We had our first hard frost last Saturday in Canandaigua. This year’s first frost was about two weeks later than last year’s first frost which was on October 13. While the east coast folks suffered from heavy wet snow, broken down tree limbs, and downed power lines over the weekend, our only inconvenience was a little frost which had to be scraped off the truck windows in the morning.
But now I am in high gear and working on clearing out the remains of my summer garden. First to come in were a couple of Amaryllis bulbs that I received as a Christmas present from my brother and sister in law in California some three years ago. The Amaryllis bulbs came from the White Flower Farm in Connecticut (click here). The bulbs will rest down in the basement for about two months before I bring them up stairs into the living room and start to water them again. No need to trim them down as the deer had already taken care of that for me. This is the second winter that I have brought the bulbs in and they are such a treat to see them bloom in the dead of winter.
I dug up some carrots and with the red potatoes that I had already stored in my shed, I’ll get busy and make my favorite beef vegetable soup. I load up the slow cooker in the evening and let it go all night. The soup will be ready around noon the next day. My tomatoes did very well this year and Jeanette has frozen about two dozen freezer bags of blanched and peeled tomatoes for our soups this winter. Still left in the garden are some leeks and Italian parsley. A few leaves of parsley will go into the soup for flavor and color.
I have four pots of geraniums that I brought to the Finger Lakes region from Binghamton, NY some twelve years ago. They seem to like it under the deck in partial shade but I will soon bring them into the basement for the winter. They don’t require much attention, but we sure enjoy their lovely red color all summer long.
