Early Frost

They say the weather in New England is crazy and unpredictable, and at times it sure makes me scratch my head. A week or two back we had an early frost, which was crazy because the weather had been so warm and mild leading up to it that it really took us by surprise. We started burning wood early, which made me a little uneasy about the prospects for winter, but even worse, it was bad news for our garden. We still had tomatoes and squash growing, and a fair number of both.

The easy thing would have been to simply ignore the warnings and hope that the forecast was would be wrong or that our plants would emerge unscathed, i.e., hope for the best. I opted to take action, needing a little more work and drama in my life. Now we have three garden plots, so it was a fair bit of ground to cover. My understanding with frost is that it falls from above, so all you have to do is cover the tops of the plants. I gathered up several tarps and old sheets that I use for painting and went to work.

It's times like this that you realize that gardening covers a lot more ground than you realize. At first glance it doesn't look like much, but when you have to cover the plants, it's a fair amount of real estate. I managed to get it done, and it was a good thing because it actually dropped down to about 30 degrees. I could see the next day that the plants that didn't get covered took a beating, especially our basil.

Now that we've salvaged our tomatoes, the next question is, will they ever turn red? Only time will tell.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Timo Soderlund for the pic.