ZI just heard that we are due for patchy frost in valeys especially for the next two nights. we are in SW Missouri-on the edge of the Ozarks...if any of you in this are hve tomatoes and beans still coming...might want to try and cover them or spray them down.

This is early! Even for where we used to live, up near chicago. Wonder what this says (if anything) about winter? though last year we had early frost and then it was nice until after Thanksgiving.

Sarah

-- Sarah (heartsongacres@juno.com), September 24, 2001

Answers

Frost already ? . . . gadzooks woman, we just our first cold front this morning . . . will drop down to the '60s tonight. Downright frigid for these parts (deep south Texas). Where are my snow parka and mukluks? Break out the snow plows.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), September 24, 2001.

Here in south central Wisconsin, we're heading down into the mid-30s tonight. Right on time.

-- Steve in So. WI (Alpione1@prodigy.net), September 24, 2001.

Sarah, I'm about 100 miles west of St. Louis and the CBS affiliate out of Jeff City is forecasting patchy frost for us tonight too. The rest of the week is supposed to be cool but no where near frost weather. I don't have enough left to mess with covering all of it but I've planned all summer to dig up a few things to bring inside. I've already picked nearly 2 5-gallon buckets of peppers, filled the rest of the bucket with cukes and I'll pick the tomatoes that are ripe or have a chance to ripen this afternoon. I dug up and potted 2 basil plants, cut them back severely and will do the same with a couple of the pepper plants. I've wintered peppers in the house successfully and last winter had some cilantro nearly all season. Except for having to buy a few Roma tomatoes for salsa, fresh salsa in mid winter was a real treat. I will still cover a couple of the peppers and tomatoes just in case our hillside is spared but I expect this to be the first and last hurrah for most of the stuff. On the bright side, it will sure get rid of the flies and kill most of the allergy producers.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), September 24, 2001.

Don't know what frost is, but kinda think it's that white stuff in the refrigerator freezer compartment. Yesterday it was 107 here, probably the same today and tomorrow as it has been for the last three months. Good new although, no flies.

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), September 24, 2001.

I'm in NW Kansas and we're due for patchy frost too. I've already covered up the tomatoes and peppers, not much I can do about the beautiful 12ft tall morning glories. On the brighter side, maybe it'll get that nasty ragweed that makes me so miserable!

-- debra in ks (windfish@toto.net), September 24, 2001.

We are in northern AR and when i saw the weatherbug forecast on line i about fell over, it called for frost tonight, but ya know its sure cold enough outside tonight. We got the tomatoe plants covered. This reminds me so of the weather in western NYS where we are from. We moved to VA 8 yrs ago and it was weird for us to not see frost til late Oct.

hope w edon't ahve acold winter, is this unusual for here?

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), September 24, 2001.

Isn't this great! It's been several years since we had an actual "Fall" around here. For the last several years we have gone from hot summer straight to cold winter. Previously our leaves would go from green to ugly brown to fall off. This year we are going to have a very colorful foilage. Hooray! Hooray!

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), September 24, 2001.

Upper 40's deep in the heart of Texas. Shut the north windows. I'm a real wimp when it comes to cold.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), September 25, 2001.

This is the kind of night when you can drive around and look at everyone's garden and see what kind of bedsheets they have. All the gardens will be festooned with them, as well as old quilts, blankets, towels, plastic sheets and tarps, beach towels, and any number of other solutions to trying to keep the last few tomatoes on the vine from freezing and give them a whack at ripening.

This is late for us. Usually we get hit with frost around Labor Day which puts everything down, and then it warms back up again and lingers on. We've had snow as early as October 3rd, so the first frost coming along now is late indeed. Granted, those early snows don't stay on, but we have had winter land as early as Halloween and stay. That was a month early.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), September 25, 2001.

Jeez guys, this is one time I hope you don't share! -G- We've just dipped to the 80's after being in the 90's during the summer, and rarely have a frosty night.

South Central Texas

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), September 25, 2001.

NorthEast Missouri had a heavy frost this morning! Back to scrapping the car windows again. My wife moved all of her containers into the garage last night and covered the tomatoe plants. The melons were on their own...... Maybe this will slow down the grass growing....

God Bless America

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), September 25, 2001.

No frost yet-but our themometer read just below 40 degrees this morning! Our frost date is Oct. 15 so this is early-I'm in South Central Ky, by the way. Although I love Eliot Coleman's 4 season gardening and use many of his tricks, sometimes you just have to let the tomatos go. I read a very funny article by Mike Mcgrath (used to Edit Organic Gardening) about all the absurd things he would do to cover plants agaisnst the frost- he would be out in the damp cold garden after dark trying to drape sheets over tomato plants! I've done it myself, so I could laugh. We have been pestered by fleas, ticks, mosquitoes etc, so I am glad to see them go-the rag weed goes away too, an extra bonus! Plus, my garden was not in good shape at all this year-I'm glad to get this season behind me. Just wait til next year!!!!!

-- Kelly (Markelly@scrtc.com), September 25, 2001.

Debra, Where are you at? We are at Sharon Springs.

-- Barbara Fischer (bfischer42@hotmail.com), September 25, 2001.

No frost expected for us here in Downeast Maine. Very seldom get a killing frost before Oct. 1st. Sure love the foliage here, though. And I'm definitely a four season person!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), September 25, 2001.

Barbara- That should have said NE Kansas Not NW Kansas. Sorry for the typo. I Live in Bonner Springs.

-- debra in ks (windfish@toto.net), September 25, 2001.

Marcia, you downeast people are supposed to get the tougher weather and we "northern Massachusetts territory" (read that southern Maine) are supposed to get frost later, but I've already been frost touched and you haven't! That's unfair! (Actually, with as many tomatoes and cucumbers as my garden has produced this summer, I'm virtually praying for frost now!!!)

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), September 25, 2001.

Well I was caught by surprise in Spencer West Virginia area. It was 82 degrees Sunday, and then the rain and cold came (40 degrees). We were camping out in a beautiful hollow at our Homestead. I had to borrow Ann's Hat, and she had to borrow my body heat to stay warm. it rained for 30 hours (with a couple of brief breaks here and there). The creek was near up to it's banks (about 3-4 feet). So much for the drought ( I hope ). Unfortunately we had to return to metropolis after 4 wonderful days.

-- rick K (rick_122@hotmail.com), September 26, 2001.

Sunday I was out on a beach on Puget Sound in shorts and a bathing suit top. Today I was in my garden in my Goretex jacket picking beans in a rain squall. Very unpleasant today. We are supposed to get temperatures in the high 40s tonight (been in the high 50s). A high pressure system is supposed to be building off the coast, though, and we are supposed to get warm (70s) weather toward the end of the week. This is a bit schizy for us in the Pac. N.W.!

I just want my corn to finish, my apples to stay okay on the trees until I can get to them, and my squash to get just a little bigger. Oh yeah, and the blossoms on the rest of my green beans to grow into beautiful beans!

Supposedly, it rains from October until April out here. Actually that's not exactly correct. It usually rains until the middle of July...I'm not in any hurry for anything to do with Fall or Winter.

Hope your vegetables all do well in the frosts. Good luck.

-- sheepish (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), September 26, 2001.

Northern NY some parts got frost , but the worst is I had to put the heat on !!!!!!!!

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), September 27, 2001.