Gardens are ending

By Rennie Phillips

It's almost the end of October, so frost is almost here where we live in southeast Missouri. The weather gal the other morning was saying we could get frost in the next week or so. Not likely but there is a chance. If frost is likely there are some things we need to take care of. If you still have sweet potatoes in the ground, be sure to either dig them or break off the vines if it frosts. It won't hurt the sweet potatoes to stay in the ground until you can dig them, but don't leave frosted vines attached to the sweet potatoes. Same is true of white or Irish potatoes. Don't let frosted vines stay attached to the potatoes in the ground. If you have winter squash they will normally be OK with a light frost. We have several butternut squash on a couple volunteer plants and we will probably pick them when frost is imminent. We'll move them into either a tunnel or my shop to cure. Most say to put the squash where it's warmer for a week or two. We'll probably put a fan on them to make sure air is circulating around them.

We have several volunteer cucumber plants so we'll probably cover them with a frost blanket. It is super light and can be left on even during the daylight. A sheet will work or a blanket. Plastic doesn't work very well. We will probably go ahead and pick our peppers. We have a ton of jalapeños so will pick them. May leave some of the bell peppers to change color and sweeten up and pick them right up to frost.

I grow my sweet bell peppers and jalapeños close together so there is always a chance they will cross pollinate. I was eating a big hybrid pepper, a big Bertha, the other evening and was just chowing down on it and was thinking it was a little warm. I had about a third of it gone when I noticed it was more than warm, it was hot. I can do warm but not hot. I'd rubbed my eye as well which I know is a no no. Been there and done that and know better until next time!

We had quite a few Roma type tomatoes so I went ahead and picked them the other day. There were probably 8 or 10 gallons of them. They are sure pretty and taste pretty good. Marge is going to juice them and make tomato juice. It is kind of thick tomato juice.

Most garden experts recommend not putting your old tomato vines on your compost pile. I normally put our old tomato plants on our burn pile and just burn them. I think it's safer to burn them. To kill the fungus and disease on your old plants would take a fairly high temperature which you probably won't achieve. I'd burn them or discard in some way. As you are pulling your old tomato plants watch for ants. An abundance of ants in one spot can be an ideal place for aphids to winter over. The cleaner your garden is of ants the less likely you will have aphid problems.

We pulled all of our onions earlier in the summer so kind of forgot about them. Marge and I drove by where they were the other evening and low and behold there were some nice looking green onions. Pulled a few but haven't eaten them. I might cut them up in some scrambled eggs. I love scrambled eggs with onions, sweet peppers, cheese and a little milk. I like my eggs a little on the moist side. Just might cut up a couple of the Roma tomatoes and add to the scrambled eggs. That does sound good.

I know I harp on this probably too much but this is a good time to get your soil tested. It won't take much time and will cost less than $20 for the complete test which includes micro-nutrients. Within a week you will have your results and will know exactly what your garden needs for next summer's garden. I always take my soil samples down to Benton. You can also take them to the extension office up in Jackson.

This is a neat time of the year. Cool enough you aren't sitting there sweating up a storm but not cold enough to be miserable. Marge and I usually take a couple sodas and sit out on the four wheeler and watch as the sun goes down. Now and then we'll see a deer. The other evening we watched a fawn run and buck and play. It was enjoyable. Mom was watching the whole time and worried about us. She didn't have to worry. We weren't going to hurt her baby. There are times we'll watch our big steers work on their pecking order.

We have ear tags in all of them so we refer to them by numbers. Two is probably the boss. He is a little taller and a lot longer than all the others. Our black steer is the heaviest, but he's not worried about who is boss. After number two comes steer number one. He is a little bigger than one but just not as bossy, so he relinquishes the boss spot to two. Then the others kind of argue who is tougher and stronger but it's not serious. The only time it gets serious is when I dump in the grain for them. Then it's serious for 15 or 20 minutes and then back to normal.

Right now we humans are going through those 15 to 20 minutes where we are sparring and bickering and arguing. I sure hope we go back to getting along next month and argue about who's cooking the turkey and whether we will have pe-can pie or pe-con pie. Doesn't matter to me as long as we have one.

Take time to enjoy life in general but enjoy your loved ones in particular.