing greens into the area of the palette which holds gray green and yellow green.  Frost changed their physical structure.  The plants are in their own stages of compost, returning to the Earth from which they sprang not so long ago. It's normal, but it's also sad.  These plants have been or companions this summer and now they are gone. The end of the Growing Season is in sight.

Gardening pursuits changed some gears today.  We looked at the Cool Season Veggies.  They seemed to look around at their Warm Season Companions with a question of:  "What's going on?  What happened to you?"  We know they will be next to go at some point in the future, depending on their hardiness and susceptibility to freezing. 

Richard looked at the Turnips and concluded that it was time to begin their Harvest.  We have been enjoying them throughout the Fall.  His first round of digging yielded 2-gallon buckets.  They are happy.  I headed into my Dry Edible Bean Patch and picked the rest of the Henderson's Bush Limas and the Calypso Beans.  I also began the harvest of the Mayflower Beans which seem abundant.