And Just Like That…

The growing season is done…almost

The summer growing season has completed its cycle up this way.

Back in October, I started pulling plants that were no longer producing. In prior years, that would have been the end of the growing season.

However, my wife and I have started learning a little more about extending the season. Types of plants that will handle cool/cold weather and garden covers to protect plants when things really cool down have been the priority.

Last year, I built out the framework for my raised gardens to support covers. This is more in the DIY category than gardening, but it took one to do the other. The project was facilitated by the repurposing of materials left over from other projects.

As an example, a few years ago, I refurbished my porch. I had some railing and deck material left over that worked quite well for the construction of an a-frame over the garden boxes.

With the frame now built, I began working on an appropriate type of cover to protect plants from the cold. I purchased a couple of rolls of garden cloth cover to see how that would work.

Turned out, my start was too late in the season and the cloth cover, by itself, was insufficient. While I had some sprouts, that was about it. The cold weather brought an abrupt end to that gardening experiment.

Going into this season, I did more homework, investigated additional materials to cover the boxes, and, most importantly, started much earlier in the season preparing for cold weather.

Turning the garden boxes into mini-greenhouses with some heavy, transparent plastic panels was the start for the next late-season growing experiment.

Cold weather started settling in during November. So, while the plastic cover did a decent job keeping things warm for a while, I needed to add some cloth cover(s) to further protect the plants as temps dropped into the 30’s and high 20's.

All of that said, I am here in early December with a late growing season still in progress. Spinach, beets, carrots, and onions seem to handle the cold rather well. The spinach is doing the best. The others are growing ever so slowly, but they look good. We’ll see how long they can hang on.

While I had a pepper plant last well into November, as of yesterday, it looked pretty well done. Not bad for a plant put in the ground back in May.

Whenever this growing season ends, I’ll be satisfied with the improvement over last year. I’m into December and will be picking more spinach and beets this week. Still waiting on the carrots and onions.

That’s decent for a growing season that typically ends in October in this part of Massachusetts.

Update (Dec 9th):

Picked more spinach and a beet today. We had some snow and temps in the 20’s this week. Still growing!

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