Friday 18 September 2009

Frost!

Darn! One day before I was to harvest everything, we had frost. The chard leaves were frozen solid this morning before I went to work, as were the bean leaves, the carrot tops, etc. I got home after dark tonight, so I didn't see the extent of the damage, but I have a feeling it will be a sad sight when I go out there tomorrow. Well, at least the root veggies are ok, and I think the kholrabi and kale should make it. This year's first frost was two weeks later than last year, and it still caught me off guard. Rats!

12 comments:

Liz said...

It went down to 0 here for the first time last night but we did get the tomatoes covered in the evening. After I finish my coffee, I'll venture out to inspect the damage. Hope you had enjoyed a bunch of tomatoes before Thursday night!

Theresa said...

Liz, my tomato plant was killed way back in June from a late frost - very disappointing. Glad you got to enjoy some of yours. I think our frost took even the weather forcasters by suprise, because there was no frost warning and the day before we hit a record daytime temp of 32C! It has been a crazy summer.

Eco Yogini said...

poop!! we haven't gotten frost in Halifax yet, but northern parts of the province and some inland areas did last weekend. BOO.

I hope you have some survivors!
(we practiced yoga outside this morning, with the wind it was COLD!)

Theresa said...

Thanks EcoY; the root veggies will at least be fine! Most of the other stuff was going to be saved for seed anyway, and I think I can still do that. Outside yoga is very cool! I like to do outside tai chi and meditation when it is a bit chilly out there - you can really notice your breath!

Leaf Dharma said...

Thats why I moved to BC. Sucks trying to grow Veges in a Zone 3.

hmd said...

Wow! I guess you're in Canada, so its expected, but we don't even think about frost here until December. Hope the damage isn't too great...

Scott & Liz said...

Yikes...Frost...I'm complaining today that it was another 90 degree day today here in the FL. Keys...Guess I'll just shutup.
Scott

Theresa said...

Leaf - we actually got two more weeks before the first frost than we did last year, so I can't really complain. There are quite a few quick-growing or hardy veggies I can still grow here, which is good.

Heather - wow, December for first frost - I can't imagine what that would be like! Here in December I'm just glad when it stays above -30C!

Hi Scott - thanks for coming by and taking the time to leave a comment. I would wilt at that temperature I think!

Anonymous said...

Some years, there's just no way to predict when Frost will make his first appearance. :) I am sorry about your chard, but the carrots will be all the sweeter for the frost. I hope everything else was untouched.

Theresa said...

Hi Nancy - glad you came by and thanks for taking time to comment. You sure do have some lovely pictures over at your blog :) I would love to make it out to your part of the country one day and see all that Fall color in person. It turns out the chard survived the frost, much to my great suprise, becasue it was literally frozen solid the next morning! I had some frost-sweetened carrots yesterday - mmmm.

Unknown said...

We have had bits of frost off and on all summer, it seems, which is really and truly weird.

We'd gotten all the peas and carrots a couple weeks ago - I just decided there was no point letting them go any longer, and I might as well pull 'em up and put 'em up for winter while I had time. All that was left was squash (well protected from frost by the leaves of the plants and the ummm generous covering of grass nearby), beets, and wheat.

Got all that in today, and now the sheep are clearing the garden for me. :) They are happy, I have less work to do, and it's all very cooperative.

Are you starting any preservation work?

Lee said...

Quelle bummere!

We had what I *think* was our final frost about a fortnight ago. Hopefully it will be all smooth sailing from here on. Saying that, though, we had a freakishly late snow last year - on November 5th, barely a month before the official start of summer. Crazy!

These things are Nature's way at thumbing its nose at us! I often think that the scouting saying "be prepared" is equally applicable for gardeners!

I hope your plants pull through as best as possible!