Thursday, December 3, 2009

first season's freeze preparations



I was skeptical yesterday when the weather people said we might get two inches of snow tomorrow, and now they've revised their forecasts to "up to a half inch" of snow tomorrow. Sounds like MAYBE a few flurries to me. I'm much more concerned about tomorrow night's predicted low of 25 degrees (F)! It took me almost two hours today to cover the vegetable beds and a bunch of assorted other plants.



One especially good thing to come out of the freeze preparation is that I was forced to harvest some chard and kale and finally thin some of the baby carrots because I was running out of row cover (not true farmers' row cover, but the stuff I got at Breed and Co.) Stay warm, ya'll!



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gee, your yard looks a lot like mine right now...I have row covers here, blankets there...and it took me about 45 minutes to cover it all. I hope all of your plants make it! :-) Laura

Iris said...

Hi Laura--It'll just be a bit of tough love for the plants that have a hard time tomorrow night. You worked more quickly than I did! I swear, it took me almost two hours to cover stuff! (Not that I was being obsessive, hah hah.)

renee (renee's roots) said...

Iris, your vegetables look snug and ready for the freeze. The vegetables and tender perennials in my front yard are covered -- and it took me a long time too. In fact, I ran out of steam and decided to save some of the covering in the back yard for early morning before work. I'm betting (hoping) tonight's frost will be light in central neighborhoods.

Iris said...

Renee--Still not a snowflake in sight. Hope you finished covering this morning and are toasty warm now!

Lee17 said...

Your yard looks like mine! I have plaid flannel sheets and blankets wrapped around my plants. It looks like the plaid flannel sheet factory exploded all over my garden! :) I hope your plants stay cozy warm!

Iris said...

Lee17--I think your coverage was more pattern-coordinated than mine, but my covers worked well enough to save a bit of basil and jalapeno--yippee! Hope yours turned out okay, too!

TexasDeb said...

It was interesting which improvised covers worked well and which ones didn't... I think your hardware store covers look like a more organized and better idea than our hodge podge of towels/sheets/old paint drop cloths were.

That said, most covered stuff survived the freeze OK and it looks like we can go cover-free for a span of days anyway.

And, hooray for baby carrots! They look delectable.

Iris said...

Hi Deb,
I really do like the white cover from the hardware store best, but I still fill in with old sheets, etc. Glad your covered stuff survived, too!

Baby carrots are part of tonight's dinner!

LindaCTG said...

I keep an old stack of sheets for nights like that one! Really, our gardens are "decked out" in their winter clothes. Glad you liked my grumpy bunny violas. I thought of you when I planted them: I like lavender & purple too. Sounds like one of your mystery worms got to my house & chewed up one of them, though.