The first freeze moved through a few days ago and we did our best to prevent the widespread damage that we suffered last year. We lost a few things, but otherwise came through okay.
Last year, the first freezes occurred in December and continued through February; sometimes lows plunged below 32 for several nights in a row. We lost lots of stuff.
We had one of the warmest Decembers on record this year and didn’t get a freeze scare until Tuesday night when forecasters said even Pinellas County would suffer a hard freeze. We covered our tomatoes, beans, peppers and other vulnerable veggies with blankets and sheets, then went to plastic when we ran out. I’ve since read that plastic is not recommended for covering plants, so that’s probably the last time we’ll use it.
Covering our plants takes several hours of work, especially when it’s windy, as it was Tuesday. The wind knocked down a few of the covers, but we got lucky because the low only dipped to about 38 on Tuesday night. The only casualties were the cucumbers and a few beans.
Forecasters said Wednesday night would be warmer, so I took the covers off. But Wednesday night got down to 32 and finished off the cukes and wiped out the beans. A few tomato plants also were killed. The papaya trees looked dinged on the leaves, but we’ll have to see if there any long-term affects. Everything else came through.
Winter freezes are frustrating. Many of the plants killed by freezes — tomatoes, cukes. peppers and beans — can’t be planted until the sweltering summer is over, usually October. The grow and grow and just start to produce in December and January … and then are killed in a freeze. All that work!
Our cukes were just starting to put out about two weeks ago and now they’re done. Oh well. I know weather forecasting probably isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but it also was frustrating getting bad information about what night would be coldest. I don’t mind battling nature a bit — it’s kind of fun — but I’d like to start winning a little bit more.
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