The first cold snap....

It's so cold today as I write this blog. A sunny Fall day, but so bitter cold that parts of the front yard that get mid-day shade are still covered in ice. We are entering the last bits of Fall...Winter is saying "What up, let's get it crackin'!". I just pulled all of the dead Nasturtium from the front yard, it looked lovely on Friday and now it's totes dead. That's what all day freezing temps will do. I hope the rest of the yard (particularly the fruit trees) don't pay the ultimate price. It's going to be a cold season, I can tell already. I've got the crock pot fired up and I'm ready to plan for next year. 

Anton and I were talking about blogs the other day and he asked "why do you blog about your garden, mommy...what's the point?" and I said "well in addition to the millions of fans that I can't let down...it's a great way to remember all of things that went right and went disastrously wrong so that you can improve a little bit more each year."I have found it to be incredibly helpful for someone as absentminded as me, and it also is a nice way to recount visually the progress made. When you see something every day you don't recognize the changes nearly as easily

! And now, let's get to it. Here is what happened between end of summer and beginning of the great freeze:

The last tomato of the year, picked on my bday: Nov. 8th, did not disappoint in terms of showmanship.

After pulling up the summer veggies I planted fava beans, shallots and garlic which sprouted almost instantly. Can't wait to pick 'em in about 5 months.

Colin added a new fence to enclose the raspberry/blueberry patch. It's also a great barrier for the puppies who now get further access to the front yard so that they can annoy passersby. Sorry about that!

The lollipop kale (see previous entries for all the details) is still going strong even in this weather, clearly the Buick of veggies, they are solid. I am making some stew with some of them right now.

Volunteer moss and ornamental cabbages.Great year round color for a garden.

I hoped this guy makes it through the cold season...not the hardiest of the succulents but we'll see what happens.

Lacinto kale...the stalwart, never moving, unbending.

This was the last pic of the Dahlias before I hacked them away for the season. Always a sad yet somewhat fulfilling process. Out with the old!

Here are the final troopers that stuck around to the bitter end, see you next year!

This year I finally got around to digging up and seperating tubers for one of my massive Dahlia plants. It was HUGE and splitting in every direction and needed a fresh start. It's hard to tell from the picture but some of them were as big as a mini watermelon. I'm not sure if I can replant all of them or that I even want to, I'll definitely be giving some away...and will be curious to see if they regrow! Right now they are sitting in a bag of peat moss in the garage until April.

The scene of the dahlia excavasion after I tried to repatch the hole with soil.

Until next year!

The persimmon tree on Wednesday.

The persimmon tree on Monday. HELLO WINTER! And hello persimmon pudding!