Freeze Baby!
And just like that, it’s time to prepare your garden for Winter! We skipped right over frost warnings and went straight to a freeze warning for tonight. Oh Minnesota, somehow your sweet Summer song always lulls me into forgetting about Winter lurking around the corner. It seems like yesterday I was sweating away, swatting mosquitoes, harvesting the abundance from my gardens. So how on earth is there a freeze warning for tomorrow!?!
Since I’m aware the fast change always catches me off guard, I asked friend and local Master Gardener, Brianna Godhe, to give us her take on getting our vegetable gardens ready for the inevitable. The Ramsey County Master Gardeners have been a great asset to our local gardening community, recently attending a Harvest Party, available for Q&A.
Take it away Brianna-
Tucking the Vegetable Garden into Bed
As the days get shorter and the evenings get cooler, it’s time to think about preparing your vegetable garden for winter. It’s hard to think about ice and snow in September when the sun is still warm but you want to be ready. Our average first frost date– that is, the date when we can expect a hard frost which will kill the tender and warm-season crops in your garden – for St. Paul, MN is October 9. It can happen anytime from the end of September to the end of October. It’s a hard truth: once the State Fair ends, our gardening days are numbered.
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