Our son just called from the panhandle and he is in snow. This is not good. He saw construction workers and he says they have on more clothes than Eskimoes. Here it is suppose to be in the mid 30s with some chance of snow. Now, I have brugs that are coming out and a few are about a foot tall. How much cold can they take? I have buckets and blankets ready. I sure hope the weather people are wrong!
Stay warm and dry everyone.
Kim
Gosh it is cold....
Prediction is for 37 degrees here Sat.p.m. I need to get my new kumquat into the ground today - figure it can fare better there than in a pot. Hope the remaining blossoms on the tangerine and lemon trees are not in danger. I'm not growing brugs, so can't offer any help.
Kim, the hardier Brugs can handle short exposures to a light freeze if covered with sheets or blankets. Are your Brugs in the ground? Plastic containers, filled with water, placed around the plants before you cover help keep the plants warmer. Also, the blanket should go all the way to the ground. Since the ground stays warmer, having some ground under the blanket will help keep the plants warmer, too. Potted plants will need to go back indoors — something I have to take care of today. I had already moved many of my plants out of the greenhouse.
The ones that I am most concerned about are the ones that rooted over the winter and planted this week. I guess i will just cover them up and hope for the best. I have been dragging my feet as to planting my veggies and now I know why.
I guess we better bring in some wood for the wood burning heater!
Tonight - 31 degrees here in Frisco.
This is NOT good.
Have covered most of my potential fatalities. That will give me the 2-3 degrees buffer I need.
Sigh .......
I hear you....forecasted for 34 here but we always get colder than the prediction by about 2-3 degrees. So I am thinking 31-32 by morning. It is so frustrating to put so much hard work and time into gardens and then have to deal with something like this. I am glad that I had so many pots around to cover things, I guess in that way it is a good thing to be buying plants....lol. I've got a veggie garden covered with tarps, underneath everything is covered with either a cardboard box or a pot to try and keep things from getting squished. I also have comforters out there to cover what the tarps couldn't reach. All my other plants are covered in pots, boxes, tubs, or whatever else I could find in the house. I have a few vines that have sheer cloth wrapped around them, might not be enough but I am out of ideas for how to cover them up. I am going to walmart this afternoon for some clothes pins to clip some things into place, and then we will just have to play the waiting game. One of those rare times when I wish I lived in town.....
Kim
I hope they are wrong on the forcast, like they are most of the time.
We have snow. Yes, the white fluffy stuff. It is falling like mad outside now. Of course it is melting as fast as it falls. We are also under a freeze alert until tomorow afternoon.
Cold,
Whatever we can do to protect what we have. blue_eyes, I hear you ... I spent about three hours, three days a week since the middle of February. Just glad spinach and lettuce were two of my big veggie crops ... they can handle this.
It's the tomato, zucchini, and squash I'm worried about.
On the other hand, I am glad I left my cyclamen out. They love this stuff ... well, maybe not the freeze ... they will lose their petals if it sustains
Back to hot chocolate ...
W J
snow here and more forecasted; lost crabapple leaves already hope my jasmine doesnt croak; salvia, echineacea; daylilies; shastas; hate this...
I'm feeling thankful now that I didn't get all that stuff planted that I had on my to-do list. My newbies are only homestead verbena and black foot daisies. But I sure had a lot of stuff in pots. I have irises just about to open, so I cut some of them. I planted them last year so I've never seen them bloom. Real bummer. If the bud has pushed out of that green sheath (don't know the name of that) and you cut it, will it open?
I dont even want to talk about it anymore ... been worring about plants for the last eight months ... its in Gods hands now.
i know what ya mean sylvia.....i will get what i need....
We have the big smoker/grill in the orchard next to the pluot tree that is just loaded with fruit. It is the only tree not covered in snow, so perhaps we are doing some good (or some harm). We shall see. I will load it up with big logs again before bedtime and hope the temp does not fall any more. It's 30 degrees right now and still snowing hard. It has never snowed here in April. At least not in the 35 years I have lived here.
We have been so overwhelmed with calving that we had not planted tomatoes and peppers yet. The tomato plants are still happily climbing for the ceiling in the greenhouse. There is a sadness of irises in the front bed, but I am hoping the unopened buds are not destroyed. Same thing with the roses. One perfect bloom was open, and a lot more ready.
On the positive side, I have a roaring fire in the fireplace and things could be a lot worse! Hope all of you are having a warm evening and hide all your Easter eggs inside!
I was driving home in Lakeway (3o minutes north of Austin) at about 6:30 and saw snow flurries that turned to water when they hit the windshield. I've covered my fox-tail ferns...wonder about other things.
My Jap. Maples are beautiful....hope the new foliage doesn't freeze off!!! Any suggestions with those? They are 1 year old....about 3 feet high.
If all the snow that we had had stuck to the ground we would need a snow plow. Where did all this stuff come from?
All my thermometers said it didn't get lower than 39. At least in Dallas 'burbs
True / False ????
Well....Jasper woke me up at 7:15 this morning and I hesitantly looked outside. It looked wet but not frosted, and the temp was 35. So perhaps the weatherman was wrong after all. I am tentatively breathing a sigh of relief here. Happy Easter everyone! I will be celebrating with my family when they come down here after the sale next week, so for now it's just back to cleaning the house for me...lol.
:) Kim
It appears that we didn't get less than 36 here in my little "2*colder than predicted" microclimate here at Fry, 2 miles N. of I-10. Don't need this weather! Off to church soon in my heaviest winter coat since they ALWAYS have the AC on in church. What a bummer!
Happiest Easter to all of you.
Ann
It sleeted here for about 5 minutes and melted in a nanosecond!!..Hope everyone was ok..don't think it hurt anything in my gardens...Jeanne
I am crossing my fingers that I did not have any damage. I was in Eastern Oklahoma for the 3 day weekend and have not had a chance to check anything. I got home at 8:30pm last night and did not have a chance to inspect before leaving for work this morning.
Can you believe it was warmer in Oklahoma than here? I think it did dip down to about 28 Saturday night, but Saturday when you guys were getting snow, it was a beautiful calm sunny day with a high of about 48.
Everything here looks ok. We didn't get the frost as predicted.
Not as bad, but I lost most of my coleus seedlings I only planted a few days ago. My caladiums, though, wow - I was worried and they seem to be ok, with only minor leaf damage. Everything else took the weather in stride.
Now, WARM UP dang it.
And some sun. We haven't had enough sun to really get things going yet at all.
well my damage was to my hostas....not alot but they are now going to look sorta funky....i don't think they are killed....; why does my brain tell me that if i go out and water it will help them? should i or shouldn't i ?
then i was very very worried about my autumn rose sage...and it looks the best of all; i put cardboard boxes on it as i didn't have tall covering for it and it looks great...
lastly, my jasmin is looking kinda shaky....it is on my trellis....i hope it made it....i covered it with sheets...but the new growth looks awful....
sun sun sun get over here!!!
Sticks Hostas love water.
should i water them.....? i figured with the snow that they don't need it?
I saw on tv just last nite, watering plants in this weather help insulate the top growth and the roots stay warm. Dont quote me, I am still trying to understand it. lol
I've understood that a dry freeze is the worst---can be particular damaging to the root system. Thus, when cold weather is predicted, I do a deep soak a day or two prior. Soaking after a dry freeze should help also.
Ohhh ok ... there is a method to the madness. :) ... this is good to know.