Freeze False Alarm
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At 9:30 last night a TV report warned of freezing temperatures in my county. It wasn't that cold so I checked Weather.com and sure enough they said we would get a good freeze. O no!
So I scrambled into my jeans and coat and proceeded to cover my newly planted babies, bringing in all the unplanted pots first.
There was no way I was gonna cover everything, and Dave believed it wouldn't get that cold, so I just covered what I could and came back in. Unfortunately I left the garage door open and the light on, which Dave discovered at 11:30, so it was back out into the night for me.
I wasn't sleeping. I was worrying.
And of course worrying doesn't help a thing.
I guess I knew my radish sprouts wouldn't be affected, and they were the first seeds that I planted directly after that last frost warning.
My tomatoes from seeds came into the house. I still haven't figured out where I am going to put them in the garden yet...maybe the rice paddy, aka the orchard. The water was just about dried up and then we got two more big rain days and it is puddles all over again. The fruit trees seem totally happy, and it does drive their roots deeper, which can't hurt.
The Sugar Baby watermelons are even bigger than they look in this picture, and will go into my hillside plot soon. The zucchini already has it second set of leaves, and I'll have to take a picture of them today.
Of course, the freeze didn't happen and all is safe.
My mindset still has a bit of an Illinois planting season mentality. When I started the gardening season back there, everything has to go in by May 31st or risk not having a long enough growing season to finish out the maturity of many veggies. I would never plant watermelon seedlings in IL.
But here in Tennessee, we are at least a month ahead of Illinois and now I see other gardens here that are still lying unplanted...announcing that there is plenty of time to get the tender sprouts into the ground.
As I recall from last fall , the first killing frost here didn't occur until December. I can relax.
I've been enjoying watching the bits of gardening; alas, we got down close to freezing last night, here in SW VA...so I guess it's a good thing I haven't been getting to much gardening this spring (running children around, singing, knitting, quilting...)
ReplyDeleteDid you know you can look up the "normal" first and last frost dates for your area? Online, or check with your local extension service or garden club.
I've been watching your progress as well. Over here 30 miles north of Charlotte NC last night we had a potential frost warning. I pulled everything into the house for the night.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in NW PA and the rule there was Memorial Day weekend you planted. Over the last 15 years here the rule of thumb I've learned is cold weather plants mid-April,but tender summer plants first of May.
Mel...
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor has about three acres of peach trees and the land is "cupped" to capture as much moisture as possible (maybe the situation with your orchard). He grows watermelons among the peach tree...thousands of them!! They trive there and he says he rarely has to worry about supplementing water.
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