First Frost and Volunteer Potatoes

We had more rain yesterday afternoon.  The lawn makes sucking and squishing noises when you walk on it, and the East garden is approaching bog status.  Overnight, we had the first frost of the season (not counting the frost that hit unexpectedly in early August).  This morning, some of the sheets covering the tomatoes were sparkling with ice crystals and stiff when I removed them from the plants.

This afternoon - 1:00pm as I type - is sunny and 12 degrees.  I have started to wrap things up in the garden, and picked the Black Sea Man and Scotia tomatoes to put in boxes.  I also picked some of the Brad's Black Heart and Early Annie tomatoes.

Scotia tomatoes - this little bunch was picked about a week ago.

Black Sea Man tomato - picked about a week ago, the first one to ripen.

The Beka Brown bush bean plants were pulled and hung to dry on the lamposts outside. Most of the Tiger Eye beans have been picked and placed in a box indoors to dry.  

I'm resisting the urge to harvest the remaining Lower Salmon River squash for a while longer.  Two have been harvested already - one deliberately, and one accidentally, when the vine it was attached to snapped.  "Tucking them in" (covering them with pillowcases) at night should protect them for the next week or two.

Lower Salmon River squash (C. maxima)

September 14th, we dug up the potato bed along the driveway that contained Norland potatoes (which I love!).  Talk about a disappointing yield.  Very few potatoes, and the dirt and straw covering them was saturated.  Add 8 or 9 red potatoes to what is pictured below, and that is the total yield of Norlands this year.

On the upside, R. dug up the "volunteer" potato plants in the East garden - they turned out to be Blue Russians - and wow!  What a nice surprise!  Four plants produced what is pictured in the wheelbarrow below.

We pulled a few Kennebec (white) potatoes to see how they were doing.  They are planted in a hilled row along the side of the East garden.  The potatoes are large, fairly clean, and the skins are dry compared to the other varieties.  We'll leave them in the ground a while longer; these potato plants are still healthy and green.  The frost hasn't even touched them yet.

Blue Russian (purple), Norland (red skin/white flesh), Kennebec (white).

I have stopped dead-heading the cosmos in hopes some of the flowers will dry so I can collect seeds from them.  They look a tad ratty when the wilted flowers aren't removed, but the bees still visit them all day long.  I have been so happy with the number of bees we've seen this summer.  More this year than in any summer of the last 10 years, easily.  They LOVE the cosmos and seem to enjoy the dahliettas (and, of course, the sunflowers).  The basil is starting to go to flower and attracting bees now, too.

By the way, does this sunflower look square to you?

All the garlic has been pulled and is hanging to dry.  After the wet year we had, I am thinking of trying something new and planting some (or all) of this Fall's garlic in a raised bed.  Planting in a raised bed would minimize the chance a repeat of this year's waterlogged in-ground garlic plot.  The risk being, if we had a very cold winter (we haven't in a number of years), the cloves could freeze and not sprout in the Spring.  

Decisions, decisions.