Here in Durant, we actually stayed well above freezing (35 or so), and I think we were one of only a couple of spots in the entire state that did not have a hard freeze. Even about 20 miles west of us, temp was in the 20's. Gotta love these strange little microclimate pockets.

We hit 23 here on Thurs morning the coldest so far. Most of the rest of the garden went. I had pulled a lot of it knowing the end was probably here. I covered 2 sprawlers with blankets and also with several of the plants I had pulled on top. I will wait a few days to see if anything survived underneath or not. Both plants were loaded with fruits about 7-10 days from turning. If I lost them that is ok. I have started turning the straw under. A coworker who runs a lawn care business on the side will start bringing leaves 7-14 days. I will try to plant my garlic this week also. My lean to gets down to around 50 at night and then with the utility room windows open and the fans blowing that is as low as it drops at least so far. The plants in there are doing great. Pick a few cherries everyday. The larger tomatoes should start ripening soon. I ordered an exhaust fan last night. Even on Wed when the high was the low 40's I hit 86 in the lean to. Basically my gardening season is over. I have almost decided what I will plant next year. I will post my tomato list soon. It will be a lot different than it has been the last 4-5 years. Jay

Good grief guys, I have to get past this year before I plan next year. Of course I haven't been watering anything so it is dying from lack of water, but I still have green plants all around. The plants that were on the chain link fence have blackened, but I still have lots of green plants, tomato, pepper, horse radish, Hollyhock, banana tree, elephant ear, etc.

My pepper plants that I wrapped with row cover still look fantastic but they still haven't turned red. I was trying to get these small hot peppers to mature so I could dry them and make pepper flakes. I don't think that is going to happen. I have watered those a couple of times but other than a light cover, nothing else has been done.

I have a couple of tubs of salad greens which I tried to put in a protected place out of the wind, but they are getting too much shade since the trees still have leaves. I may have to move them.

It does look like fall though with some leaves on the ground and the rest in reds, yellows and oranges. We drove to Joplin yesterday and the foliage is really pretty. We were in the freeze warning area last night, but I think the lake protected us again. It looks like we may have to mow one more time.

Carol,
I saw a post recently where you were wondering if we received any snow this week. Basically no. A few light showers passed through Wed but no accumulation. Also had a very light drizzle for around 2 hours but didn't amount to much. About 8 days ago we had around 3 inches of nice wet snow. But sure not enough to help much. Jay

My tomato plants got burned on the tips. Everything else is flowering heavily and green. I'm collecting seeds, starting shrubs and fall sowing in the ground and pots. Gee whiz girls, do we ever stop planning for next year? You know what they say "The best garden is always next year's garden".

I am scouting for seed/plant catalogs to be sent for those flagging months in December and January. I used to get a lot but now I only get a couple. They can really cheer you up after Christmas. Any suggestions for some good ones? I used to get one from Burnt Ridge Nursery up there close to where Mt. St. Helens erupted. They have a very large selection of fruit trees and shrubs, common and unusual ones, for all kinds of climates. One year I'd ordered Sea Buckthorn shrubs and they were the only place I could find them.

Another one that has medicinal herb seeds, tubers and bareroot plants from around the world is Horizon Herbs. They have some very interesting plants with descriptions of their uses if you are into that sort of thing.

I have a strong feeling its going to be another dry one next year.

We had a hard killing frost on October 20, getting into the 20s. I still have turnips in the garden, multiplier onions coming up and four heirloom bush beans, which get put to bed under a portable cold frame and heated with a light.

I probably won't be checking in until Monday, as our Internet cuota is full, at home.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I should have mentioned that there's a couple of plants that didn't blacken and freeze, including Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina' and the Laura Bush purple petunias.

Jay, Why the big change in the grow list? You knew that just by mentioning a major change in your list, I'd be curious about the reason why.

Much of my 2012 tomato list will be similar to 2011's because it doesn't seem fair to judge anything too harshly if it underperformed in 2011. What didn't underperform?

I have added "Indigo Rose" to my tomato grow list for 2012 and already ordered seeds for it.

