A surprising gift from "Indian Summer".

[bvar22]

We have been blessed with a very mild Fall in the Ouachita Mountains of Central Arkansas.
In the past, we would have called it "Indian Summer", though I haven't heard that term in a number of years, and am suspicious that it may no longer be Politically Correct. I can see no reason why anyone would be offended by this term.

We experienced a very mild frost in mid-October which lasted for a single night.
Since then, it has been wonderful.
Daytime temps of mid-80s...overnights in the 50s.
Plenty of sunshine...very little rain.
Southern winds, a little fog in the mornings.


The weather was so mild that our "June Bearing" Strawberries became confused,
thought it was Spring, and began flowering and making berries!

We ate this one this morning....
and YUM...an unexpected treat and a reminder of why we do this.
There are a number of blossoms and other small berries that are showing some red, and may be edible in a few days with some luck.
But yesterday, the overnight temps fell to just about freezing (32F).
I am covering this bed with a tarp hoping to harvest a few more berries.






We do have this Creole tomato which we planted in late July.
We put it up close to the house on the Southen side.
We are hoping for a few tomatoes.

I built this little Green House yesterday to give it a little more time.


I put a 40Watt light bulb inside to keep it warm at night.
It looks spooky after dark.

[Blue Gardener]

1. The strawberry looks yummy

Thinking of planting some in the spring.

[hippywife]

2. Congrats on the little extra bounty

from Motha' Nature, B. Our weather over hear hasn't been nearly that nice altho there was a nice stretch in the 70's. Too much rain and overcast skies.

Great pics as usual. All out best holiday wishes to you and K, this coming week. :hi:

[Zoigal]

3. Wow, impressive

Temps aren't that warm here in S Cal. Is it always that warm in your area?
I lived in the St Louis area for years and don't remember fall weather being like
that. Are you going to plant some broccoli and other crucifers? They should do
well if the weather holds, don't you think?.....z

[bvar22]

4. I think our weather was way out of the ordinary,

...but this is just our 3rd season here.
Spring and Summer were bizarre too.
We didn't get too many ripe Strawberries....3 to be exact, but they were great.
The Raspberries also bloomed, and gave us a hatfull of very tart fruit.
Overnight temps are now in the 40s/30s/20s which seems about normal.
St Louis is about 400 miles to the North of us, so our weather is a bit milder here.

Yes, we have some Broccoli and Cauliflower growing, but not very much.
also some Cabbage, Chives, Garlic, Onions, Swiss Chard, and some Arugula.
They all seem to take the mild overnight freezes well.





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