Early frost

Yesterday, central Ohio got its first frost. I woke up to 31-degrees F. "F" stands for the expletive that escaped my mouth when I got out of bed. Fortunately I rigged up a pretty ghetto system of towels, wood scraps, and an old glass picture frame to protect my lettuce and spinach seedlings. The butternut squash was killed. The basil started to turn purplish by the end of the day. Not sure if or how the tomatoes will respond, or if the young swiss chard will be affected.

I ripped out one tomato plant that was bent over and nearly horizontal. I think the other three will come out this weekend.

My hope is to build an appropriate cold frame around the area where I plan to keep lettuces growing to see how far into the year I can be producing food... More to come...

What needs to happen before too long is I need to mix up the compost pile and increase the aeration in the bottom of it by laying down sticks and twigs.

Also, I need to consider putting down a "winter crop"--perhaps a legume like hairy vetch to add nitrogen into the soil--before winter is officially here.