keep on climbing
By mew
Tags: autumn in the garden, Beauty, cardinal climber, cardinal climber tendril, cardinal climber vine, first frost, frost advisory, killing frost, November first frost, radishes in the autumn garden, Seneca, South Carolina, thriving despite external conditions, true killing frost, vine tendril, vines growing by tendrils, weather conditions in the fall extension garden
Category: Foliage, Life Lessons, Seasons, Weather
I’m not sure how many more like this I’ll see this season. Tonight from 4:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m., Seneca is under a frost advisory.
Our first frost.
Coming on November 6th, I’ve had a little longer than I anticipated. The average date of first frost for the area is October 29th. So we got a little over a week’s extra growing time. Although, of course, with the cold nights, not much growth is actually occurring, even among the things that supposedly don’t mind the cold too much, such as radishes.
The first frost is usually not a true “killing” frost. But the likelihood is that many of the remaining annuals will not recover, and the few perennials still showing signs of life will quickly go dormant until next spring.
Yet this morning the cardinal climber vine was lifting its curlicue tendrils up higher than yesterday, still intending to grow and climb despite external conditions. I looked at it, after this week of stress and deadlines, and felt a surge of solidarity, thinking, Me, too! I do hope the first frost doesn’t strike it down immediately.
I know it’s a really simple form. But isn’t it magnificent?
Victory Garden Redux 
I love vines and their tenacity. We learn valuble lessons from nature – and one of them is going with the flow.
I hope the frost isn’t a hard one. We had hail yesterday morning and snow flurries in the afternoon. The shrubs that had some pretty color weren’t too thrilled with the hail, but it was sort of neat watching it rolling around. I’m not ready yet for winter – but I’ll be saying that in January – lol!