Saturday, November 7, 2009

The First Freeze

Lettuce

Last night got down to a chilly 28°F. This was quite enough to freeze the soil for the first time to the depth of about an inch or two. I didn't cover my lettuce. I'm hoping they will be OK once they defrost since we have some nice weather coming up. The long range forecast doesn't even call for another freeze (maybe not even a frost) anytime through the middle of November (not that the long range forecast is a real prediction of what it will be in ten days).

Parsley

Carrot

The freeze did make for some pretty crystals on my plants. I bet my carrots are even sweeter than they were before.

Thyme

You would think it was the height of summer since this is the seventh post so far this week. I don't often do two posts a day this late in the season, but who can resist their plants cloaked in diamonds?

11 comments:

  1. I always love all the frozen crystals on everything.

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  2. Great minds think alike. I just put up a very similar post. Those diamonds are very pretty!

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  3. Frost here, too, Daphne! Now we *really* have to haul those remianing plants into the greenhouse and harvest our potatoes. No more excuses!!!

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  4. The ice crystals on the carrot leaves are like a a work of art - so pretty.

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  5. Fortunately, I got home early enough to cover all of my crops. I noticed that about an hour later, 10 pm or so, frost was already appearing in our yard. Th garden looked as like it was glowing this morning.

    Hopefully you'll still have some lettuce for Thanksgiving! I especially like how the frost looks on the carrot.

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  6. Chiot's Run, it is really hard to resist.

    The Mom, I saw that. It is hard to resist taking photos of a good frost. The last couple of frosts didn't have the pretty edging like last nights frost.

    our friend Ben, yes you do need to get those potatoes up. It would be sad to have them frozen into the ground for the winter.

    kitsapFG and Stefaneener, thanks

    Thomas, Oh I was home yesterday and thought about it. Sadly I had a splitting headache all day long (I keep wondering if I'm fighting the flu since I've had on and off symptoms all week long - I don't feel sick though). So I just ignored the garden. Luckily the lettuce seems to have defrosted without injury. So far the weather report is favorable. I know my history for the last few years though. That third week is usually the killer.

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  7. That really is pretty. We can get frost like that every once in a while. There was one last December that had me out in the garden taking lots of photos.

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  8. I think the lettuce will be ok. The frost sure does make for some really good photo opportunities...

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  9. yeah, these are really pretty photos of frost covered foliage.

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  10. Love the frosty carrot! We have had a few frost already but nothing hard enough to kill off the hardier stuff. We to are having a nice warm up for the next little while, certainly is welcome.

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  11. Michelle, My biggest problem with frost like this is that if you have enough moisture in the air to make the frost really pretty, then it isn't deathly cold yet and it can warm up and melt the frost before the sun hits it to take photos. I cheated and used a flash for these, but my favorite photo are in the sun. Sadly the garden still doesn't get sun. Soon the leaves will be off the trees then it will start getting some more.

    EG, the lettuce did just fine. It is pretty hardy stuff. Too many freeze/thaws and it will die, but so far so good.

    Wendy, thanks

    Dan, the carrot seems to be everyone's favorite (including mine). I had a really pretty dead leaf too, but I just couldn't get it in focus.

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