12.05.09

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!



We had a nasty, early freeze. I didn't get all of my plants covered in time. I had fully planned to, and then failed. These following images include plant carnage, and may not be suitable for all viewers. Discretion is advised.

Froze globe basil...

Froze zinnias...

Rags thrown over squash and gourds, to no avail. Insert sad face here.

Oh, the carnage. So, so, SOOO sad.

I found half a dozen or so pumpkins and acorn squash as I sifted through the freeze-damaged vines.

Acorn squash...

Some white mini pumpkins...

I took all of my pumpkins and squash to Houston for Thanksgiving and we used them for centerpieces. Once back home in Austin, I let them ripen more in the kitchen. Eventually they got carved, seeded, roasted and pureed and made into some awesome muffins.

This was my sun-gold cherry tomato bush. Man, those things were delicious. I hated seeing this thing die.

Yep, you guessed it! This is THE bed. Since it's somehow finding its way into every post, I'm going to start hiding weird things in it. The first person who posts a comment to the blog identifying that week's hidden object by the deadline (I'll put it in the post) will win a handful of what ever is in season!

My "Jack-O-Lantern" vine, decimated. But the pumpkin didn't die!

Thank goodness for cold weather veggies! My brassicas did great.

As did most of my herbs.

My "Caprese" bed didn't fare as well, but I wasn't thinking it would. I needed the freeze damage to encourage me to clean out the bolted basils and the hopeless 'maters and peppers and put in something that would do better in the cold.

The wilted marigolds were heartbreaking. What was a firey mound of orange and yellow just a few days before turned into a sad puddle of deadness.

I had tried to use these army green frost covers, but they weren't all that helpful. I thought these covers were supposed to insulate, not just keep frost from touching plants. Apparently, I misunderstood the packaging.

Blobby frost cover messiness.

More of same.

I'm sure you get the picture, but I'm still not going to edit!

Guess!

I do have a point here eventually... wait for it.

Ahhhhh, yesss! My PVC biodomes! Just some cheap electrical (or plumbing - now I can't remember) pipe, some nuts and bolts and VOILA! After experimenting with the pole length and finding what would cross from corner to corner without flipping out of place or creating a huge amount of space between the tallest plant and the frame, I cut all of the poles to length. Ten beds, two poles per bed. I think the measurement I used was 7'. I bolted two poles together making sure the nut was on the bottom of the "X" when installed so as not to rip my frost cover.

I thought I was going to have to use bracing hardware to keep the frames in place, but they are actually VERY snugly installed with just the tension of the PVC against the wood. Easy-peasey to pop in or take out as needed.

Draping blankets over the frames prevents crushing delicate plants, as well as forms a pocket of insulating air in the center.

I was VERY happy with these. My original plan was to use them to hold up the green frost cloth for future cold snaps, and if necessary, layer warmer blankets on top. I eventually found a better product though, and the green frost covers got relegated to the back yard plants. Pics of and info on the better product to come.