Edible garden checklist for frost

 

Monday, October 14, 2024

Our first frost is forecasted for tomorrow night.  With frost in the air, summer loving veggies are coming to the end of their season.  Veggies like tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cucumber, basil, and peppers do not like cold weather.  It is time to harvest the last of the summer veggies and get the cold crops the protection they need to continue producing through fall and winter.

In our garden, tomatoes, peppers, beans, summer squash, eggplant, husk cherries, goji berries, onions, and shallots are still producing.   They can continue to produce until the first hard freeze.  Continue to pick daily.  You can cover your plants with a lightweight row cover if you are going to have just a short spell of frosty nights. 

Basil is still doing good, but turns black when bitten with the first frost.  Harvest all remaining basil when they call for low temperatures of 36 or below to be on the safe side.  I make lots of pesto and freeze.  Makes for a super quick and tasty meal any time.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Before the first freeze, I will take all the fruits off the eggplant, tomato, pepper, bean vines, husk cherry and squash plants.  I may take in a couple of the potted sweet pepper and eggplants if there are quite a few baby fruits on them to harvest those as well.  I do overwinter my hot peppers in the basement.  

I tried using a walk-in portable greenhouse for extending the harvest on my eggplant last fall, but was not successful.  I think the plants were too far above the ground in their pots to stay warm enough.  My husband is busy hauling in dirt to plant grass seed where I put my greenhouse, but next year I will use a couple layers of straw around the outside of the greenhouse to keep it warmer and try again with the extra protection.

I'll freeze the extra husk cherries, goji berries, tomatoes and sweet and hot peppers.  Poblano peppers I'll dry and make into chili powder.  Eggplant doesn't freeze well so I'll eat those fresh or make baba ghanoush dip to freeze.  Summer squash, I'll eat as many fresh as possible, the rest I'll make into zoodles and freeze to use in place of spaghetti.  How to use all your zucchini-really

I'll take all of last year's frozen tomatoes and make into sauce for the winter.  I like waiting until it is chilly before canning!  This year, I have a lots of sauce left from last year and quite a few leftover frozen quarts of sliced tomatoes.  I probably don't need to can any as we have plenty for us for the winter already.   Preserving the tomato harvest

The green tomatoes will ripen slowly if brought indoors.  The rico is to wrap in news paper and check over time.  Lately, I have just been putting in a bowl on the counter and that seems to work just fine.  Of course, you can try the yummy fried green tomatoes too!  A late fall tradition-fried green tomatoes!

Now is also a great time to divide any perennials you have, whether they be herbs, edibles or ornamentals.  This will give them all fall and winter to put down strong roots.  Perennial greens are always the first up in the spring.  Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

Now is the time to order your mini greenhouse to extend the season.  I'll put mine out over the greens in my Earthboxes to keep the lettuce and greens going all winter when they are calling for a freeze.  Most greens like mustards, cabbages, sprouting broccoli, lettuce, chard and spinach all love the chilly weather and are at their sweetest after the first frost.  Preparing for a hard freeze

Portable greenhouse for winter greens

You can also save seeds too from your flowers and veggies to sow again next year.  When I pick all of the beans, I'll let the ones with tough hulls dry on the counter, hull them and put in a ziplock to keep fresh for using next season.  I took all the seed heads off the garlic chives yesterday and have them drying in a paper bag.  I have been collecting dried zinnia flowers and pulling their seeds too for sowing next year.

I used last summer's Egyptian walking onion bulblets to plant a few rows of onions last week.  This year's I have in a paper bag in the cellar for planting in the spring.  The garlic cloves and shallots I dug in the summer I also planted.  It's not too late to plant onions and garlic through October and November, even after the first frost and freeze.