Slowing Down

A typical foggy fall morning

The garden is slowing down. I was a bit worried Sunday night, when Steven said there was a frost  warning on the weather report. It was already dark, too late to go out and pick everything that would die with a frost. Luckily, it didn’t frost here and it even stayed above 40 degrees Sunday night. I’m not quite ready for the end of the summer vegetables, but that first frost is getting closer. So far this morning the low temperature is 38 degrees and it could still get a little colder before it warms up.

The eggplant are still trying to produce.

So, yes, a few things will be missing from the weekly list of vegetables. The basil is done now. It hasn’t died, but it has lots of brown, dead spots on it. The yellow butterstick and patty pan squash are done. I pretty much picked the last of the eggplant last week. It really won’t have time to form any more fruit, though there are still some blossoms. Other summer vegetables may be on the list one or two more times before they are gone for good, things like tomatoes, zucchini and beans. I have a few summer vegetables (cucumbers and peppers) in the hoop houses, so they should last a little longer.

The end plastic is going back up on the hoop houses.

Speaking of the hoop houses, Steven and I put up the end plastic on one of the hoop houses on Sunday. We had to do some repairs, so we only got one closed up. I really am hoping for a no frost week, until we get the other hoop house closed up. Hopefully, that will get done next Saturday.

Here are pictures of our molting Dominique chicken. She is doing well. Her feathers are growing back in nicely. They kind of looked like little paintbrushes at one point. Hopefully, her feathers will be completely in before it gets too cold.

Not a great picture, but you can see the bare patch on her back and the new feathers poking out.

Small new feathers are covering the bare patches now.