12 Gardeners Who Raced the First Frost, From 72 Luffas to a Turtle Who Ate the Last Tomato

Every October my grandmother calls me the night the forecast says frost, and the next morning she calls again to report how many green tomatoes she carried inside. Last year it was 41, lined up on a newspaper along her windowsill. These 12 gardeners raced the first frost the same way, and not all of them won.

She had hoped for a few more weeks before the first frost and got a few more days. Every tomato came off the vines, the yellowish ones to ripen inside. Then came the job she had been dreading: the luffa trellis, with 72 luffas still hanging on it. Ten days later, 40 of them were sponges, and the tomatoes were 14 jars of salsa.

“The first frost is here!! The last handful of years it was the last week of October but this year it decided to make a early appearance!!”

A frost was possible that night, so he walked the garden and said goodbye to every dahlia, one by one, by name: Peach Face, Tina, Sunshine Delight, Purple Twinkle Star, Francine, Poison Berry, Marily Lou.

“I don’t know all their names so I just made them up based on the vibes I was getting. I WILL MISS YOU FLOWERS”

“Last night’s final summer harvest before a frost”

US, zone 5a, although with our elevation we kinda have a zone 4 microclimate. People 10 minutes south of here were totally fine.

I already canned some salsa with earlier ones, but I’m going to try dehydrating a lot of the red tomatoes and peppers, and wrap the green tomatoes in newspaper to take out and let ripen throughout the winter!

I also like dehydrating zucchini and summer squash to use in soup

This is the farthest north I’ve ever lived so it’s been interesting adjusting to the shorter growing season!

[The peaches are] not from my yard, but from a farm down the street. I hope to have peach trees in the future though!

The Bluetooth speaker is not from the garden either.

“Last year I traumatized my half century+ grape vine and still picked 50 pounds of grapes. This year I’m racing tonight’s freeze and have already picked ~250 pounds.”

This year the grapes have been thriving all year. I’d never seen grapes growing out of the base of the root cluster before this year. I’m already 257 lbs in (minus whatever the containers weigh as I forgot to do that). This last week we had a brief overnight frost, followed by three days of warm sunny weather, and then two days of downpours. Tonight things are going to freeze which means I need to harvest everything today.

[Edit] Final tally on grapes 342 lbs minus container weight.

[How does one handpick 250 pounds?] The secret to picking 250 lb is to drop your kids off, start picking grapes and then suddenly your alarm is going off because you need to pick up your kids.

[Grape juice?] We do make some grape juice each year but even after watering it down our kids describe it as “too grapey.” We don’t really buy grape juice from the store so they don’t have much of a point of reference.

“Not ready to say goodbye to my outdoor plants!”

Cold weather is almost here, and while I myself prefer cooler temps over hot, this year I got into outdoor plants and flowers and I am not ready to lose all these beauties! I know they’ll come back next year, but I am so sad to lose them over winter!

I live in zone 7a, and I never expected my elephant ear, which I planted earlier this year, to actually BLOOM!!!! We had our first frost warning last night, but it’s still going strong!!

I started it this year, which is why I was also really surprised! I planted it around April once the last frost was over and temps were above 40s consistently. It was a pretty big bulb, I think it was advertised as “large variety” at [a hardware store]!

Yes, for sure! I’ve already watched like 2 or 3 videos on what to do with the bulb over winter! I REALLY don’t want it to die lol! I thought I would wake up this morning and see it slightly shriveled, it got down to 37F last night and it rained earlier in the day. But it was totally fine, the picture of the flower is from today actually!

Oh yes! I collected seeds from all my flowers for next year! I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy seeds again with the amount I got!

“My tomato plants survived the winter”

Last year, I decided to experiment with how I grow my vines, and used a tent trellis structure / garden twine to support my gourds, melons, tomatoes, etc.

Yesterday I went to tear the vines down and noticed they were all thriving. At first I thought maybe it’s been a warm winter, but then I remembered we had frost on the grass last month.

I want to believe that the trellis structure kept the vines stable enough so they wouldn’t weaken in the cold, but I have no idea. I’ve never had year 2 tomato plants before, so I’m excited to see what comes next.

