Note: Not looking forward to cleaning the pond next spring. A friend brought over a goldfish to add to my pond which had two at the time. Well about four months later I had 60 plus! They are going to be hard to catch, or live in a dirty pond!
Freezing Temps, Freezing Rain, Sleet, & Snow
In keeping with the thread theme....here is the pond in a 2011 deep freeze! Couldn't find one with the net in place.
Thanks for the explano, Sheila. I know ice and snow are not all fun, but that is a gorgeous pond picture!
Oh, I thought I was so clever this year. Got everything covered during daylight prior to that first nasty wet and windy freeze. But then . . . I kept everything covered much too long. So then . . . I uncovered everything. But I'm sure y'all can guess what happened next. I didn't know which forecaster to trust so I just left everything uncovered. Oops. Fortunately I had brought a lot of plants inside but just not enough room to bring 'em all. It's hard to keep them all sufficiently watered but I'm working on it. (If I didn't need to shower once in awhile, I could put a lot of them in my bathtub.)
One day I was surveying what had survived (or not) and was horrified to find that many of the crinums that I got at the RU were drowning. I hadn't planted them but had them in huge containers filled to the brims with mulch. Forgot, however, that the containers didn't have drain holes. Yuck! After rinsing them off and getting rid of the nasty stink they were producing, I brought them inside, let them dry out, potted them, and I think they're doing well.
Hope those of you who got ferns from me are doing ok with them. All can be left outside. The wood ferns die back but should return in the spring. The Autumn and Holly ferns should stay green all year.
Hear we're in for more freezing weather this week. Don't know about precip. Guess I better pay attention. Happy gardening everyone!
We did that a couple years ago by not paying attention to the weather. Lost a whole lot of stuff. Then I loose a lot when I put them in the shop by not watering or watering too much, forgetting to turn lights on etc. This year I took in four cats a neighbor moved off and left. They are in my shop and are turning over something almost everyday....come on spring.
Yes, there are always a lot of casualties wherever you put the plants in for the winter. I have some new varieties that I have been working on for a long time from seed.
They were little and foolishly I put them in the garage, well I suspect that squirrels or rats decided they were nice and tender and they dug up and ate about half of them.
Those plants that survived are in the house now, which I should have done to begin with, but I still have half the garage full with others.
I can't wait for spring either.
I think we're all ready for spring! Just remember, the days are getting longer now, so we're on our way!
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Well so far my white orchid tree is alive in the greenhouse, the flame vine was on the shelf during the first hard freeze and I thought it was gone, but I saw a leaf coming out of the soil in its pot yesterday, it's in the warmer part of the greenhouse now. All my tilapia came indoors, the heat for their tank was costing me $50 or $60 a monthAND they were dying. Lost a few indoors but not so many. Fig made it, frostweed I think died - drought after planting, i don't think I got enough water to it. Still have a spring passionflower vine and the bird of paradise plant in pots low in the greenhouse, they seem to be doing ok, it does get cooler there but they are pretty hardy. I even have seed geraniums still alive, amazingly enough, and one cyclamen that somehow had lasted thru summer in the shade of my big pine and now has lasted thru winter in the warmer part of the greenhouse.
Found my broccoli eater, nice fat cottontail. at least one. The netting is working for protection though, if he got tangled in it the local hawk would get him
stay warm
Gypsi