Assessing the damage

Well, if you were holding your breath for an update on the frost in the garden, you'd be dead : )

<insert excuse here>
What can I say? We had cabins to clean. And I had to track down the source of a propane smell in one of the cabins (I think I found it...). And I had to replace the bolts holding a water closet onto the toilet. That makes three this year, if you're counting. You know how I love plumbing—not! And then other things happen, like doing the cabin laundry, taking a walk (the sunset was beautiful last night), making cheeseless pizza (I use the Adele Davis Whole Wheat Crust recipe, have for over 35 years) with home grown veggies on top of home canned tomato sauce (only two jars left)...
</end excuses>

Well the damage was minimal. I had managed to get the plants covered in time. Just a few tomato leaves were touched—basically the ones that weren't fully covered and the ones that were touching the covering cloth. And some of the squash bit the dust.

I was surprised that the runner beans came through unscathed. I couldn't cover them because they are too high and along the fence. But, whether it is because they are frost hardy or because of their location, it looks like I'll get a few more pickings off them.

On other garden related notes, I started building the beds on the side garden. I had just put logs along the beds there. Can you say slug haven? I turned the logs over and commenced stamping them out (literally). I'm not sure yet if I'll build two beds or three there. Currently it is two full length beds and a six foot one.

On each side of the six foot bed I tried straw bale gardening this year. I read a lot about it in the last year and thought it might be a way to avoid the bad soil here. Talk about work! And the results (for me, at least) were disappointing. I won't do that again. But maybe I'll put in a full 16 foot bed there instead.

On a side note, a while back, when I was doing the landscaping in the backyard, I ran across lots of slugs. I saw two in the midst of guaranteeing the future of their species and taught them how to practice coitus interruptus. Squish! Very interruptus! Birth control for slugs...I sound almost sadistic, don't I?