We had 17 days without recorded precipitation. Days were sunny and above freezing, and each night dropped below freezing.

The overwintered broccoli should be ready sometime in late February/early March. We have four different varieties with a succession of maturity dates. They persevere through rain, snow, sleet, ice, and freezing temperatures to produce.

Sunrise comes late this time of year. On the shortest day, Saturday, December 21st, the sunrise was at 7:49 a.m. and sunset at 4:33 p.m., 8 hours and 43 minutes! The good news is that we are now in a period of increasing day length. Before long, the plants will notice and increase growth.

To ease us into December, we finally received the season’s first freeze. Fortunately, it wasn’t brutal since the daytime temperatures were above freezing. We are prepared and have the garden ready for winter.

We are excited about the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner, as several dishes will feature vegetables from the garden. We delivered a boatload of butternut squash for the soup and still have more in storage!

Pineapple sage is the prime blooming plant in the garden after more than two inches of rain this past week. Currently, the forecast is for another wet week. The flower harvest will decrease as we wait for the new viola plantings to catch up.

Our daylight hours have dropped below ten per day. The plants will still grow for the next three months but will be slow.

We will start harvesting delicata and acorn squashes as needed. This photo showcases our “twin” squashes of 2024. We will harvest the butternut squash this coming week. They will harden for a few weeks and then be ready for use.

This alien-looking object is from our gourd collection, which we grew this year. I think it is from the Crown of Thorns mix. Look for them throughout the hotel this fall. That’s just the gardeners’ way of embracing the changing seasons.

Fall is here, and change is in the air. Currently, we have plenty of edible flowers. However, we are heading into a week of cooler rainy weather, which will be challenging for the marigolds. On the other hand, the violas should enjoy the cool rain.