The Post-Frost Garden

Reader Contribution by Bethann Weick
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It’s happened – first once, then twice this week alone: a killing frost. The weatherman was helpful on these counts, and the advance advisory let me spend the hours prior harvesting. Tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans, pumpkins, and winter & summer squash were all brought in before any damage was done to the produce themselves.

Now, root crops and hardier brassica vegetables are still holding their own, sturdy and strong.  But the other garden beds, including the empty plots where a cover crop of oats is replacing potatoes, onions, garlic, and dry beans suggest a sort of vacancy to the garden. As Ryan noted with a chuckle, “Well…it looks a bit tidier with nothing in it!”

True, and an observation I’ve made myself at times. There is an order created by emptiness.  Instead, though, we spend the warmer months finding the winsome beauty and energetic bounty in the lush chaos of a verdant garden. The weeds, the stump sprouts, the unruly herbs, the unstoppable raspberries, the preening cleome, and the dominating squash vines, not to mention the over-achieving beans and chest-high broccoli.

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