Pulling Out the Garden Before a Hard Frost - Updated

While I was driving over to Palmer-Fishhook Road this morning to pick up a water quality testing kit for a demonstration my wife will give late this week as a volunteer at Machetanz Elementary, I noticed frost on newly harvested alfalfa, in a field alongside the road.  Looking at the barometer when I got home, I realized we have about a 2/3 chance of a hard freeze tonight.

When I got home, it was rapidly warming into the 50s.  Strider was splayed out on the breakfast deck, soaking up the rays.  But I knew I had to pull everything in the garden but the carrots, peas and lettuce, all of which can stand cold down to about 25 to 28 F.  The potatoes had to get pulled because they are in the coldest part of the garden.

Update - Tuesday morning:  It got down to 26 degrees Monday night.  Glad I pulled them up.

Strider, happy in the sunshine:

Violas, pansies and Johnny-Jumpups.  They withstand frosts down into the mid-20s:

Stupice and Black Cherry tomatoes ripening.  They're in the greenhouse - safe for a few more weeks, unless it gets into the teens at night:

Black From Tula tomatoes, starting to ripen.  They are 80-day tomatoes, and are late, but tasty:

I brought the spearmint and rosemary into the greenhouse from the deck.  They are alongside arugula for seed, thyme and oregano, along with the last of the Suyo cucumbers:

A lone head of red lettuce, still standing in front of a pile of pulled green bean and bok choi stems:

 Four outsized zucchini, waiting to be added to the compost pile:

A wheelbarrow full of potatoes, beets, corn, cabbage, green beans, and a couple of nice, young, succulant zucchini:

About 1,000 or more carrots.  They'll stay in the ground for another week, unless it gets into the low 20s:

The remaining lettuce.  It is quite tender.  We may pull it Wednesday, if the weather remains like it is - clear, with no wind:

The snow peas are still producing handsomely - about 50 new ones per day:

A sweet pea flower at the end of a pea row:

Sugar snap peas are still producing fully:

A cabbage leaf/stalk and cornstalk debris pile, ready to be put into the big compost pile:

Dill - harvested and bundled, so the seed can dry out in the greenhouse and shop:

Cilantro seed, maturing and drying in the greenhouse: