Monday, October 8, 2012

Shortest season ever!

Around the middle of August the fierce summer-long heat wave (90s and up) returned to normal 80s.  While we've had the occasional hot day since then, it's been MUCH nicer to play in the gardens for the past 7 weeks.

We've even gotten more rain which kept the barrel full and at-the-ready for watering.

There wasn't much to water - the veg bed bit the dust (literally) quite early with little harvest to show for all that effort.

But annuals recovered and with regular watering they really turned up the volume and have been giving the bees and pollinators lots of forage.  They were happy. I was happy.

But that was a short ride.  We usually don't have to worry about frost until 10/18.  Not this year.  Ma Nature played another wild card.

It's only 28F this morning -- everything is not just frosted, but frozen!!

I'm sure yesterday's glowing garden of salvia, zins, hyssop, phlox, etc will turn to dark goopy blooms and withered leaves.

And this isn't just a one-time thing.  We're forecasted for the same nighttime temps on and off all week.

Yep.  Shortest season ever for as far as I'm concerned it was only 7 good weeks (mid-August to this morning).

So much effort this year.  So little to show for it.  Now it's all about shutting down and cleaning up now that the elephants (heat, drought, deer, early freeze) have trampled through the gardens. *sigh*  Ah well, time to start the annual chant: "...NEXT year.... NEXT year... NEXT year." *heh*

Oh, and on another fun note - check out the long-range forecast for 2012-2013 winter.  Time to lay in more firewood, I'm thinking.

Got all YOUR harvest in?

8 comments:

  1. My brother visited me last year at this time and he was amazed at my lush garden as he viewed it through the kitchen door. Today the very same sight is brown or dead plants with only the wild rose showing yellow leaves. My phlox have been gone for weeks. Hey, spring is coming!!!! Right!!!!

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    1. I commiserate with you, Larry. It's painful to look out over the remains of what was a summer's pride and joy. Yep, Spring is coming. Or, so they say.... *heh*

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  2. WHAT harvest?

    Our yards were white with frost this morning. Neighbors' roofs were white (and probably ours too but I didn't look). Now that it's mid-afternoon, I've been out to check, and, can this be? I think I've got some things that just MIGHT have survived two early morning frosts???? Time will tell. Maybe it ain't over till the fat lady sings..... And this old fat lady is too hacked off to sing..... After the summer's drought, there really isn't much left anyhoo....

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    1. Going to frost tonight, probably freeze Tuesday... The plants could probably have taken one hit, but 3 nights in a row will wreck havoc. Guess it's over.

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  3. All are weather seems about the same. Last night wasn't nearly as cold here and I don't think any frosts are predicted for the rest of the week.

    I am ready for it all to be over.......I need to mow at least one more time and hope to do that today. Then I am battening down the hatches and doing winter prep....draining and storing hoses, putting all tools away, etc.

    We built our first wood fire yesterday....felt really good!

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    1. Frozen again last night and heavy frost this morning. Yep, fat lady signing all over the place here. And the earliest that I've ever seen. *sigh* Thankfully hoses already tucked away. Now it's all about cleanup on dry days. I'm ready to call it quits too.

      Bet you enjoyed that fire. I have to put plastic film on the front bay window, etc. From what I've been reading, this winter won't be the picnic last winter was.

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  4. We had our first real frost warning last night but it didn't really frost up that much. I'm really hoping for some snow this year. I need snow days to get caught up on grading!

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    1. We've gone down to 27-29F 4 nights out of 6 this week. We're waaaaay past frost here. :-( The annuals are dead dead dead. *sigh* So much for all that late color! Heck, it's still a whole week away from our traditional 'first frost' date. Hope this isn't an indication of what's to come this winter.

      If I get extra snow, I'll UPS it to you. ;-D

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