It was a scramble for Colorado home gardeners to harvest and protect their perfect "stay at home" gardens as the Labor Day freeze of 2020 approached.
Now that the storm has passed and you have a garage full of vegetables, what now?
Make zucchini bread!
After that, check on your plants. Do you notice any leaves starting to brown? Tyler Waye, the owner of Fox's Garden Supply, says that plants damaged by a freeze can still be saved by pruning. The ground temperatures stayed fairly warm during this storm, so if the base of your plant is still green and alive, he recommends you cut off the dead leaves and branches at the top. Annuals may not have survived and can be removed.
And Bravo to those of you who have a garden that came out unscathed. Now, does that mean the growing season is over? For most of us, probably not. The average first freeze in southern Colorado, below 7,000 feet, is between early to mid-October. So as the weather pattern returns to "normal" you may get away with a few more weeks of ripening. Tomatoes, rejoice!
Just be sure to cover your plants again if another quick-freeze happens before the cold season settles in.
