We've had our first frost here at The Edge and it did a number on the tomato plants.
They started to die back.
The tomatoes that were left on the vine were also damaged.
I picked the few that were ripe and ate them (they were not as good as earlier season tomatoes). I know some people will pick the green tomatoes and try to get them to ripen after the plants die back but I have enough fresh, peak season tomatoes frozen that I don't feel the need to do that.
Since the last tomatoes were not great and the plants were damaged I just went ahead and hauled them out, cleaning up the bed for fall.
I'm not big on fall crops but I didn't want to leave the bed bare so I put in some colorful Swiss Chard to liven things up a bit until the snow flies.
I also put in some bulbs: hyacinths, daffodils and crocus. I'm treating them as annuals that will perk things up early in the spring but will be done by the time it's tomato planting season again. The veggie bed is right near our main entrance to the house so they'll give me a LOT of enjoyment and I'll have enough that I can pick some to take to work without feeling like I'm reducing the pleasure in the garden (if that makes sense).
Now I have to teach my neighbor how to plant bulbs. Last year she bought a few and planted one in each hole, spaced out evenly like it says on the package directions. The image above is how I do it. Guess which looks better in the spring.
This year I got all my bulbs from Messelaar Bulb Company, they're about 10 or 15 minutes up the road and when you walk in you're blown away by both the selection and quality of the bulbs. Or, at least, I am. It's hard to walk out without quite the armload. I've done a tulip bulb run, a daffodil bulb run and I still have to go back for the late arriving Amaryllis bulbs (for forcing, indoors). They should be in soon.... I better dig out my Amaryllis pots!
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