My new Dead Plant album is worrying news for New Jersey

I suspect this can be both good news and bad news, depending on how you feel about it. Now that we’ve officially turned December, it’s safe to say that every growing season in New Jersey is completely over.

Although there are some cool-weather plants you can still grow now, the chance of getting anything started outside in the elements this time of year is almost nil. I’m sure some will argue that there are exceptions, but they are rare.

Around mid-November I picked a few red peppers from my vegetable garden. Why was this such a big deal? Because it was mid-November. 10 years ago this would never have happened in my part of New Jersey.

But now that is no longer the case. In fact, after Thanksgiving last year, I was able to grow peppers, a warm-weather crop, in addition to tomatoes. In 2023, it was the first time ever that I was able to grow plants outdoors in warm weather beyond the holidays without the plants dying from the nighttime cold.

In 2023, I was able to go two days past the holiday. In 2024, I was able to get a day past Thanksgiving before the cold finally killed off the pepper and tomato plants.

But here’s why that’s notable. In 2023, Thanksgiving was on November 23rd, while in 2024 it was on November 28th. That means the growing season for my New Jersey garden was four days longer between last year and this year. And 2023 was a new record for the longest time my garden had ever lasted before the cold finally killed the warm-weather plants.

The fact that I was able to reach November 29th, just two days before December, is mind-blowing. My garden had 16 pepper plants this year, and this is the last crop I picked on the evening of November 29th, just before temperatures were finally expected to exceed that critical threshold.

Since the temperatures in my part of New Jersey never fell below freezing until November 29th, I was able to leave all the peppers on the plants to see how far they would ripen. As you can see, with several warmer days, I definitely would have gotten a lot more peppers that aren’t green.

But in New Jersey, it’s highly unlikely that such a crop would even last into December, let alone how ripe it is. Then again, this year I only have two days from the beginning of December, so maybe 2025 will be the year I can actually say I can continue growing peppers when the calendar rolls past November.

Look, I love the fact that the season gets a little longer every year. But at the same time, this is neither normal nor an isolated case. On average, a few more days are added every year. It’s not that it doesn’t get cold, it just doesn’t get cold enough at night.

Dead. This is what these plants should look like on the first day of December. Will this still be the case in 2025? I guess we’ll find out in a year.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 Sunday Morning host and content contributor Mike Brant. All opinions expressed are his own.