Frost Busters, Not!

There's a new look in the neighborhood this morning:  crispy, wet sheets and dead plants. 

"That's all folks!" seemed to be the message from once-beautiful sagging pumpkin and tomato vines on the manure pile and the most gorgeous, now brown zinnia blooms ever. 

Last night's was a frost that meant business, launching an all-out freeze attack on any weakling among the veggies and flowers. 

I now call the area west of the barn the manure-pile morgue and am expecting to find total collateral damage while assessing the overnight damage more closely this morning. 

Looks like those sheets for protection did little good.  The nice part is I don't have to put them out again, and the concern that comes with cold, clear September nights is all but gone for a while.

This was to be the cold night, followed by a week of overnight 40s.  

The good news is that the sheets covering 'maters in the garden nearest the house may have saved the plants.  Again, we'll see.

I moved some pots with zinnias to the deck, hoping for protection from the house's warmth.  

Any other zinnias in the path of frost, however, have done as zinnias always do when they get cold:  turn brown. 

So, it looks like there will be quite a project of removing the dead stuff, retrieving tomatoes, moving pumpkins to the deck and minding a whole lot less garden for the remainder of this year. 

Last night I pulled all the Walla Walla sweets and am hoping their fumes did not have Festus crying onion tears all night in the shop off the house. 

Bill noticed the onion odor when we went to retrieve some breakfast items from the back freezer.  I assured him the onions would be moving to the bigger shop later today where only the mice can smell them.  

And, so goes September, the month of worries about impending death of all which we've nutured during the year's growing season.

I'll be anxious to hear how my neighbor Janice's plants fared over night, as I noticed a whole lot of sheets in her garden area while walking past their place this morning.  

There's still plenty of color left, and I plan to enjoy it during the warm weather ahead. 

"At least, it wasn't August," Bill said when I came in to give the garden mortality report. 

Yep, it's been a good year for our tastebuds and our eyes and noses, and another will come again. 

Still, it's a little sad to think about those zinnias.  They were so beautiful.  Maybe the pots I put on the deck will make up for the loss.  We'll see.

In the meantime, the killing frost will be followed by another "killer" day---beautiful sunshine and no clouds. 

Happy Friday.