Oh MeMo I am sorry. The weatherman has been playing games for months with us too ! We are to have 86 here tomorrow. It is 73 and very humid right now. The clouds are building so I think we are going to ge that 70% chance yet this afternoon. I posted pics yesterday. I will probably need to pull them out next year to see what rain looks like since they are predicting the drought to continue. We are still 24" below so this is just a "drop" in the bucket..no pun intended. Caroline

Oh, no!!! I really hope I beat this year's first frost - I have a ton of basil I want to harvest for pesto still.

Otoh, hopefully that got rid of all of your mosquitos. That thought almost makes me want that first hard frost!

Right now It looks like Autumn just might be our best season for 2007. Although it cools off at night, the days have the warmth of an Indian Summer. After a downright wet spring, a very unusual summer which went from what we usually deem spring here, overnight we hit a heat wave of near 100 degrees that fried my garden. Some of the clematis I thought I'd lost are showing signs of recovery. Things are starting to look up.

MeMo sorry to hear you didn't have a chance to harvest your tomatoes. In your zone 4B location how long do your winters last? How low does the temperature drop in the winter and how high does it soar in the summer? Also, how soon can you get out in your garden to play, I mean work in the spring? Sorry for my ignorance, I'm really am trying to make myself more aware of everybody's growing conditions and seasons. Hmmmm, sounds like something for a new thread.

Annette

Hey Memo, Sorry to hear that the frost got your garden, at least you got a couple more weeks than what I did here. I cleanup my veggie garden last week. This weekend I plan to bring in anything thats left in the greenhouse. I've already dumped some planters and have several more to dump this weekend. Its just that time of year I guess, as sad as that makes us.

Stock up on some good gardening books, and before you know it the seed catalogues will be here....and the dreams of next years garden. Ahhhhhhhh

Sierra

Thanks for all the condolences on the sudden death of my garden everyone. LOL!! Some things still look okay for now but the veggies are done and so are half the annuals that were blooming. I'll be picking all the watermelon today and what's left of the peppers. Tomatoes can't be eaten once frost has touched them so those are all wasted now.

I have to say that my vegie garden was really the perfect size this year...just enough to keep fresh food on the table without having to can a lot of excess stuff. I did manage to get about 10 quarts of tomatoes in the freezer for soups this winter but that was all that I put up. I don't know if I'll miss the canned stuff or not. It's taken three years to get a good handle on how much and of what I need to plant to keep everyone happy. I now know how many raised beds I'll need to build this winter to have just the right amount and variety of everything we like to eat.

Annette, this is an early freeze, even for us. USUALLY I have until the 1st of October to get everything harvested. During winter our temps dip down to as low as -30F. and in summer we can go as high as 120F. We are usually in drought all through the summer but this year we had regular rain and even flooding (I live on a river) so the hills and fields are still green even this late in the year.

I should have been more prepared because the acorns have been dropping off the oak trees for three weeks now and we KNOW that signals the end of the good weather. I guess we were just in denial since it isn't even mid September yet. I'm betting we will have lots of deep snow by November. Now we're really feeling pressure to get some fencing done that we never got to this summer as it looks like we will need to get the cattle home early this year. Not looking forward to calving this fall and next spring if we do get heavy snow. Blech!

Sierra, I thought of you when I saw the frost yesterday morning and wondered how your season was going. I'm sorry that you too are having to pack it up early. As for gardening catalogs....they haven't stopped coming all summer. I get so many I don't even look at half of them. Who cares if there is a big mid-season sale in July when it's a 110F. or more. LOL!

MeMo

I have to say that my vegie garden was really the perfect size this year...just enough to keep fresh food on the table without having to can a lot of excess stuff.

That is brilliant, MeMo. Exactly what most people strive for. Now, if only the silly weather would cooperate. :)

Libby

MeMo, It is amazing, I still have some perrenials going in the garden. I have a late blooming monkshood, purple beebalm and truly amazing I still have some dahlias blooming.

Oh my, I limit my seed catalogues to just a handful. And I do my dreaming from them. I don't bother with the fall catalogues at all.(pointless in zone 2) I didn't even know companies sent out catalogues with mid season sales. LOL!

