Wrapping up the Plants

And, no, it wasn't for Christmas.

We had a week of "hard freeze" temperatures.  Last year we had it easy and didn't have below freezing for more than a few hours on a couple of nights.  We did pretty well though, and only had a few casualties.

Our front raised planters are now mostly shaded from the sun by the house.  Even with a plastic mini-greenhouse, the soil just isn't staying warm.

Sad Swiss Chard and frozen mixed greens.

 The front bed is far enough from the house to get some light, so hopefully the spinach keeps growing strong.

Spinach

 We're not out of lettuce.  We had patches all over and this one is doing just fine.

No plastic, just a canvas drop cloth to shield it from the low temps.

Carrots did fine under a sheet at night.

 Now, once the hot temps left us with a beautiful fall our Early Girl tomato exploded with tomatoes.  Which were still green at the freeze.  We wrapped it with a welded wire fencing (like chicken wire, but with rectangles) and wrapped that with drop cloth and a comforter and a tarp...  and we still didn't think it would be warm enough.  So we bought Christmas lights.  Not the wimpy little mini ones, but the big ones that actually put out a little heat.

Hard to see them, but the tomatoes still look good.

 To keep the greenhouse warm, we vented our dryer out there and make sure we do a load or two each evening to heat it up.  We also put a couple of strands of those warm lights in there, too.  We decided to try using the drop cloths under the plastic to keep the cold from transmitting through into the greenhouse, and so far it seems to work really well.

For anyone worried about the stray cat... he's doing just fine.

Fennel

Pak Choi and beets.

Brussels Sprouts

Broccoli.

Broccolini

In the Thirties (Again)

Out come the blankets again.  Our evenings are getting chilly again.  It's not supposed to go below freezing, technically, but when the forecast changes so much every day it's hard to know what to believe.  We just know it got cold again.

We even saw it coming and what did we do yesterday???  Went to the nursery to buy some plants, of course.  The plan had been not to, since we had bought a lot of seeds this year.  As always, there are things missed, or easier for someone else to start.  Turns out, the reason our garlic didn't do so well last year was because we should have planted it in fall.  So we bought some that were nicely started to add into the garden.  We also grabbed a few artichoke plants, just for fun.  I've had spinach artichoke dip before, but that's really the only time I've ever had it.  I've never cooked with it before.  Don't know much about it, but why not?  Our daughter even got into the swing of things by grabbing a few bok choy and setting them in the wagon.  How could we say no?  We also got some new strawberries.  We had lost half of the planter to an aphid/pill bug attack last summer (possibly also to the mesquite roots).

Some of them made it into the ground yesterday, some are still hanging out in their pots.  All of them got a blanket for the chilly night.  Well, burlap would be a scratchy blanket for me, but I don't think the garlic minded.  Even the bunnies got a blanket again.  The little babies looked as happy as could be a little while ago, bouncing around in the sun.

We did discover something this week.  Something I think we'll find VERY useful.  Boric acid is a pill bug's nightmare.  We had our "what's killing the beans?" hunt this week and found slugs (with and without shells) and pill bugs galore.  We started out squishing and stomping, but then thought that the chickens might like some.  They actually seemed less than impressed the next morning, perhaps thinking of the horn worm smorgasbord they had only a few months ago.  So we kept some in the plastic container and added some diatomaceous earth.  The next day, they were still wiggling.  So my hubby threw in some boric acid.  We recently acquired some to help keep the roach population down this summer.  The next day we were bummed to notice the wind had knocked the container over.  Until we saw the pill bugs and little snails heaped in an unmoving pile on the ground.  I don't think they were just cold.  If you're overrun with pill bugs (which as far as we can tell don't prefer decaying material over live plant and veggie, no matter what others say), boric acid may be the way to go.  It is also possible that the DE just worked slowly, as it dehydrates bugs, and that may take a while.  Either way, both powders have found a home in our shed.

Hard Freeze

Here we are 16 days into the new year and, well, things have sucked.  On several levels.  In regards to the garden, we just went through several nights of a hard freeze.  Which is rare here.  According to the weather channel we were at least 10 degrees below the normal temps yesterday.

We had just planted seeds not that long ago.  We covered things up as much as possible and are crossing our fingers that they will hold on for the warmer temperatures.  Most things perked up in the day, especially the things in the hoop house.  But many just looked limp, like the cold weather was exhausting.  And it was really strange when I was pulling some of the sadder looking lettuce leaves and had ice slide out of them.

Peas in the patio box.

In the hoop house, we have broccoli and radishes.  

We also have the leeks still growing, even though they look really sad.  There is a handful of carrots left, though we had harvested most of them last week.  There are some grown beets and some new sprouts that don't look too worse for wear.  The onion patch is doing just fine.  Sadly, the peppers are done.  We tried to keep them going by cutting them back and covering them up, but the last week was just too much for them.

We also have the romaine.  

The chickens, bunnies, and stray cat all made it through the cold.  We gave the chickens a little extra scratch and Hubby served them with oats mixed with yogurt and applesauce.  They loved it.

Where's my yogurty oats?

So for the most part, I think we're alright.  We might have lost a few things, but so much seems to be pulling through.  Our mail box has been overrun with seed catalogs this last week.  We're putting together lists of what to order from which place.  It's exciting, and something perfect to do on these cold days.