Early Freeze Coming

Too soon. This is too early for a fall freeze. It's predicted to go down to 25 degrees overnight and tomorrow night and that will zap the annuals. Not a flirtation with frosty temperatures, this will be a good hard hose-freezer.

The orange and white Profusion zinnias will be missed. Of all my gardening highlights and all my fine plant tending and all my years of experience, it was the simplest annuals: zinnias, a blue pansy and some red geraniums that were the everlasting stars of my garden this summer. I'm such an expert, ha!

Before the deep freeze I drained the garden hoses and brought in the container of Cape plumbago. I'll try to winter it inside by the living room slider that faces south, but I've never had much success overwintering tender plants indoors.

After two nights of this ridiculous early freeze no more freezing nights are predicted for the near future, so I'll have to go back out and reattach the hoses for fall garden clean up (and I still have plants to get in the ground!)

It's not even mid-October. But fall is upon us and winter is coming. I guess I'll go buy some gaudy mums to replace the annuals.

Update Saturday morning after two hard freezes: the annuals are gone, but it's the Virginia creeper vine that looks the worst. It dresses our entire back fence and is now a blackened mess of deadest looking foliage. Ugly, and that's how it will look all winter.