Montpelier finally had its first frost warning: thirty-one degrees. The garden grows down by the North Branch of the Winooski River. Here, it stays a bit warmer, but we weren’t taking any chances.
Gardeners mobilized to cover the lettuce beds. This keeps us in salads, even on nights when the temperature drops below freezing.Frost-sensitive beans, annual herbs, and greens gardeners took home before the frost.It turned out to be only a light frost, probably just a couple of hours in the early morning of barely freezing temperatures. The remaining pole beans were extra sweet the next day.
Still, it was time to get moving on fall garden chores. Here’s our winter squash bed: butternut and buttercup, in this section and, to the right of the pole beans, delicatas. The harvest is in, and these beds are being turned over and mulched for the winter.We quickly pulled in the winter squash crop, divided it into shares, and distributed it among gardeners’ households.We harvested every remaining ripe tomato.
A final harvest.
The season’s final bouquet.
The ten-day forecast shows no frost. For now, we can stand down. But we’re ready.
