I live in Texas. For the most part, I like living in this part of Texas. There are a few freaky days here and there when there is ice on the roads and I am afraid to go anywhere, but most of the time it is not too cold. Since I don't have a job now, I haven't bought a coat in several years. Most of the time it isn't cold enough to need more than a sweater, unless you are up early in the morning, and on the those days when I need something really warm I am okay wearing my old and out of style coat.
The early warm and pleasant days are deceptive. In February, there are already tomato plants and such at Walmart and Home Depot. But we know it really isn't time to plant tomato plants in February, unless you are the most serious gardener who builds tents and such to protect the plants. But maybe it is time to get ready to plant in February, cause it might be possible in March.
Since I am not the most serious gardener who builds things to protect the plants, I started getting things ready in February, but didn't plant anything until March. And then there were delays, and I didn't actually get anything planted until later in March than I wanted. But then when I did get a few things planted, like a few pepper plants, there was a freeze warning, so I went out and dug up the few pepper plants that I had just put out. The rest of the plants weren't actually in the ground yet, so they were easy to bring inside.
So, two days after that, I replanted the pepper plants. And I did a bit more digging, and I finally got most of everything in the ground Friday.
Saturday they said we might get some overnight temperatures in the thirties sometime early this week. Then they said that there was a freeze warning for tonight.
So I went and dug up a few things that were easy to get to, but I left the rest in the ground and brought in a few things that were in containers. The rest of it I'm experimenting with various ways of covering the plants. Some of the experiments weren't going well.
I give up. Whatever I've done will have to do. Or maybe it won't do at all, and I'll have to replace a bunch of plants. We will see what things look like tomorrow morning. But it shouldn't freeze again after that, though they did say that the record late freeze date was the thirteenth of April.
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Do you ever just throw old sheets over the plants outside? We do that when we have to, and it can work.
We noticed the crocuses today. I hope they don't get covered by the snow that is falling now.
We'd be doing real good here to get peas in the ground by Good Friday.
By the way, Denny's has another free food thing going:
http://www.dennys.com/default.html
but you have to buy something to get it.
I don't think that I have any old sheets.
Now that I think about it, I have a few old pillows, but I don't think that I will bother moving the stuff that I already did. It is only supposed to get to 32 or 31. Maybe it will be okay.
All elxe fails, blow on the plants all night.
Wow. Snow at dmark's and freezing plants. I have had three glorious days of sunshine and 70+ weather. I don't want to go back to the cold. The daffodils opened up today.
Once we used regular old garbage bags to cover plants for the night and it seemed to work pretty well. But I don't know if that was dumb luck and it made a difference or not.
How exhausting to plant and dig up and plant again. No wonder you are giving up. : )
Seriously, the pillow cases should help. I am not sure how big your plant beds are. I happen to live in a spot where, when we get warnings of "just below freezing, frost will kill your plants tonight", the temperature is usually a couple of degrees above the prediction, so it's not as bad.
Garbage bags would work too, but they'd tend to blow away easier in the slightest breeze. Sheets and pillow cases should usually stay put.
Well, I had gone out and bought some clear trash bags that I thought I could also use for another project, but unfortunately I bought the wrong size. And that sucks that I bought the wrong size, cause they cost about seventeen dollars. So most of the plants were covered with these clear trash bags, or overturned planters, or clear trash bags and overturned planters.
So some of the area got down to freezing, and some of the area stayed above freezing, and the freeze warning is until 9am. So I will go out in about an hour and take a look.
I so know nothing about gardening. It's pitiful.
Well, I don't know if we actually got down below freezing or not. I've looked at the plants, and all but one pepper plant looks okay, and I don't even think that the pepper plant is going to die. And if it does die it was a very common variety that is easy to replace. So I don't know if the plastic bags help or if it just didn't get that cold. The rest of the week looks to have lows in the high forties and low fifties, and it should not freeze after that. If it does freeze after that it will be a record late freeze.
The rest of today should be really nice weather. I guess it is time to finish up with the serious work.
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