After the Frost

As you can see from this snippet from the weather networks "last 24 hours" in my area, we not only had a frost, but the temperature fully dipped below zero between 5 and 6 this morning. 

Although I had fully covered my plants (OK, not so much the tomatoes, but everything else) I still got frost damage to many of them.  I'll see if any recover over the day as it's hard to tell if they are just limp or completely done.  But I'm still fine ... I had many more plants than I really needed although I was more than happy to have them all.  So even if I lose half, it will be okay.  But keeping my fingers crossed!

This is from a local news report this morning:

Temperatures across Ottawa and region plummeted below the freezing mark Friday night, with the wind chill falling to as low as -10, according to Environment Canada.

Frost Warning!

I've been a bit neglectful of my blog (and reading other blogs) this week as I've been busy with both work and renovations at home (arghh, still not done!).  So I don't know if everyone is hurting weather-wise.  In my case, I have been experiencing massive wind gusts for the past week or two.  And tonight there is a frost forecast.

Since I haven't posted a general view of my garden lately, that was supposed to be my next post.  And I guess, technically, that is what I'm doing ... it's just that everything is covered up!!  I knew this was coming but it isn't as if you can do anything sooner.  I can't very well cover up my plants all week in expectation!  So as soon as I got home from work (admittedly, I left a bit early today) I started to prepare for the dreaded frost.

I had pulled most seedlings out of the greenhouse over the week to harden off.  They quickly went back into the greenhouse.

 

Anything that was "lying around" on the other side of the yard ended up in the garage.

The bigger plants - pumpkin, summer and winter squash - were covered with overturned pots.  I have lots of pots so this was easy enough. 

Or in some cases I used "hot hats" ($20 or something like that for a set of 10 at Lee Valley).

This wheelbarrow is turned over some mousemelon plants.

And this contraption is a combination of whatever-that-material-is-called plus pieces of my old compost bin strategically placed around my sugar pumpkin plants.

Tomatoes in the garden were covered with plastic.  Or mostly covered.  I always start more seedlings than I need in case I lose some - so whatever, I covered as many as I felt like and I still have more than a dozen plants safely stowed in the greenhouse.

Pepper plants, ARGH!  I potted many of them up and really don't have room (or the energy) for them in the greenhouse.  So I really hope this plastic doesn't get blown away by the heavy winds.

And that's been a challenge ... to lay the plastic down in the first place, but also to make sure it will stay down.  For this garden of beans, I've used several different "objects" to keep it from blowing away.

The plastic, by the way, is leftover from the old greenhouse that I used to have.  I have TONS of it.  It's stored in my garage for use whenever I need it - like to build cold frames.  Or mostly to give away to friends.

So that's the current state.  I'll take another peak before it gets too dark as the wind is still pretty crazy.  And if all goes well (fingers crossed), I'll share a better update over the weekend!

Survived the Frost!

The last few days have been chilly indeed, dropping to freezing or below overnight.  Plants from the greenhouse that were in one-gallon or larger containers were covered with plastic, sheets, towels, tarps, whatever I could find.  And anything that could be brought into the house was.   It seems everything was well looked after as I have seen no damage. I am slowly returning plants to the greenhouse, but will take my time.  While scoping the situation this evening in the greenhouse, I spotted a nice, fat, bumblebee, so good news for pollination.

The outside plants were not as well protected, partly from laziness.

Potatoes in the garden were covered with additional soil (as were the recently planted asparagus spears) on the weekend and then covered with a tarp.  I didn't bother to remove the tarp in the mornings before work, so they've been in the dark for 3 days.  They seem fine and 15 of the 18 seed potatoes have come up undamaged.

Not so the pumpkins.  I had been covering the pumpkins with row cover, and was hoping that would be enough.  Four of the eight are totally fine, while the other four have varying ranges of frost damage with this one being the worst.  I expect them all to be OK, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

The spring planting of garlic is fine, though some weeding is obviously needed soon.  And the strawberry patch is also fine - I've never had strawberries before, this patch was here when I moved in.  I'm looking forward to the harvest, but I need to look into proper maintenance as I'm not sure what is needed.

The worst damage was to flowers - I neglected the cosmos which are looking grim (luckily, I have more seedlings in the greenhouse) and some begonias (shown below) in containers that could easily have been brought inside, but I just forgot ...

And for anyone who cares (yes, Mom, I'm talking to you), here are some pics of the robin babies ... the nest is in a tight corner, so difficult to get a good shot; some of these are a bit fuzzy but hilarious, so I've posted them anyway.

 

I see FOUR beaks!