Wow! Early Winter :(

Winter has made a very early arrival this year.   Last week on Monday it was nice and warm but extremely windy.  I knew a strong cold front was coming, with temperatures going down to 31 that next morning, and then upper 20s the next few days.  So we had to pick all the pumpkins... fortunately they were all pretty much ready.  Here is my daughter with 3 of them.  The big one she is holding is the biggest one we got.  Interestingly, it never did get the deep orange color.  Its more of a "rainbow" of green, yellow, and pale orange, even though it sat on the vine  just like that for at least 3 weeks.

Here are all the Rouge Vif d'Etampes pumpkins we got, except one, that was picked and made into pie a few weeks ago, because I discovered a small hole in it, and didn't want it to rot.

We got 9 Rouge if d'Etampes pumkins of various shapes and sized. One got eaten earlier and is not shown.

So overall, it was very successful, compared to last year, where I only got 2 of these.  If I try again with C. Maxima varieties, I think I will try maybe a week earlier, and completely avoid that part of the garden that gets shaded in the fall.  

The sad thing is that my poor pole beans had just started producing very well.  I had been picking nice sized bean pods the past week, and there were tons of flowers and tiny pods forming.

before the freeze, the pumpkin vines, okra, and pole beans

  I tried covering the bean vines with a large plastic cover, but could not get the whole plant covered easily, plus it was just too cold.  Today here is how they looked, all dead :(

dead pole beans killed by freeze

Lesson for next year... start pole beans earlier!  I should have started them at least 2 week earlier than I did, maybe in mid August.   You can see the broccoli, peas, lettuce, and spinach too.  These were pretty much unaffected.  

dead okra and pumpkin vines, but brussell sprouts unaffected.

So fall growing season has pretty much come to an early close.  Its been in the 30's and 40's for highs this week, and pretty much freezing every night, for the last few days.   The cool weather plants will keep growing, and I have some spinach and lettuce in pots I might transplant as soon as this particular cold snap is over.  Hopefully we'll get some milder weather the next few weeks, and those can grow well.

Were is what remains in the garden:

• cabbage - should take cold down to lower 20s
• broccoli - should take cold down to lower 20s
• lettuce - as long as we don't get too much below freezing they'll do OK, otherwise I need to cover them.
• snap peas - just hoping we don't get lower 20s anytime soon. If its in the upper 20s and above these do fine.
• spinach - going good, they can take a lot of cold, so I expect these do to well 
• brussels sprouts - from early spring... survived the summer but not sure if it will ever give us any sprouts?

 But much of the rest of the garden I started clearing out,and bringing in the chickens to work the area.

Area where I had cherry tomatoes, basil, and pumpkin vines growing... being cleared out.