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Frost tonight??- I'm going to cover the veggie garden & t

16 years ago

We are in danger of frost tonight...$%^&**^%$#@???@!I know the veggies have to be covered, now the tender annuals - last year I lost the 4 O'clocks, and its not going to be a repeat of last year. So off I go.... dang it- I thought it was over!!!!

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Comments (8)

etravia
16 years ago
I just came in from covering squash,tomatoes, zinnias, peony's, that are just about ready to open, & datura (did I need to cover this? I reallly want it to grow, so I'm not taking any chances!) This stinks!
Maggie
kek19
16 years ago
I just covered my daylilies, lol, see where my priorities are!! I had some new purchases that i wanted to protect. I did throw a top half of a pop bottle over the one tom that didn't have one, and a burlap sac over my containers. OH I Forgot my hollyhocks!! I'm going outside now to cover the tiny holly's! I haven't planted out anything other than that that I really really want to make it.
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I garden in downtown Atlanta, my garden acts easily as a zone 8 garden and it is BLAZING HOT, no shade, facing south and east. Everything does just dandy for me! Prepare soil well so it retains water, mulch very well and water when needed. I actually don't water all that frequently and everything is fine. Cowpeas, yard long beans, bush beans, lima beans, okra, malabar spinach, butternut squash, luffa, sweet and hot peppers, eggplants, various melons and tomatoes all do fine. I grow Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, sungold, green zebra, Juliette, Taxi, Jubilee, Rutgers, Marlglobe, and many more different tomatoes but these are the ones I grow pretty much every year. Most of the heirlooms I vary simply to try new tastes every year. Tip: Grow sweet peppers in the shade of tomatoes. A local farmer taught me this and it works like a charm. I've increased my pepper harvests greatly and never get any burn. Insects and disease are more challenging than that heat.
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Ahh - New plant disease. LOL I almost did the same thing, but not with peppers. I have a newly planted salad bed that I stuck a few of my transplants into and planted seed in the rest. A few days later, I could see little green things all over it. Well some of the lettuces had started to come up and were teeny, tiny, but the rest was something blowing in from the neighbors tree. It was bright green and in tiny little pieces. Thanks for the pepper info. I was hoping that they would be a small plant, but was afraid they would not be. I think there are going to be some crowded plants in my garden this year. I wish seed companies would put the size of the fruit or other edible part of the plant AND the 'average' size of the plant on seed packages. It would certainly make planning easier.....and I HATE, HATE, HATE generic seed packages. If it weren't for the internet we probably wouldn't know what we were planting. LOL Actually I don't mind the Thompson and Morgan method of a generic package inside the 'picture pack'. I think the foil pack may also protect for a little longer. It looks like a good business decision to me since you don't have to use colored and expensive printing to print packs for things that never make it to the shelf. Just stuff the pack as your inventory needs require. With the date stamped on the inside pack only, you could use the same outside pack for years, but only pay printing costs for the ones you really sell or display. I think maybe the Brits got it right on that one. LOL I had two tomato plants outside last night. One was in a container and covered with a milk jug with the cap off and the bottom cut out. I slid it under a glass top table for the night, and the other was in the center of a huge container with a window across the top. The window didn't cover the top of the pot, but did help to shield the plant a little. Everything here looks good but it still feels cool at 48 degrees. I need to go pull my 'tomato wagons' out into the sun. Just as I was typing this the temp jumped to 50 so I guess the peppers get to come out also. We're walking, walking, walking. I need to go move a few more from their tiny blocks to a pot. I'm almost done with that task, but I am getting some pepper seed in the mail this week and I know I will have to plant a few of those. Do I need them? No, of course not, but they will be pretty in the garden. LOL
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de, I don't think you should be having so much trouble keeping your soil moist overnight. I'm wondering if you moistened the mix (specifically the peat) when you combined the ingredients. The peat can be problematic. Personally, I just put a small hole in the bag, and put the hose into it for a while to moisten the peat (let it sit a day or more afterwards) before I add it to the mix. If you didn't moisten the peat before you put your seeds in, chances are that the mix is just very dry (and dry peat will allow the water to flow through, rather than be absorbed). If that is the case, you will need to give your mix a LOT of water, slowly so as to not wash out your seeds. But, at the same time, you may not have success anyway, if the mix isn't moist anyway.
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sultry_jasmine, you made my day with those lovely pictures of the moths - thank you. Re four o'clocks. How have you been trying to start the seeds? We are also zone 9 here, but I realize have different soil and humidity. Here they start themselves, and proliferate amazingly. I have restricted them to one bed, but I still find seedlings coming up in other beds, especially those which are downhill from where the four o'clocks are allowed to grow. After our winter rains, I think they just flow down the driveway with the rain water, and plant themselves. I am trying to remember how I planted the first ones years ago - I think I just took the seeds and threw them on a flower bed, and put maybe 1/2 inch of potting soil on top of them. Once you get one to grow, I should warn you. They make tubers under the ground, and the tubers get bigger and bigger every year. We have dug some up tubers which were over a foot long and 5-6 inches in diameter - no kidding. They die down & disappear here in the late Winter, and then pop up again from their tubers the Summer/Fall. They also start from seed which they plant themselves. The good news is that the seedlings and the old ones are not difficult at all to dig up, but you do have to use a trowel for the seedlings, and a shovel for the old ones. I do love them, especially all of the colors - I have yellow, white, pale pink, dark pink, white & dark pink striped, and yellow and pink striped. Here are some pics of them growing in my garden. Totally care-free, and I always have lots of seed to offer friends.
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stage_rat
16 years ago
The forecast says it will get down to 36 degrees--are you all concerned about frost happening at a higher temp than 32? (which I know can happpen, and I'm off to re-read about it)
sheltieche
16 years ago
well, I broke down and went and covered my veggies garden with sheets. Temps showed 41.7F at 6am. First look outside identified coleus slightly limpy- already planted out in containers but we will see- it yet might recover. Everything else looks perky as usual. Datura seems does not mind cool weather.
I am going out and planting rest of my peppers and eggplants- am d... tired from this weather and not finished job...
tosser
16 years ago
Weatherguy claimed last night's low would be 41Â°, but here it was 37Â°. Thankfully the air's been oddly dry here this week so no frost, but still chilly enough to be worrisome (although this past Monday it got to 93Â°).

Our official last-frost date here is 15 May, and I used to run right out on the 16th and start planting; but several years ago we got hit by frost on the 24th and now I'm too chicken to put anything tender in until Memorial Day.
ccoupkir
16 years ago
Wouldn't you know it, I spent yesterday opening and placing containers in their assigned beds! Last night I had to go around and put the tops ( or newpasper) back on everything!! This a.m. everything looks fine. Doesn't look like we got frost after all. Yea!!! Now I have to reverse and uncover everything again. Last year I lost alot of zinnias and Mexican sunflowers when it got down in the 20s the 3rd week in May. This year I haven't even sown them yet!! Now if I could just catch that pesky ground hog that keeps eating my broccoli plants!!
kek19
16 years ago
I live where 3 counties meet, 2 of the counties had freeze advisories, and frost everywhere else. I was out at midnight trying to finish covering stuff, and I dont think we even got frost! :P Oh well, better safe than sorry.
susan926
Original Author
16 years ago
So at 10:00 p.m. I nearly froze my patuties off when I went out to cover things with sheets. it never got down to freezing, but you know if I did not cover.... all would have froze- go figure...:)

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