I have garlic to plant sometime soon too, and wildflower seeds to sow. Most of our wildflowers dried up, fried and just flat died this summer before they could set seed (some burnt up before they even could bloom), so I am sowing seed to hopefully ensure lots of blooms next year. I usually do that after a really bad drought.

Our sunporch absorbs amd holds heat all day and sometimes in the afternoon I open up the door between the house and the sunporch and let the heat flow into the house as a form of passive solar heating. In the summer it is partially shaded by trees or it would be too toasty to use.

Carol, Sometimes I have pulled up pepper plants with green peppers still on them and hung them upside down in the tornado shelter or garage and the peppers have slowly changed from green to red over the next couple of weeks in a frost-free location. It seems like it takes them just forever to color up in the fall, and the cooler it gets, the slower they are.

A couple of years ago I picked dozens of green habaneros on the last night before a killing freeze and set the bowls on the kitchen counter. The peppers ripened over a long period of time. Every time I had enough ripen to orange, I made a batch of Habanero Gold. I could have used them green, but really wanted the orange 'confetti' in my jelly.

It doesn't look too much like fall here yet. All the trees greened up so much after rainfall in late Sept. and throughout October that now they seem unwilling to let their leaves change color and fall. I have noticed persimmon, pecan, elm and sumac leaves finally starting to turn color this week. Usually by now the elms and persimmons already are bare.

Y'all have to stop talking about snow. It is November! lol We had enough snow last year to last me for the rest of my life and I'd be alright with not having any this year. I expect we will have snow, though.

Janet, We never stop planning for next year or the year after that, do we? The best thing about next year's garden is that as long as it is still in the planning stage, it is still perfect and just the way we envision it.

For catalogs, have you seen Oikos? They have lots of native edible plants although most of their plants are for a climate very different from ours. They also have unusual native edible crops like ground potatoes that are not easy to find. A month or so back I received a copy of their fall catalog and it had some ground nuts, tree nuts, sunchokes, and rhubarb.

Geroge, Y'all froze kinda early this year. We have been right around or even below freezing several times but with only minimal damage. Last night was major damage.

I hope you get enough beans from your heirloom beans to have seed for next year.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Oikos Tree Crops' Website

Dawn I plan on doing a end of the year wrap up post and also post some plans for next years garden in a separate thread before too long. The main reason for the change is the drought and no real sign of it changing. We just finished year 4 of this drought cycle. And those of you who just experienced year 1 of one can hopefully understand why I've finally decided it may last a few more years and time for me to adjust my growing methods and varieties some. Setting records every year it seems. The kind you don't like to set. There are some other reasons for the changes also. Like you mentioned it is hard to fairly judge anything during the last 4 years here. Many of the varieties that didn't set a thing all summer were just loaded when I pulled them this week before the Wed night frost. Had bushels of green tomatoes. More than I expected. The hail also made judging anything fairly difficult. Because I had several loaded plants that were wiped out by the hail and then the intense heat set in. I'm sure that I will give in and try more new to me and give more a second chance than I plan on. But my intentions are to plant those varieties that have proved they can somewhat handle the extreme conditions we've had. Also I plan to start planting a few seeds in the next few weeks and experimenting with grafting techniques and hopefully get at least one method perfected enough I don't kill them all when I do it next year. Then will grow some grafted plants next year. My plans are to grow several hybrids that have done well along with some of the proven op/heirlooms. My plan was to take vacation in October and finish my big greenhouse frame and then set out early in it after starting plants early in the lean to and grow in containers in it this next summer. Due to work I wasn't able to take vacation during Oct. Taking some in 2 weeks. Hopefully weather will allow me to work on it during my time off. My plan it too cover the sides with polycarbonate. Then to cover at least the south top and the top of both ends with plastic early and replace with shade cloth later in the season. Hopefully this will eliminate some of the pest borne disease issues I've experienced and also with the shade I can get better growth during the hot spells. Although nothing will help if we have the extreme heat again. I tried a greenhouse variety outside this year that showed promise that I will grow again. I have 4 plants in the lean to. Not really what I had planned to put in there. But the ones that ended up in containers late and were the best of the 8 container plants at the time I moved them in. Two weeks later I was tempted to do some changing but didn't. I have Ambrosia Red Cherry, Beduoin, Goliath hybrid and Big Cheef. All have continued to set since I've moved them. I think the fans blowing in there along with me brushing them every day has helped. I'm looking forward to tasting Beduoin soon. It is a large pear shaped black tomato. In the 3-6 ounce range. The grower who sent it too me said it has always won the taste tests at the farmers markets he attends. So to summarize my plans are similar to what you stated earlier. To grow varieties I feel will have the best chance in an extreme drought year. To start several early and then to plant another planting later for the fall. But even with planting early and going to the bigger house if I can get it finished I don't plan to carry as many big plants through the heat and drought of summer. I will try if the spring weather allows to grow an early garden and a later version and to slack off during the summer heat. The late garden I planted this year did very well. If the heat would of slacked off 7-10 days earlier I would of had a bumper late tomato crop. This year just seemed to have one hardship after another. I had some late disease issues that hit certain areas but nothing major. Jay

