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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Tonight we should have our first frost and freeze, and tomorrow we 
should have a hard freeze.  I usually subtract 5 degrees from the 
predicted Calhoun temps for planning.  We haven't gone below 45 yet, and 
suddenly we are looking at 31 or 32 for tonight and 26 or 27 tomorrow. 
We skipped the low 40's and thirties altogether!
I just came in from picking the last of the beans and tomatoes.  I kept 
about 4 tomato plants alive and kicking until frost, bringing in the 
first, and last, green tomatoes just now.  I got enough Kentucky Wonder 
pole beans for a meal.  Those beans have been producing since the first 
week of June!  A Wonder indeed!
I wish I had a few more weeks for okra as the plants still have flowers 
and plenty of life even at 7 feet tall.  I'll use up the last peppers 
with tacos and beans tonight, and I might make some fresh salsa with the 
last tomatoes.  It's all good.  I finally grew enough beans to freeze 
and it should last until next summer...I hope.  I'm going to leave the 
remaining butternuts out there for tonight, and bring them in tomorrow. 
   I've never left anything out after frost, so this is a bit scary for 
me.  I usually use squashes and never have any left to leave out, but 
this year, I have over 30 pounds of squash in storage already, so the 
remaining 10 pounds or so is an experiment that should be successful 
since most folks do leave the squashes until after the first frost.

I still have a 32 ft row of peas, half English and half snow peas, but 
neither is doing well.  I've harvested some English peas, but the snow 
peas are slow.  I have some kale to try, and a few plants of collards, 
cabbage, broccoli, and yes, Brussels sprouts, but nothing is even close 
to being ready.  I may lose most of it after this weekend.

The springs are still running in the garden making it a mucky mess, and 
a new one made a small sinkhole(about fist sized) less than a foot away 
from my Mars Seedless grapevine that is 2 years old.  Either those 
grapes will be extra juicy or the vine will be diseased and die.  Time 
will tell.  Anyway, I've been moving the carpet strips around just to be 
able to walk enough to harvest the beans and such.  The amount of water 
we have this year is amazing.

I also stripped the leaves of my Malabar spinach vine, pulled two 
radishes, and stripped the leaves of a lemon verbena.  All the porch and 
deck plants are in the greenhouse and ready for winter.
Next weekend I have some trees to plant, and hopefully it will be a bit 
drier and warmer then.  A friend gave me some oats to use as a cover 
crop for the garden.  Is it too late to plant them?

Bev
--
Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the ocean's depths, MY son is 
protecting your freedom on the USS Key West, currently deployed 
somewhere in the Pacific and/or Indian Ocean.  Go Navy!
EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA