Frost/Cold Report from the Garden 11-25

Last night was a good test of our cold weather defense mechanisms. Mike says the hoses were frozen when he got there first thing this morning! He also said there was a very thick layer of frost on everything. I know at 11:30 there was still a big chunk of frozen ice in the birdbath by the fence.

Seven frost structures of varying complexity were seen at 11:30 am

Denise's Super Structure with the truly cold defeating blanket kept her peas mostly untouched. Dalita's pea pods and flowers didn't make it through the cold even though they were wrapped in a light weight frost blanket. Over the next few days we'll see if the plants survived.

Since I didn't have the super good frost blanket I put jugs of hot water in my bed to give off a bit of warmth and provide a little more protection. I had five 1 gallon jugs spaced inside my structure which created lots of interesting micro climates. This morning the lettuce next to the jugs looked good however the lettuce next to the frost cloth looked rather wilted.  We'll see how it all works out over the next week.

 

Notice the new lettuce leaves to the right of the jug - they look very perky

 

 

 

I was in the process of opening both ends of my structure to let the air go through for ventilation.

 Definitely I made sure I left the bird netting in place to keep the squirrels out!

 

 

                                                                 Vicki