Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Garden Journal 2011 {Freezing}

We love our winter garden.  I am growing a really fun variety of kale that has bumpy, dinosaur skin with curvy claw-like ends.  Boy fun :)  Our favorite preparation is to strip it from the stem, chop, blanch and toss with lemony dressing, which is posted long ago here.

Arizona is so great for gardening besides the terrible native soil, virtually no rain and killer summers...  I ran a continuous garden this year and even let some summer crops carry through to the new year.  I have tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes and green beans going right now that are super frost sensitive.  Last weekend it got down to 22 degrees.  We broke out the Christmas lights and clear plastic to protect our vulnerable plants.  Hubby got BIG points that chilly night.  I hope it doesn't freeze again for a while.

I had 4 pepper plants that were away from the pack and we couldn't find the rest of our lights, so I just covered them and called it good.  No good...


It was a hard pill to swallow.  To make matters worse, I snapped my most hearty, gorgeous, fruitful tomato plant when I was taking the lights down :(

I can't get too down about it, since I still have 8 pepper plants and 12 tomato plants that are going strong.  The peas and beans are looking great too!


Sorry if you are 2 feet under snow right now...
links; Works for me Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Tuesday Twister, Pantry Challenge

8 comments:

  1. You're so blessed to be able to grow things now - I'm in Indiana, and the other came across a picture of my summer garden, green and growing. It made me so homesick for the warmer months! Your garden looks wonderful.

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  2. I want to come visit your garden someday.

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  3. Thank you, Susan.

    Jill, you can!! I am starting classes this month :)

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  4. Saw your garden live and in the flesh when I picked up Sam the other day. Gorgeous!

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  5. I heard you got to sample the homemade truffles too :)

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  6. I lost my tomato plants , egglplants and some herbs. Thank goodness the other plants do well in frost. I hate to see them go. I am never so proactive to pull out the lights. Way to go! I will be jealous when you get to make fresh salsa and I am waiting on a spring crop!

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  7. Shari, I lost some potato plants too. Do you know if those will come back on their own, or do I need to replant?

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  8. I'm a little late but in the future never cover your plants with plastic for a freeze. I made the same mistake with my first freeze, but the plastic can actually damage your plants. Old sheets or blankets are a better choice. Good Luck!

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It's rude to eat and run. Humor me with conversation please!

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