Growing Season Ends

The official growing season ended yesterday morning. We received a light frost as the temperature dropped to 32 degrees. According to my records the growing season was 126 days. The last spring frost was on June 3 and the first fall frost was on October 7.

I began covering the garden earlier in the week so there was no visible damage. The forecast predicted another drop to 32 before warmer nights for the next week.

Since April 17, when I began keeping records, we received 4.79 inches of rain. I measured 4.59 inches and estimated .20 inch during the two weeks we were on vacation. A neighbor said he received about one-quarter inch during that time. I extrapolated a value based on the two weeks prior and following the time we were gone.

Rain by Month
• April 0.00
  
• May 0.21
  
• June 0.00
  
• July 1.09
  
• August 0.75
  
• September 1.63
  
• October 0.91

The average rain per month was .96 inch
The average rain for 31 days of rain was .19 inch.
The median rain for 31 days of rain was .09 inch.

It's interesting to exclude the rain in October since the growing season is basically over and the temperatures have dropped. Prior to the end of September we had 27 days with rain totaling 3.88 inches with an average of .14 inch per rain and a median of .09 inch.

I was pleased with this year's garden but not as pleased as last year. I'm already planning for next year which, hopefully, will be a better garden