Frost? Not now please…..
Weather.com has just lowered their forecast low for tonight from 34 to 33.
Accuweather and the National Weather Service suggest otherwise – 38 and 37 respectively.
In my experience this past winter the most accurate of the three websites in predicting lows behind my fence is the NWS followed closely by Accuweather; Weather.com is off a bit more often than not.
With more than half of my tomatoes already in the ground, temps in the mid 30s are bad enough but a frost on my unprotected plants would be a real bummer- I’d have to (gasp) buy tomato plants from a commercial nursery.
SO
I pulled the plastic sheeting I used for winter cover out from under Lizzie’s and rolled it out for inspection; if it hadn’t become too brittle from the UV exposure I figured I’d rig some cover for night and hope Weather.com was wrong again. (This exercise provided some extremely ripe water from the last 6 horizontal rains to pour out of the folded plastic into my shoes.)
The plastic was good to go so by dusk the two planted tomato beds in the back were tucked and the middle one had a nice blue tarp over it. Two individual plants were covered (with a wheel barrel and a plastic garbage can) and the final one is defended by two bags of mulch curled around it.
I didn’t realize until recently that some tomato varieties can be stunted by cold weather, something to be concerned with if temperatures drop much below the low 40s. Obviously frost will do the plant in for good but even the cold temperatures can have a lasting negative impact on the plant. The younger the plant to higher the risk (I have read). There are a variety of opinions on this and while I think my plants are hardened off well enough to do fine, I remain cautious.
So basically my choice was to come in and watch American Idol after picking a couple more quarts of strawberries and a fair batch of sugar snap peas, or I could fill my shoes with putrid water and protect my tomato plants.
Yeah, it was an easy choice…
Time out for some pictures
I’ve been working trying to catch up a bit on the spring plantings; plus mrs cohutt got smacked with a stomach bug this evening so I don’t have time to post anything of substance (like there is ever any substance. ha).
However, I have been dragging the camera around with me so tonight I’ll just post a few pictures from the last few days…..
Potato hilling, potato boxes
Initially I was concerned about my seed potatoes; I pre-sprouted them after I cut them into pieces but once planted it took some time for the sprouts to appear above ground.
Well, the growth since then has erased any doubt about the viability of this year’s seed stock. My source, Ronniger Potato Farm LLC, merged with Milk Ranch Specialty Potatoes LLC last fall for one storefront “Potato Garden”; I really liked their guide to growing potatoes and ended up ordering my seed stock from them this winter (Russet, Red Pontiac & Yukon Gold). The seed potatoes arrived in excellent condition on the right date for my zone; I was a little delayed in getting them cut and sprouted due to general disorganization but it appears everything will work out fine.
ANYWAY…..
Once some leaves started catching sunlight the plants have taken off so it appeared to be time for the first “hilling”. After last year’s disappointment using straw I decided I would go with the traditional soil hilling method this year.
No problem with the potato boxes, there was (by design) plenty of vertical container left to fill with new soil mix. This picture was right after I added soil last weekend; this morning they are already close to being ready for their second round:
The front beds in the boxwood garden area needed some additional “vertical” work in order to be adequately hilled. The beds are 8″ deep (a portion of these beds are below grade) and I created as much of a trench as I could at planting time (and had already back filled over the base of the new plants.) I felt like I could increase the yield a good bit if I could cover more of the plants, so last night these rigged additions were created and installed:
The additional 4″ should be adequate.
The 3rd planting area was in the western half of the new 16’x3′ bed with the new bamboo bean trellis frame along the eastern side. This picture is from several days ago; since then the plants grew enough to basically move the mound of soil from the right side of the bed to the left side around them. I’ve since planted the beans along the far right side (“Christmas” limas again) and the grade of the bed is fairly level. The jury is out on whether I need to add another course to the bed; I have a feeling I’ll just leave it as is and see what kind of yield I get.
Well, hail……
The cell passed. No tornadoes just these lovely gifts from above…..
Oh Krap
Next door in the basement.
Rut-Roh Reorge….
What the….?
Scavenged on Easter.
What should it become a part of?
A little at a time
The boxwood garden project is finally beginning to look resemble the finished product I envisioned 2 years ago. It is now all English boxwood and 100% pruned; the new growth has been strong on the bushes since they broke dormancy a few weeks ago.
Order is coming out of the chaos FINALLY….the perspective from the fence as of this past weekend is below:
It isn’t done but it can finally be moved to the “it may actually be finished one day” category.
For reference, this area was a combination of overgrown English boxwoods and really really overgrown common or American boxwoods. There were damaged bushes and completely empty spots where bushes had met their demise via drought or falling branches.
From a ladder looking down at the same section from the back side, taken in March of last year:
Last summer after the first hard pruning (done early last spring) from the opposite side of the garden:
In November of last year after looking towards the back fence. You can see the English boxwoods (on the left) where I cut the backs out but left the fronts full sized; this gave a “normal” view from the house but let sun into the back and center of the bush to promote new growth.
From January of this year before the great 2nd hard pruning and series of moves; the bench in the left of the picture against the fence is where I took the picture at the top of the thread this past weekend.
Mrs cohutt has been extremely patient throughout this journey and has trusted that there actually was a plan or a “method to my madness”. If you see her thank her for me. 😉
An encore presentation:
Flower people mystery solved
A few weeks ago I posted Flower People in order to try and identify survivors from a wildflower seed mix I had cast last summer.
Two things happened that allowed for my questions to be answered
They started blooming
I found the empty seed packet 9 months later…
It was Ferry Morse, “Perennial Wildflowers, Ferry’s Partial Shade Mixture”.
So what do I have?
Spurred snapdragon
Sweet William with soon to bloom Daisy Chrysanthemum behind it:
And more Sweet William:
This mystery is officially solved. ( Everyone get back to work. )
Bean poles
Last year I came up with a hugely complicated & over engineered bean trellis. It worked OK but I’ve since moved the beds and added another long bed in their place.
So this year I’ll just make a basic vertical frame.
The west side (left) of the bed is a long row of potatoes; the soil piled up to the right will fill in the potato trench shortly and the “Christmas” limas will run down that side. I’ll either lean thinner bamboo against the top “cross bar” or tie off jute string the same way.
For perspective, this is the asparagus bed just to the left:
Funny how plain this looks vs the monstrosity last year…
Behind cohutt's fence 