Freeze Protection in Place
Freeze Preparation & Protection
Instead of being late in planting, the gardener has fewer plants to protect in preparation for night time temperatures expected in the teens!
To ensure at least a few lilac flowers, here's a mini-pre-harvest of Spring flowers.
These blueberry leaf buds are at the top of the 2 year plant, so nothing but love can be applied to bring it through the freeze.
These garlic, planted in Fall '08 have lived unprotected all Winter. They may be just fine as is.
Lovely strawberry plants who have pushed their way up in the previous weeks' heat, will be covered over with a new bedding of straw.
My first over-wintering of Walking Onion, aka Egyptian Onion so I'm not certain what to do with it. Final answer? I placed some straw over the youngsters, separate from the main body, and let the others respond as they will. The green growth, as far as I know, is only since this Spring.
Last Spring, this garlic was planted as protection with the Tomatoes. It might be ready to harvest soon. Or I might just experiment with allowing it to produce a little colony, or whatever it will if left to grow.
Spring's first Asparagus shoot. Cute little guy. I didn't even cover him up as he looked so strong.
Black Currant (resistant to White Pine Blister Rust) has new leaves her first Spring in this garden, so she does get special treatment before the freeze.
There are lovely buds all the way up her branches.
Gently pile on the straw. Under these piles are 3 bush cherries, 2 white currants and 3 black currant plants. The wind was blowing so fiercely, that no other straw would stay in place. The chinese cabbage and bok choy planted in the garden soil will have to fend for themselves.
How do tulips take a freeze? I don't know, so in they go, to make a lovely little bouquet with the last hyacinths.
And here's today's photographic treat, a prayerful, about to open Salsify flower.
And for all hearts about to open, May we all Grow Joyfully.
(And stay warm through the night.)
Cover Strawberry in Freeze - Let Sleeping Strawberries Lie
Uncovered Strawberry Plant Survival Rate in 28 Degrees
Who shall live and who shall die? It really is no mystery which plants will live through a Spring Freeze. First, I was told by an experienced gardener, warned by other garden bloggers, and my inner sense also planned to assist in the survival, but was caught short by exhaustion which circumvented functioning brain cells. In short, I forgot to cover the strawberry plants the night before the freeze was expected.
In a photographic post on March 15, a strawberry plant is shown growing its way up out of the straw winter covers. Curious, I lifted away some straw from another fully covered plant to see how it was doing. It looked good, a couple of crowns were full of new growth and I gently pulled off the dead leaves and stems, see below. It was warm and sunny for many days so I left it to grow, knowing it was a risk.
One gardening expert says to leave the plants under straw until all possibility of frost is over. This way the extra energy stored in the roots will be used for new leaves and blossoms that have a good chance of fruiting. If they freeze, all is lost. If they frost, but still live, the strawberry will have less root-stored energy to put out new growth. It sounded reasonable to me, yet it is difficult to cover the little one that enjoyed the sun so much.
I knew that the weather report was for a cooler night. I could feel it in the late afternoon as I planted peas in the bed right next to the uncovered strawberries, but I was cold and tired. I think I even left a portable phone out there, came out later to look for it, but my inner blinders did not allow me to notice the strawberry plants I had promised to cover up again. So it spent the night, down to about 28 degrees, shivering, and sadly, one of them died. Of the two plants that I willfully uncovered, one survived.
The strong self-motivated growers, which had fought their way to the sun, still look wonderfully comfortable no matter what temperature. The lesson in this is obvious, something my grandmother used to say, "Leave well enough alone." Or it might be to "Let sleeping strawberries lie."
Greenhouse Potatoes
For a change, let’s start with the finished product, circa August 18, 2008
Some shiny purple potatoes in a colander. These were very good to eat. We ate potatoes. We had potato soup. Some is still in the freezer and it is delicious. We tried drying them in the dehydrator - not worth it.
The ones we didn’t wash and didn’t eat, which looked like they might make good seed for ’09 were stored in a box in the basement. In the beginning of ’09, I noticed that they were going to seed and wouldn’t make it until Spring. I took some to a friend who has a cooler spot, and some I tried to save, by planting right away in the deeper bed in the greenhouse. In a few weeks, one or two came up and were promptly killed by too little heat on a really cold night.
I’d been told that if the potato plant is not too big when its frozen, it will come back. And without any special incantations (besides the usual loving pep talk I always give the plants) look, it is growing back!
Yes, that very rough looking ground is in the greenhouse bed. After I remove the potatoes I’ll take care of that. Preparing for the onion bed taught me how to do that. (Details on another post.)
It is possible that new potatoes and seed for the garden will be ready on time for planting on April First.
