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Linden Staciokas

FAIRBANKS — With the way our weather has been going, I certainly won’t risk my reputation by predicting when the first frosts will arrive. If you are secretly relieved when a freeze hits because it means the gardening season is over, there is no point in reading any more of this week’s column. However, if you are hardcore, determined to wring every last penny’s worth of food or beauty out of the plot, here are a few things you can do to keep the end at bay.

The greenhouse will provide a natural barrier against our initial light frosts, but you’ll speed up the ripening process if you cut out all those leaves blocking the sun from reaching the tomatoes. This late in the season you can trim off almost all of the leaves, so don’t be timid. When I have a lot of green tomatoes and the weather is predicted to warm up after a few cool nights, in my experience it is worth setting up a small space heater that runs all night.

I know you can wrap green tomatoes in newspaper, put them single layer in cut down boxes, and store them in a cool area, and I always end up doing that anyway because I grow so many tomatoes. However, they taste better to me when they have ripened in the sun, so I try to keep them going in the greenhouse as long as possible. (And if I have too many packed away in closets, I start neglecting the necessary chore of unwrapping each tomato every week to catch any that are starting to rot and could infect neighboring fruits.)

I grow many of my herbs in pots because it keeps the aggressive ones like mint under control, and allows me to start them earlier in the spring and keep them later into the fall. Before I had a greenhouse, I did this by putting the various pots in one of those gardening wagons and rolling it in and out during the frosty nights of May and September. Now I take the interim step of moving them into the greenhouse full time about the middle of August, thus insuring that they get maximum light and growth while postponing the wheeling chore until mid September some years.

As to the crops that must stay outdoors, if you don’t already do so, get in the habit of listening to the weather report every night and be prepared to react when the predicted nighttime temperatures are going to hit 35 degrees. That is when you must spring into action by covering tender plants with blankets or boxes as soon as you get home from work to trap the last of the day’s heat; repeat the same dance, this time uncovering everything, before you leave in the morning.

Actually, this year I am supplementing my usual garden sheets and blankets with the plastic umbrellas you see in the picture accompanying this column. I picked up six of these when I was in Washington and stopped by Charley’s Greenhouse in Mount Vernon, Washington, www.charleysgreenhouse.com). They come in several sizes, and a round as well as rectangle shape; zippered openings make it easy to water and take pots in and out. You can set them over containers or sections of the garden in mid August and leave them up until summer has completely succumbed to fall; if the days are warm, unzip a flap for some air circulation. Basically, they are small portable greenhouses. When you are done with them, they collapse into a long and thin form that can be tucked into a garage corner for the winter. I love them.

Sheets and blankets take time and garden umbrellas cost money, but luckily, the entire garden does not have to be covered. I direct my efforts toward a zucchini plant or two, since those vegetables are versatile and prolific, as well as outdoor tomatoes, cukes and lettuce.

Ignore root crops, because your carrots, parsnips and such will make it through our first light frosts. Don’t panic if you see blackened or shriveled tops, because the vegetables under the ground will be fine. In fact, if you like to eat beet and turnip greens, you can slice those off the night of the first threatened frost and leave the rest of the vegetable in the ground for a few more weeks.

I didn’t really think of leeks as a root vegetable until I bought The Essential Root Vegetable Cookbook, and found them listed in the company of burdock, carrots, celeriac, jicama and the like. Since then I have grown leeks in profusion every season, thrilled not only with the many ways I can cook them but with the fact that I can leave them in the ground long after everything else has been hauled in and eaten, frozen or canned. During milder falls I have left them in the ground into October, but most years I harvest them by mid September.

Cabbage, kale and brussels sprouts withstand light frosts, too, so no need to include them in your frenzy of covering with blankets or boxes. If you have neglected to snap off all but the top leaves of your sprouts, then do so immediately so that they can get as large as possible before you finally have to harvest them.

I don’t usually bother covering my flowers, probably because they grow in clumps or to heights that don’t lend themselves to easy covering. However, I do try to preserve my hanging baskets by pulling huge plastic bags up and over each one every night and then removing them in the morning. (In the spring, I simply move them in and out of the garage every night, but full grown they are both heavy and hard to set on the floor without crushing the cascading stems.) I also keep turning them every few days so that they continue to flower evenly and deadhead so that they look their best to the very end.

Linden Staciokas has gardened in the Interior for more than two decades. Send gardening questions to her at dorking@acsalaska.net.