Green Spaces in Rural Places:

First, a correction: Last week my column had a glaring error. I'd stated that green beans can be sliced or chopped and frozen as-is for cooking later. It should have said "green peppers." Beans need to be blanched and rapidly chilled before freezing. I apologize and sincerely hope no one ruined their green beans. (My only excuse is I was writing using my smart phone while traveling to Billings and I seriously lack proofreading skills for my own work. I know what I'm trying to say, but my phone and iPad don't.)

We have been enjoying an extended summer, and my procrastination skills have exercised themselves once again, such that all I'd planned to accomplish in finishing the garden has not occurred. My husband, Dennis, who obsessively checks weather forecasts (I believe he has at least four different weather apps on his phone), tells me it's going to freeze hard by the weekend. I have to get serious about finishing up my garden.

The green peppers must be picked. I plan to roast quite a few of them, then vacuum seal and freeze them. A few will go into the fridge to be eaten fresh in the coming week to ten days. The rest will be sliced or chopped and frozen as-is.

The tomatoes are going to be picked and stored in plastic tubs in single layers. I'll put several sheets of old newspaper both below and above each layer. The tubs will be put in one of the unused bedrooms with the heat shut off to delay their ripening.

I still have one large cabbage to harvest. It will be cut up, steamed, chilled, drained, and frozen in individual serving sizes. I recently read that foods on the wet side can be put in the vacuum seal bags, placed upright in the freezer, and then frozen before sealing to prevent the mess of the liquid in them being sucked out with the air. So I've been doing that, and wondering why I never thought of this on my own.

The Dennis doesn't care for cooked cabbage, so I don't make cabbage rolls any longer. Instead, I make meatballs with rice and bake them in the sauce, and put cabbage underneath half the dish for myself. I use a recipe for dolmas given to me by my sister-in-law, Donna Woodford, using cabbage instead of grape leaves. I get to use my home-grown mint in those meatballs.

I still have most of my golden beets out there. I should check with Reynold's, to see if they'd like to have them, as well as the rest of my yellow crookneck squash. We still have plenty of canned beets. Beets are plentiful producers. Each seed will split and grow multiple beets, so you always get more than you plan. Turnips are the same.

This year I've been growing sweet potatoes for the first time. I ordered them from a catalog last spring. They aren't like other potatoes, where you plant the whole potato, or at least a part of it with the eye. These came as vining shoots, with no piece of potato attached. There was a bundle of twelve rooted vines, semi-dry, wrapped in damp packaging. They make a lovely looking vine, low-growing and glossy. They never flowered that I could see. I haven't tried digging any as I know they take a long time to produce. If they're like other underground crops (carrots and potatoes), I can safely wait until after some freezing occurs to dig those.

I'm still getting beautiful flowers from my dahlias (one of which is seven feet tall) and zinnias, as well as the occasional late gladiola. This has kept me from digging the tubers and bulbs. And now my single chrysanthemums are blooming. Their light pink color greatly complements the white, hot pink, and purple dahlias.

Right now, as I'm writing this, our official government gauge (the Dennis is an official weather observer, recording the temperature and rainfall every day) says its 32.7 degrees outside, so those zinnias might be toast. I'll know in a few hours, once the sun is fully up and has warmed them. I'm hoping the tomatoes didn't get bitten. I'd uncovered everything, and the Dennis had assured me yesterday that no frost was in the forecast.

Sometimes a freeze is a blessing, freeing up my time so I can go from gardening to my winter hobbies. I have tons of yarns begging to be crocheted or knitted into hats, scarves, cowls, booties, beards, blankets, and other items. I'm commissioned to make two mermaid lapghans for Christmas by a young lady in Florida.

I'll be glad to take a break from the garden (although I'll still be working out there for a few more weeks, clearing and putting things away). I'm sure that by next March I'll be champing at the bit to start making things grow again.