Sierra

Mid season seed catalogs?! Heavens yes. Parks Seed and Gilbert H. Wild are the worst. I swear I get catalogs from them every other week. I order from both once per year. They are greedy! LOL

The only things blooming, even after the frost....Knockout Roses, Hollyhocks (second flush), Rudbeckia, Gallardia, some salvia and still the petunias. At least I have some color. Soon my color will come from the tree leaves along the river. I'll be ripping out the vegies this weekend. It'll be nice to see through the fences again. Chickens, geese and goats all over the yard but I rarely see them from the windows with all the vegetation growing in summer. I'm ready for fall/winter, soups, baked goods, warm quilts on cold cold nights. Mmmmmm.

MeMo

Wow, MeMo, you can make even winter sound good. Sorry to hear about your early frost. Maybe that's your weather payback for having no drought this summer, or would the drought have been better than what you got?

Glad to hear you still have some color to keep things cheerful looking around the farm.

ThinMan

Gee Memo, that does seem early. We've got rain in the forecast and that is really early for California. Our maples are just beginning to show color, which we didn't see until October last year.

I hope that your winter isn't too brutal. And here's to an absolutely beautiful stretch of Indian Summer for you.

Steven

Oh, Thinman, I could never say that I'd rather have drought. It's far too difficult for plant life and animals alike. Not to mention crops. We did fine on the dry land crops we planted this year. But we didn't plant corn because we couldn't irrigate. Even with decent rain we need irrigation for corn because our soil is so sandy. Due to a legal issue, with those that run the damn, on the river we live on we could not irrigate....unless of course we wanted to pay them for the water. Hopefully that will be settled by next spring so we can plant. We are gearing up now for planting winter wheat, hopefully it will fare better than it did last year.

Steven, thanks for wishing us an Indian Summer! It's looking right now like we may have just that, later in the week. Right now half the trees are turning colors and half of them are still green. We can certainly tell that the days are getting shorter though as it's barely daylight when driving DD to the bus stop each morning. The chickens are slowing down on their egg laying with less daylight too. Also, the goats are running out of green things to eat and my vegetables (what's currently left of them) are tempting them waaay too close to the house. I hope our new fencing keeps the goats out of the garden this winter. I might just throw in the towel if they eat my trees and shrubs for a third year in a row! Another sign of winter coming...the hunters are beginning to call for permissions to hunt. I love that part of the season! My kitchen table is filled with friendly faces and great conversation when the hunters are here. Thinking of it makes me want to go bake some zucchini bread...or something LOL!

MeMo

Memo, The other day I was telling my DH about a woman on gardenweb (YOU) who has genius ideas and the ambition and energy to make it happen. I always enjoy your postings and I wish we were neighbors so you could advise me and kick my butt on days like today. It's 86 here and the heat and the darned yellow jackets drove me inside, so I decided to visit gardenweb. I'm glad you were here. I feel better now.

My One, if this forum had smiley attachments I'd post the one of the little guy with the red blushing cheeks. Thank you.

You can go ahead and move in next door and then we could kick each other in the butt. It's already 88 and the wind is blowing like crazy. I have way too much hair to want to go outside and sweat and have my hair blowing all over my face and neck, sticking to me like I'm covered in glue.

Nope...I think I'll stay in and work on my daughters wedding quilt this afternoon ;) Have a great day!

MeMo

MeMo, it's inconceivable to me that anywhere in this world could be experiencing cold and frost, as it's still hot and humid here on the first day of fall. Reading your last post about the hens and the goats and the hunters, it occurs to me that you lead a totally different life than I do, and I think yours sounds like just so much fun.

Carol

Carol, it is fun most of the time but we have our troubles too, just like anyone else. We just try to let them go by without comment because if we dwell on them too much they could do us in.

Probably about the time our frosts come daily, you'll be feeling like it's finally fall there. For the moment we've been given a reprieve and it's hot again. Enjoy while you can, I know we are!

MeMo

We are getting frosts just about every day now. The storms still haven't stopped. The annuals have all been pulled and most of the greenhouse cleaned out now. I still have the Amaryllis bulbs and the Canna lily to bring in from the greenhouse yet. The begonias and dahlias and other bulbs that have to be lifted were lifted between hail storms, and brought in this past weekend. Its almost time to cut back all the perennials and wrap the rhodo with burlap. (Keeping fingers crossed it will make it through the winter.)

I was talking to a guy yesterday, and he said that we would have snow in a week or two. :O Not quite that fast I hope. I'm not ready for snow just yet!

Sierra :)