Six inches of snow on Monday killed off a bunch in my area AND damaged a lot of trees, shrubs and plants.

Bummer, eh?

I am beyond mad. My whole veggie garden is planted including 15 tomato plants as well as many annuals. Long range did not call for this. We're having early March weather here and had June weather in March. I don't know where to start covering. Can't bring them all inside.

Definitely a bummer. I guess I shouldn't whine about a freeze when the middle of PA got hammered with snow. Maybe both the snow and the freeze will knock off some ticks.

Heavy wind and rain and snow expected off and on all weekend. This area doesn't plant much before June 1st, but trees are out and poor birds are sitting, along with pheasants and geese. I am going to check on a robin's nest later to see if it go blown out of the tree. Sure hope not.

We sure live in a big country. It is approaching 88 here in Ocala today. I sure hope none of you lose your plants and trees and especially your baby birds marie-ndcal! If your weatherman is anything like ours, you'll be at least 3-5 degrees warmer than they say you'll be.

Bummer is right, Lu Ann. Did the snow stick? Is it still on the ground? Ick!

Stay warm everyone and I'll try to stay cool!

Lily316..if you have a whole bed planted can you find a big old sheet to just throw over the whole thing? Even an old shower curtain or tarp would help! We are getting the freeze too but I don't have too much planted yet.
Joann

This afternoon I put stakes in the gardens, and I just came in from throwing sheets over them and holding them down with bricks. Remember to throw sheets made of natural fibers only. Plastic touching the plants can do more harm than leaving them uncovered.

Good luck alisande ... let's hope for minimal damage for you!

The warm weather was too tempting for some people, too bad.That's a lot of hard work getting a garden planted and now to have to worry about a freeze would be enough to make me cry.. hope you folks get through it ok.

An interesting note...maybe. I was recently told that one could put old Christmas tree lights on our fruit trees in the winter to turn on when the trees (especially apricots here in Oregon)are in bloom and we have a frost warning. (Those old C6 ones give off a bit of heat) Was not able to do it this year, but next year our trees will be wearing Christmas colors at blossom-time. We just got home from a trip and DH has been out counting all the trees with fruit set....so far, so good.

It's 3 AM and it's 41 so I hope it stays there. I covered all the flowers and brought some in. The tomato garden is too big and there are cages on them , and the veggie garden is in the community garden. They are all cool weather crops like peas and spinach and lettuce, but we just planted squash and zucchini. We'll see tomorrow, I guess. The warm weather made us jump the gun.

Well, we did have a frost, and when I took my sheets off the plants some of them were wet, so it's a good thing I covered them. I had to plant them because they needed to get out of pots, but what I have planted is manageable. How did everyone else make out?

Glad you did okay, Susan. Hard to say what happened here, as my main concern was the fruit crop. Temp was 27 degrees F. at midnight, so I would say we got the predicted freeze.

Alisande - do they use any sort of "frost control" in your area? Here - eastern Washington - they use wind machines, oil and propane heaters mostly. Our wind machine broke down recently, so we're hoping for no more freezing temps. Only 33 last night.

Oh, crud- 27 is bad..... we had a late freeze like that a few years ago and it was so very sad- there were no tree crops that summer and fall at all- no acorns, no persimmons, no apples or peaches or nectarines, it was devastating. And all the leaves on all the trees turned black and mushy and fell off. It was really hard on the animals that depend on those crops and the trees.

I'm really sorry about your freeze, Susan.

My leaves on my potatoes that were up have turned black, but I think they will bounce back. I put my tomato plants in before it turned so cold. I am not planting till later in May any tender crops. I don't know how cold it did get but the other morning my thermometer read 32 and the leaves were black on the potato plants.

Sue in Central Indiana

Predictions here are good. there hasn't been freezing or anything near freezing for quite awhile. I don't plant a big flower garden anymore, but would still hate to loose what I did plant. I hope it won't be to bad for the rest of you.

Thanks, Flamey. I forgot about the acorns. A smaller than usual acorn crop is one reason we've been told to expect an especially bad tick season this year. (With fewer acorns, the mouse population is down. With fewer mice, the ticks look elsewhere--to us!--for a blood meal.)

Genbella, I never heard of those measures--although it's possible the farmers have implemented them here.

No frost, but the next two nights will be iffy too so I left mine all covered. The veggie garden looks so so but not good. It will be 80 in a few days. I hate this weather.