First Frost

Oh Canada! Frosted grass and a red maple leaf.

The first fall frost almost seems like a rite of passage for the garden. What is hardy enough to survive and what has succumbed? Last night the temperature was predicted to plunge to freezing for the first time and a frost was likely. That mean picking the last of the basil - all 40 mature plants, plucking leaves for hours and whirling them with a drizzle of olive oil in the food processor. Now, a dozen large basil 'pancakes' are in the freezer where we can taste homegrown basil in our pastas all winter long.

The sun streaming through our windows just woke me up and so, naturally, my first thought was 'did we have a frost?'.. I got up and looked out the window and could see the frosted kale from the kitchen window and so before the sun rose over the house and onto the garden (any minute!) I ran up with my camera to capture the first frost.

Happy Fall Frost!

Dinosaur kale - now sweetened up with the frost!

Half of the nasturtiums leaves are frosted,
half are not.. It was a low lying frost obviously.

A bed of densely planted Asian greens.. 

This zinnia was protected by the kales.

Red Russian Take 1!

Red Russian Take 2!

Smile pretty for your photo op! Red Russian Take 3!

Last one - Red Russian Take 4!

Frozen nasturtiums.. 

Love the frozen flowers and the spiderweb
frost pattern on the leaves.

Opps, I lied! Red Russian Take 5!

Baby Asian greens - check out the frilly red
mustard by my hand - 

More Dinosaur kale from a 2 year old plant. It just
keeps growing. And growing. And...