BOISE, Idaho — With the arrival of much colder fall weather, outdoor gardening has pretty much come to an end for the season, and now we have to wait through the long winter until spring arrives again next year and brings our gardens back to life.
Thursday on 'You Can Grow It', Garden Master Jim Duthie celebrates the end of the season with some pictures from our fellow gardeners of their final harvest of vegetables and flowers. Hopefully you had a great garden this year, but if not, don't give up. Get some inspiration from other gardeners and plan now to make next year's garden even better.
The first hard freeze of the season last weekend brought an end to our outdoor growing season here in Idaho. From fruits and vegetables, to herbs and flowers, how did your garden do?
A lot of you are busy with preserving and canning the fruits and vegetables of your labors. Now that Halloween is over, no doubt some of your tasty harvest will wind up on your Thanksgiving table in a few weeks.
Let's take a look at some of your final harvests, as well as some of the beautiful flowers that lasted right up to the freeze.
The end of summer and the start of fall brought a burst of ripening fruits and vegetables in our gardens, allowing for a fantastic final harvest. Joanne Jackson's table was covered with baskets full of tomatoes, some ripe and others yet to ripen, just waiting to be made into salsa.
Holli Greenberg's table was also covered with her final harvest. Boxes and bowls of melons, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, all ready to be made into something delicious.
Speaking of peppers, Scott Storms had a fantastic final harvest of different kinds of hot peppers and chilies, including jalapenos, serrano, and poblanos. Break out the chips! There's going to be some tasty salsa at Scott's house.
Logan Wright's harvest of squash was so big the table couldn't hold it. He had to stack it on the floor! There was also brussels sprouts and bundled herbs drying in front of the fireplace.
Sometimes nature shows it's sense of humor, like this duck-shaped zucchini that Mary Shaw found growing in her garden.
More humor is found in Dan Stewart's garden, where there was these entwined carrots.
Warm weather through early October led to beautiful late-season blooms. Debby Foote says she wasn't ready to say goodbye to summer, so she brought her geraniums and begonias inside before the cold weather arrived.
Sandy Stone planted these beautiful and interesting Amaranthus flowers from a tiny seed last spring, and they grew to over five feet wide and nearly that tall. They're also called 'Love Lies Bleeding' or, as her grandmother called them, 'Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate.' By either name, they put on an eye-catching show.
Sandy also captured these brilliant purple, yellow, and pink mums and asters. She says the cooler weather intensified the color and made them more vibrant. I have to agree! Thanks Sandy.
Dahlias are always some of the showiest flowers in the garden. Kathy Clark shows us some of her most beautiful blooms, from Maroon... to coral... to yellow.. and then all combined into a couple of brilliant bouquets.
Karissa Phillips shared this picture of a beautiful white dahlia with a pink blush. It was her grandmother's favorite and it reminds her of her grandmother when she sees it.
Roses are a staple in any flower garden, and Debbie Robbins found some beauties still blooming right up until the first freeze.
Deeanne Brink-Bylsma says her decorative flower containers never looked so good so late in the season. She shared these pictures of her large pot of petunias, coral lantana and colorful coleus.
T.C. Spinaz gathered this colorful collection of zinnias from the garden and created some really eye-popping bouquets, with white, yellow, pink, orange, red and purple blossoms.
Finally, Rod Mcknight hated to see the first freeze put an end to his prolific display of yellow angel trumpets, so he brought them into his solar room to enjoy on into the winter.
It's time to put our gardens to bed for the winter and start planning for next year's gardens to be even more productive and beautiful. If you've never gardened before, make plans now to start one next spring. Always remember... you can grow it.
If you aren't already one of the nearly 20,000 members of the 'You Can Grow It' Facebook group, it's easy to join. Just text the word 'GROW' to 208-321-5614 and we'll send you the link to join Idaho's biggest garden club. Then, you'll be able to share pictures and growing tips, ask questions and get advice from other gardeners all around Idaho.
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