May 4, 2017

Good morning, what a wild ride last weekend’s cold front was. Let us hope it is the last. I do remember one late season freeze that was on the 2^nd of May. It was a doozy with a low in the mid-twenties. I do recall that I did not lose anything in the garden but there was a lot of tip burn where plants were touching the fabric.

After market, last Saturday with all the wind I covered all my cucurbits. Because they need access to bees these and the alliums are the only things that are uncovered at this point. My okra is under one foot tall, so it is easily covered.

I have two different thermometer locations that I watch. One at traditional height (4.5 feet) and the other at ground level on 2 inches of Styrofoam. At four AM 4.5 feet was reading 38 and ground level was 34 and then I watched both fall and at 5:30, 4.5 was at 32 and ground level was 27. With two layers of 19 on most everything plus good soil warmth all should be well but for me it was a long wait for sunrise and for the mercury to rise with the sun. Even with being willing to lose everything, it would be a huge bummer if I did.

I always get anxious with these events. The night of their occurrence is a restless one. By sunrise I “patiently” wait like a dog waits for his dinner so that I can look under the covers. I am always sure all is well but it is a pleasant surprise to see how well things did. Fabric is an amazing invention.

Sunday was a windy day with a rather cool start although temperatures did recover quite well. I spot checked around the garden (positive observations) but not ready to fight fabric in the wind.  I felt confident that I could wait until Monday when I could harvest and check the plants out too.

It was interesting to note that when I got up on Monday there was a big difference between my two thermometers. The 4.5 was reading 52 and the lower one was reading 39. About an hour later the lower one was reading in the forties. Wind must have shifted to the south. During this event, none of the thermometers under the fabric got below 40. This gave me confidence that the only freeze damage would be leaves touching the fabric. It was somewhat difficult covering my first toms, summer squash and butternuts because of their mature size. This caused the foliage to be up tight against the fabric, very conducive to freezer burn of leaves. These leaves do protect the growing tips from being burnt, that is in most cases. Monday’s observations will determine this.

I spent Monday harvesting and cleaning up frozen foliage. The only veggie I am somewhat worried about are the beans. Even though they were well covered they seemed to have the most damage. I plan to sow another bed of beans before my planned succession. Sometime hits like what clobbered the beans can stunt their growth. If the survive then we should be awash in beans.

This week I harvested chard, kale, lettuce, green onions, carrots, beets, cucumbers, snow peas, and squash. Please email as to availability.

Like I said at the beginning, I sure hope this is the last freeze. Time will tell. And you can bank on the fabric staying put for a while.