The Last of the Summer Garden

Two days ago it was 90 degrees. . .but I loved it! My summer garden plants were all happy and thriving. . .tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, Swiss chard, and more. . .then came last night. Plants are covered with blankets and frost warnings abounded. Freeze warning were even issued for the counties North of us. . .Soon it won't be just a night of warning, we will have a killing frost. . .

I know a lot of people in the Midwest that are fans of winter. . .I'm just not one of them. I love being able to walk out back to my garden and pick raspberries, blackberries, green beans and other goodies. Once garden season is over, we have potatoes and sweet potatoes stored in our basement to eat up through the season. Usually I get a few squash too from someone else although we don't raise them. I have canned jam, tomatoes, pickled green beans, vegetable soup and the like. We have a freezer full of Iowa sweet corn, more tomatoes, more green beans, asparagus and whatever else I can come up with.  Still I miss the fresh produce.

When we were in Arizona last spring, I loved not only the wonderful weather while we were there but I loved the selection of fresh produce at the markets there. My parents live there half of the year and had fresh lettuce and herbs as well as oranges, grapefruits and lemons. Picking fruit from their trees was one of the pleasures of the trip. We won't likely take a trip this year, instead, we will do what we usually do. . .my husband and I will snuggle up with the garden catalogs in January and February and dream of the days that we can once again turn a corner of our lot into a lush garden of produce once again.