Frost Alert!

Hi, everyone. For those of you who live in the Inland Northwest, our gardening season is getting ready to end in a big way this weekend! There are forecasted lows in the low to mid-30s and even the potential for some light snow. Yes, you read that correctly! Snow. But at the very least, I wanted to give you a frost alert.

Let’s talk about what we should all be doing to prepare:

Harvest your vegetables that won’t withstand a frost (or that might be damaged by frost): this includes tomatoes, melons, zucchini, beans, basil and peppers. I just posted a video on ripening your green tomatoes yesterday, so if you missed it, you might want to take a look.

Winter squash and pumpkins can handle a light frost but you might want to cover them with a tarp or blanket. And I would harvest the mature ones as soon as you can. Do the thumbnail test (press your nail into the skin: if it easily pierces it, the squash or pumpkin isn’t mature so leave it in place but cover it; if it doesn’t pierce the skin, harvest it). Be sure to leave a couple of inches of stem — or as much as you can get if it’s a shorter stem. Next, put them in a warm, sunny area that is protected from the weather (I use my small, unheated greenhouse but you could use a sunny, enclosed porch or place them inside a sliding glass door) for two weeks. This “cures” them so they’ll last longer in storage. I will have a video on this available on Friday.

Which veggies will be OK? Beets, rutabagas, carrots, Swiss chard, celery and leeks. Frosts actually enhance the flavor of root crops.

Begin the overwintering process for pelargoniums (primarily zonal geraniums). I have a video that takes you through the steps. You do NOT want them to get frosted so do it ASAP.

Overwinter ivy geraniums. Last fall, I decided to try the easiest method I could think of for overwintering my ivy geraniums and it worked great. Just trim back the plants to make them more compact and move them indoors (before the frosts hit) to a sunny location. Keep them lightly moist through the winter months. 

Overwinter canna lilies. This is a very simple process to do, although I want to clarify that you need to let the cannas get frosted first. So at least you can postpone this until early next week! As you might have guessed, I have a video on how to overwinter canna lilies.

OK, those are the important things to deal with over the coming days or — in the case of canna lilies — sometime next week.