One thing I did notice this year was although I didn't get many tomatoes, the plants also didn't get diseased. Some of them got crispy leaves in the heat, but they didn't have all of the other issues that I normally see when we have more rain. Although not producing, some plants still have very healthy looking foliage even in November. I have usually ripped them out long before this. I just kind of lost interest when it was so hot. I wish I could plant 20 plants an take really good care of them, but I have a hard time narrowing down my selection.

Jay, I hope you get your big greenhouse finished because none of us need one as badly as you. LOL

I need a good tomato crop next year since I didn't make any salsa this year. I froze all of the peppers I can use, and made over two dozen jars of pepper jelly and I had more peppers than I could use. I had planned a fall garden but it was just too hot to get interested when the time came to plant it.

Carol,
I've already really enjoyed the lean to. Everyday I pick a handful or more of the cherry type. These are really sweet. Most never make it in the house. So far just using fans and opening the windows from the utility room I haven't seen any temps lower than 50. Keeping the high temps down has been the challenge. I ordered an exhaust fan and will add a thermostat and also a intake shutter. My plan is too grow in it till December then clean it out and use it too plant my trays and transplant in. Will also set my plants in there till it is warm enough to either go to the big greenhouse of the cold frames. May put 1-2 containers in there early also in order to get a few early ones. Jay

Jay, I'll bet you have enjoyed having the lean-to. In your case I would think just being able to work and not be in the wind would be a plus. So do you just plan to plant in containers in the lean to? Will you plant in the ground in your big greenhouse, or just in containers.

I want a greenhouse some day, but until then I am thinking about some low tunnels for a few things. After watching my plants this year, I would think that not having so much spring rain fall on the leaves would be a good thing. It seems like cukes and tomatoes get diseases easily when I have too much rainfall.

Carol,
I'm learning about the greenhouse everyday I use it. I'm convinced they don't make them for this area. This one was supposed to be one of the better ones and had good reviews. When they say withstands 50 mph winds I don't think they meant winds that had never been slowed down since they left Mexico. Yesterday afternoon we had gusts over 50 mph for several hours. I left for a couple of hours to haul a load of hay. When I got back one of the top west end panels was almost all the way out. I lost a lower end paned 2 weeks ago in the wind and replaced it with plywood. That also strengthened the end. I got the panel back in and temporally added some wood 1x2's to give it more support. I've decided I will take the rolled polycarbonate and put a cover over the outside of the panels and just use self tapping screws to attach it too the rails. This will offer more support and also more insulation. I think it is going to be ok once I get it supported and covered correctly. The panels fit in a groove and I had the sealing rubber around the edges which is supposed to prevent them from blowing out. Just don't think they plan on the winds we have here. Picking a few off another plant now. So have 2 in there producing. I plan on growing in both greenhouses in container this year. And then in the future may plant in the ground some in the larger greenhouse. Jay