Frosted and Frozen

We had our hard freeze and our first thick frost in one swoop right after Halloween. And again the next night. And the next. And the next. Basically on repeat for over a week, we went from not needing jackets at all (like on Halloween it was a little too warm for sweatshirts while trick-or-treating) to winter, where temperatures were dipping into the 20's at night. We still had our window AC units in upstairs until this past weekend! (Matt has severe outdoor allergies so we can't open the windows, if it was too warm or stuffy upstairs, we kicked on the AC unit with the fan setting.) We're finally hitting peak foliage... a few weeks later than normal... or maybe this is the new normal?

I haven't winterized the greenhouse yet with bubble wrap because it's so warm in there during the day - the sun is still strong and it can climb into the high 80's in the afternoon in there. During the cold snap we've been putting the big heater on in there on low to try to keep it in the 40's at night. The plants in there are happy though - the tropical plants are now in the house (they don't like the overnight temps) and I know what to expect of what's in here this year. The fig tree and the lemon verbena will drop leaves. The lemongrass will turn brown and go dormant. The rest will thrive as long as they stay warm and watered. 

The rest of the pots are either pushed up against the house for winter or in the garage. This table was covered in flowers a month ago... so sad now! 

The dahlias have been dug up, tagged, bagged and put into crates in the basement crawl space. I accidentally mixed up tags on two sets of bulbs so I have two mystery bulbs on my hands for next year, but I know what they *might* be so at least I know where they should go height-wise in the yard. And now I understand why dahlia lovers tie their dahlias with tagged flags instead of just ground markers... when you have too many dahlias, mistakes happen. I'm making notes for next year. 

The garden is almost ready for winter too. I still need to put all the supports away in the garage, but I've made good progress! Only two more piles of mildew contaminated plants to dispose of and almost everything that needs to be pulled up has been pulled!  3/4 beds are recovered for winter! 

The herb and strawberry bed doesn't get pulled up because it's mostly perennials. The yarrow is going to stay for now (and this time I really am moving it in the spring!). I couldn't pull up the snapdragons yet... they are still green! There are flower buds on there! So I'm going to let them do their thing until they finally succumb to winter temperatures. The weed blocking fabric is cut and ready to go here, so hopefully it will be easy to finish when the time comes. 

Other fall to-do's include trimming the forsythia bush WAY back this year to encourage new blooms in the spring of 2023. I also need to trim back my knockout rose bush. From there it will be ongoing cleanup in the backyard and front yard beds as things die back. Normally we are further along, but October was unseasonably warm!