“At least someone got to enjoy my last tomato of the season.”

He ate the tomato.

Not a pet, just the local fauna. I was focusing on my peppers this whole time, just letting the tomato jungle do its thing. Still glad to provide for something anyway

This one had its fill, and was gone by the evening when I went to check the rest of the plants. Just was glad to see it and thought I’d share

Eastern US, definitely. I have noticed that we don’t see them as much as when we did when we were kids. We always were told to not pick one up, as they become disoriented. Not sure if it’s an urban legend or not, but I’m content with leaving them alone when I see them, or protecting their eggs from crows when I can.

“Last harvest of ’Wizard of Oz’ dahlia. Definitely saving this cutie for next year.”

Mine started out purple too and I questioned whether I even received the right tuber. I thought that maybe I used too much fertilizer and it affected the color. The shape looked the same as Wizard of Oz though and it slowly turned to a nice pink around the middle of the season.

I dig up the tubers and store them for the next season. They’ll die if I leave them in the ground because we have freezing winters here.

The great thing is they multiply so you’ll have even more tubers to plant next season.

I have 3 of this variety but keep in mind that this was the very end of the season and I think I would’ve gotten this many from 2 plants, maybe even one.

“Last harvest before the frost.”

We put them in brown paper sacks in the basement, only one layer deep. Most ripen nicely and we have tomatoes through December.

Zone 5. We live on a hill. The garden is on a terrace below the house, so unfortunately we can’t even see it from the house as it is blocked by the hill.

They are decorative. Plant ’Small Sugar’ if you want the best flavored pumpkin. If you want great flavor and don’t care as much about looks, I would highly recommend ’Sweet Meat’ winter squash. It has extremely thick walls, stores better than pumpkin, tastes very similar... but in my opinion, even better. We’ve made the BEST pumpkin pies from that squash. However it is blue/grey on the outside instead of orange, so it doesn’t look like a pumpkin.

“Possibly my last bouquet before the frost.”

We might be getting a frost on Saturday night, but I’m gonna try to harvest all the good blooms tomorrow if I can find the time and have a little flower cart!

[Saving the tubers?] Yes, I dig and divide in the fall every year.

[How many do you replant?] It depends on the variety. If it’s a good cut flower I’d plant all of the tubers. If I don’t need all of the tubers from a variety, I sell or trade them.

I usually have dahlias into November.

[Tips for a beginner?] Buy from small farms. Plant in well draining soil. Don’t water them until you see a sprout coming out of the ground. Pinch them when they’re about 6-12 inches tall to encourage more blooms!

“Harvested my last luffas due to the incoming frost- Talulah for scale”

We’ve had her for a little over two months! She’s about seven months old and she gets along insanely well with our grumpy orange boy

She’s got a wee upside down heart on her nose, too!

[Zone] 8a! I started from seed mid April, but didn’t have successful female flowers until August. These pictured, plus one I already processed, are all that grew.

I processed one about a week ago- it was more green than these! I rolled it around hard until the skin cracked, and peeled it. It came off super easy. Rinsed all the goop and seeds out, and I cut so it laid flat, like a sheet. Then I dried it in my dehydrator and voila!

“Still eating from the garden in Wisconsin. Tomato pie with biscuit crust”

These are tomatoes I brought indoors to ripen when the plants were no longer happy with the temperatures. Not as tasty as midsummer but a little salt, pepper, and heat works wonders.

Yes. I love this dish. I have only used garden tomatoes. I don’t know how grocery store tomatoes would do in this dish as they are often less flavorful.

Heating up the tomatoes in the pie really resweetens them, especially when they didn’t get to fully ripen outdoors in warm temps.

Recipe:

• [Boxed] biscuit mix (or your favorite biscuit recipe)
• 2 big beefsteak or 3-5 smaller tomatoes

Topping:

• 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

-Spread biscuit dough on a lightly greased pie plate.

-Top with sliced tomatoes.

-Bake at 400 F for 30 to 35 minutes.

-Cool at least 30 minutes. Don’t skip this step or you’ll end up with runny pie.

Still eating from the garden in November is the quiet win of every first frost. Tomatoes that ripen on a counter are never as good as August’s, and nobody at the table cares.