The Last Moment

 Yesterday was the end of our long stretch of perfect weather.  Nothing but rain and cool temperatures in the forecast with mentions of frost next week. I certainly don't mind wearing long sleeves or spending some rainy afternoons on indoor projects.  This certainly isn't the end of my gardening activities.  There are still Dahlias to store and an apple tree to move.  

Yesterday morning's sunrise was so beautiful through our trees.  Here is a picture from the neighbor's Facebook page.

While it is not the end of gardening, nothing will be growing in that cool weather, and I don't want to store wet soil.  Time to dump the last of the containers and get the salvageable soil stored in the Dirt Locker.   One producing tomato plant (Pike County Yellow), a container of Havasu peppers, two containers of sweet potatoes and some carrots.

Nice fluffy potting mix!  I just knock the roots out (sift if necessary) and store it away.  This will need to be rejuvenated next year with fertilizer and probably some perlite (because this stuff could use some aeration and better drainage) but can be used again.  I might even extend this with some fresh mulch next year because it has broken down quite fine at this point.

Too much to fit!  The rest went into Rubbermaid tubs

This is my last harvest.  The carrots will be used soon, but the sweet potatoes will have to be cured and stored.  The green tomatoes should ripen on the counter and the peppers will keep in the hydrator.  These peppers finally sweetened up enough to eat raw so I have been dipping them in hummus.

The sweet potatoes were grown in 7 gallon pots.  They need to be deeper pots.

There is still plenty of lettuce which will love this weather and I still have Parsnips in the ground along the strawberry cages, but I will not dig those until January thaw.  The difference between November parsnips and January parsnips is incredible.  They need a good long cold phase to sweeten.