First frost? More like first freeze. That is exactly what happened this week as we soared into freezing temperatures for multiple nights in a row. Needless to say, most of my garden now lies wilted, dead, and decaying.

Last Sunday, I scurried about the greenhouse tucking away as many herbs, pumpkins, and flowers as I could inside the greenhouse in hopes to prolong their life by protecting them from our first frost.

We did not, however, get our first frost. We got our first freeze. When I woke Monday morning and trudged out to the garden, each step sounded more like “crunch” than “crush”.

I knew what I would find in the garden wouldn’t be good.

Prior to this freeze, I had vining pumpkin plants, bushy herbs, hundreds of cherry tomatoes, bushes of green beans, and peppers growing beautifully and prolifically. Now, I had remnants of wonderful food that nourished me and my family just laying in ruins all around me.

Does this mean that I’m fully putting the garden to bed for the winter months?

No. It does not.

Though I am spending this weekend pulling out the old, I am going to attempt to sow new.

That, my garden friends, is the difference between summer and winter crops.

I can still grow frost/freeze tolerant veggies like baby bok chop, spinach, Dino kale, mizuna, carrots (covered with frost fabric), and cabbage (also covered in the early stages with frost fabric.)

As I’ve been tearing out my garden, there are leaves and stems that break and fall to the soil level so I mix those in to promote soil health via composting organic material in. The woody stems provide aeration for the soil and the green foliage that breaks down adds nutrients.

Nevertheless, my hands are busy so that my mind is not. Life is taking a toll right now, each day filled with its own worries and stressors– the perfect excuse to spend more time in my healing place.