Thus far, this Spring has given us some pretty crazy weather! And tonight it strikes again...the average low at our house for mid-May is in the low 50's. Tonight the low is 32-degrees with a frost warning! Yikes!
Luckily we don't have everything for the summer garden planted yet, just the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. So I grabbed some old bed sheets, clothes pins, and headed outside to save our delicate veggies. The tomato cages where easy, but I had to get creative for the rest. I used bamboo to make little teepee's for some of the smaller plants. We had three saw horses I grabbed, they made perfect drapes to cover two plants each. Lastly, we had some old lattice which I locked together to make tents.
Here is a basic guideline for Frost Sensitive crops, which should be protected (covered) when/if temps near or dip below 32-degrees:
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Hot peppers
Sweet peppers
Eggplant
Beans
Basil
Nasturtiums
Melons
Summer squash
Nasturtium
Sunflower
I ran out of bed sheets for our sunflowers! I covered them with hay, hopefully that will be enough...
Also, I'm worried about our strawberries...a coworker told me about a trick...
Going out early in the morning and spraying them with water before the sun shines on them. I'll have to give this a whirl...fingers crossed!
Do you have delicate veggies panted already? And are you experiencing March weather in May? How do you protect your crop?
This was shared at the Backyard Farming Connection.
-Live Simple, Be Happy-
Magnolia Holler
Ours dipped down cool, but not that cool. Oh, I hope nothing gets ruined.
ReplyDeleteI planted my tomatoes on Saturday, and of course Sunday night it got really cold. We got to 38, so luckily not down to the freezing mark. I wasn't able to cover my tomatoes, but they seem to be doing ok. It just makes me so nervous though when that happens!
ReplyDeleteWe don't plant much until the end of May. It was quite warm here for a couple weeks, but now it is back to 60 degree days, and ~35 degree nights - with frost warnings. I should have peas and spinach planted...but it hasn't happened yet...may have to count on a fall planting for those :-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't protect my stuff - hope it's okay! I have heard people who do the spraying with water - apparently it works quite well.
ReplyDeleteHope your garden was ok!! We had a frost last week too. Only lost a few basil plants :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing at the Backyard Farming Connection!