When the gardening is over...

[Deborah]

Those of you who live where you have "real winter" and love to garden, what do you do garden wise when the cold weather comes?
Also, I have never seen what plants look like after a frost. Do the plants look normal but frozen or melted or what?

[Father'sDaughter]

Plan next year's garden, shop for seeds, hang out here on T'ville, trade seeds, figure out how to fit more plants in, buy more seeds, shop for seed starting supplies, send out SASE's for even more seeds....

[Elliot]

Cut down the dead plants, store the trellises and then start reading garden magazines and plan for next year

[jerryinfla]

Hi Deborah - I garden all year long here in central Florida where we don't have "real winters" so I'll not address the what to do when the cold weather comes part of your question; however, we do have the occasional frost and if I still have any frost sensitive plants left in the ground I know what they look like after an overnight frost. After the frost burns off the next morning, they look very wilty like they are in desperate need of watering then they are dead and gone in a few days.

[deerhunter]

when a good killing frost hits and its usally around the second week of oct around here , everything just wilts over and shrivles up. the cole plants like broccoliand cabbage, brussel sprots hang around till a good freeze down near 20. i will cover the carrots and parsnips over with leaves for winter picking and there much sweeter when you shovel the snow away and dig em up. i will also harrow the whole garden and plant a cover crop, usally rye. it will grow threw the winter and in the spring will ad nitrogen to the soil when turned under.sometimes just before a frost i'll pull up a few tomatoe plants that still have a good amont of green ones on it and hang em upside down in the shed. they will ripen but won't be as good if tey were in the ground. by nov its hunting season and the gardens forgotten till march when i get the the greenhouse started. during the coldest part of the winter i icefish. so you can always find something to do even when its cold.

[bower]

hi Deborah

When frost doesn't kill the plant entirely, the affected parts of the leaves look watersoaked and dark - this is because their cell walls have burst, and the affected parts will quickly blacken and fall away. A very hard frost when it's dry (no snow or rain) can turn whole plants black and shrivelled overnight. We usually get our hard frost and first peck of snow around halloween. I have a big perennial herb garden that is huge at the end of season, and I usually leave lots of stalks standing during the winter. Small birds come and eat the seeds when only the stalks are sticking up out of the snow. In spring when the straw is cleared off, the garden looks very bare and you wouldn't guess that huge plants are still living there.

In the fall I often dig a few herbs to come indoors and spend the winter with me. Last year I brought in potted peppers and had a riot of red fruit on my windowsill near Christmas. I like to keep a few things going in the greenhouse as well for as long as I can. Some things, like mustard greens, will survive most winters there, although they don't grow at all between November and February. Those are also the best months to do complete sanitation of the greenhouse, getting rid of all the dead plant material, splashing the soil with some warm soapy water, and washing down surfaces where spores or insect eggs might be lurking, so it's as clean as possible for next year's crop. Dreaming, planning, and getting the seeds for that are big winter activities!

[Deborah]

I like all this. And thanks for explaining too. Love the peppers for Christmas !

[koshki]

Originally Posted by Deborah

Those of you who live where you have "real winter" and love to garden, what do you do garden wise when the cold weather comes?
Also, I have never seen what plants look like after a frost. Do the plants look normal but frozen or melted or what?

I start paying attention to my orchids again. They love it outdoors for the summer, but other than hitting them daily with the hose, I don't pay them much attention. Instead I obsess over my tomatoes and blueberries and other lovelies in my garden.

As for what happens when frost hits...it depends on the plant. Lots of plants simply melt into mush in frost, but others are surprisingly resiliant. For example, my parsley usually survives until it gets REALLY cold (like January), although this past mild winter hardly killed anything. In fact I had rosemary survive our last winter (I usually kill rosemary by trying to keep it going indoors). I had thrown it under my potting bench, fully expecting to have to dump it out this past spring, but it made it! It is simply huge this year.

Some plants, like yarrow and penstenmon, stayed green or nearly so, all winter. Other stuff just dies back to the ground. The tomatoes I usually pull from the pots after the first frost...they don't like it that cold.

I'm growing dwarves for the first time this year. I'm thinking I might put them in the garage overnight during the fall to see how long I can keep them going.

I'd love to hear what you do to garden year round!

[halleone]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Plan next year's garden, shop for seeds, hang out here on T'ville, trade seeds, figure out how to fit more plants in, buy more seeds, shop for seed starting supplies, send out SASE's for even more seeds....

...and gaze longingly out at the cold, empty garden, sigh a lot.

[barkeater]

Around mid October when cold weather comes I pull out the old and dead plants and pull up any plastic mulch I used. Then I pile up the fallen leaves in the garden and burn them, which takes care of any weeds or debris I missed (and hopefully disease spores and such). After that I dig a section for garlic which I plant in early November. Once that is done the snow starts flying and by Thanksgiving the garden is usually covered in snow until spring thaw.

I've replanted my garden since the weather is about to start cooling very soon. It was 103 today but only supposed to be 84 Saturday with cooler weather going forward. I had a great spring garden which produced until the high heat of July arrived. The heat kills almost everything. I've replanted many tomato varieties which produced well in the spring and a few I've never grown. I've planted turnips, Chinese cabbage, summer squash, cucumbers, chives, beets, onions, garlic, peppers, lettuce, and a few other things for my fall garden. Most of it will freeze in Mid November or early December, but a few will survive the freezing weather ready to really grow and produce when spring arrives.

I only have December when I can't really have a garden because my spring onions are planted in early January of every year and I start my tomato seeds under lights in January. July and August are the months when I rework my beds because every thing is either dead or dormant from the heat.

Ted

[lakelady]

Lots of cleanup, lots of shredding leaves and making more compost, then real hard frosts around Halloween or a bit later some years so you puree squash and freeze it, bake apple and pumpkin pies and freeze those too or just the fillings. Too much to do before the holidays...January is when I huker down, get the catalogs out and start dreaming and planning and obsessing over next year's garden.

Last year I grew some dwarfs indoors so that kept me pretty happy with the gardening bug for a good part of the winter. By the time it was seed starting again, I was tired of indoor gardening.

Actually, the gardening is so much work when you have a full time job, that by the end of the season, as much as I miss it, I get kinda tired of all that running around with hoses, spraying, pinching, etc. It's nice to have a little break and I've even begun pulling some plants that are "done" and I didn't like much anyway, so it feels good to start cleanup a little early.

once leaves start falling, that becomes my full time job every single weekend almost until Christmas!

[Baizanator]

We pulled everything in the non-container garden last weekend. Around November I'll pull all the t-posts and twine used for our Florida weave. Around December I'll cover the soil with compost and till it in and then cover with plastic sheeting until plant out, which usually happens in March.

[Deborah]

Katherine, my garden is only a container garden, but my art as well. As much care and planning go into the pot as the plant.
I grow a Meyer lemon tree, just about every herb there is, Quinalt strawberries, veggies for my two little boys (who are rabbits) gardenias, favorite flowers and bonsai. And of course tomatoes !
I read the posts from you real gardeners while I have lunch.
I envy all of you-especially those who can have lilac. I have never seen one and want so much to smell a real lilac.
I'm a rare and proud third generation California native but I admit we can't grow some things I wish we could, lilacs, blueberries and cranberries.

[stonysoilseeds]

i actually get quite depressed as the garden is so much a part of my lfe i am in there 4 am every day before i go to work and its been a great resource to me but as soon as its over i start to plan and daydream about next year and go ocd ordering seeds