Comments on: The first frost: To cover or not to cover?

By: Gail

Gail — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:20:13 +0000

In my zone 4 garden, I will cover my tomatoes, they have only been ripening for about a month and a half now and DH has not had his fill. We are suppose to get down to 29 next week, so I will cover until then and pull the plants to hang upside down in the greenhouse. We have not had enough fresh goodies yet. I will harvest the potatoes this week, everything else is cleared from my small garden or put into the greenhouse.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:51:03 +0000

I like your attititude: my mom wouldn’t. I mean, living in MN, she would and is lamenting their first frost because summer is BARELY 3 months long. I have the advantage of zone 5. I used to cover stuff that was still blooming, as if trying to reanimate a dead goldfish with string or something, but not anymore. I’ll bring my cosmos in too.

By: tedb

tedb — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:37:09 +0000

We cover for the first few go rounds with frost also. The early ones usually occur on clear, still nights – eventually a wind cold front comes through and no covers stay in place anyway so a new chapter begins in the garden.

By: Robin

Robin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:34:24 +0000

Oh! To be thinking of Frost! We are still in the 90′s here in Austin, and may not have a frost until after Thanksgiving. Fall is our second, and most enjoyable, growing season, with temps cooling down enough that we can get in the garden again. I know, I know, gardening weather is like sailing. There’s either no wind, not enough wind, too much wind, or hurricane. It’s never Just Right!

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:58:33 +0000

Kathy, I hope the sheets do a good job and your husband will get to enjoy his cherry tomatoes soon. I was happy to read Cadie’s comment that she had a couple of blooms on Miss Scarlett.

Here’s to some fine fall weather for y’all to savor before winter takes hold!

By: Shady Gardener

Shady Gardener — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:22:54 +0000

We shouldn’t have a frost for awhile, yet. But there’s always a chance for the unseasonable! I, too, would cover things during an early frost… if only for my own enjoyment.

There are times when one must pick and choose. Sounds to me as though you made wise choices. Hopefully you can enjoy “balmy” weather during these next couple of weeks.

(I have a very similar assortment of sheets!) ha.

By: Meadowlark

Meadowlark — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:00:06 +0000

We have very similar frost-schedules to yours. We had a freeze the other night and I finally gave in a cut all the green tomatoes off. Wouldn’t you know that today is supposed to hit 80.
Sheeeesh.

By: dlyn

dlyn — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:11:40 +0000

About now, I am wishing I had let the darned tomatoes freeze – I have no place left to put any more!

By: Cadie (Cadence)

Cadie (Cadence) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:55:31 +0000

So much for covering the morning glories, though, unfortunately. There were only a few sheets left in the box after the other things we covered, and I forgot that you have to cover the morning glories on both sides of the fence. So even the few that I did cover (I made sure I covered some Scarlett O’Hara) turned brown and shriveled. The biggest cluster of Glacier Star that I partly covered have been struggling on with less prolific and more feeble blooms. So I never got to see the Scarlett O’Hara bloom–oh well. For some reason they are a much less vigorous grower than the other kinds.

Well, isn’t that a surprise–I just went outside to check for sure, and some of the Scarlett O’Hara survived! Not only that, but one plant has two small blooms. They are a bright pink, whereas I imagined them as more of a dainty deep red. But it’s the principle of the matter, anyway: a plant shouldn’t get killed before it has a chance to bloom.

It seems that its tendency to form a cluster of vines near the bottom and grow upwards very slowly served it well. The other varieties that had vines covering the fence got utterly fried, but some clusters of leaves near the base are still green, such as the places where I covered the Scarlett O’Hara. It’s interesting how in some spots, some leaves on the plant are green while others (or the vine tips) are brown. They’re half-dead and half-alive. In some places where they’re all green it looks like leaves from other morning glory varieties kind of sheltered them.

By: Dee/reddirtramblings

Dee/reddirtramblings — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:06:15 +0000

We won’t get our first frost on the punkin until the end of October, maybe later. By then, I’m ready for things to be gone and ready for cleanup.

If I lived in your cold climate, I would cover too, my friend.~~Dee