I had enough blankets to cover the two rows on the left, which are filled with collard greens and mustard greens. They’re a little misshapen from the weight of the ice on the blankets, but they appear to be healthy.
My Garden Took a Brutal Hit in Recent Storm
The cabbage plant on the left was part of the row that I covered ahead of the freezing weather last weekend. The cabbage plant on the right was uncovered. It may have survived the cold spell, but it certainly took some damage.
My Garden Took a Brutal Hit in Recent Storm
My garden looks zapped after three straight mornings of hard frost. I had enough old blankets to cover less than half of what I had growing. Some of it may make it. Some of it won’t.
I covered most of my collard greens, mustard greens, Italian kale and about half of the head cabbage in the garden. It was interesting to see the difference between the cabbage that was covered and the ones that were not. They just started to form small heads before icy weather came in Saturday night.
The uncovered cabbage got really damaged by the freeze. I don’t think it’s dead, so I’m going to let them continue growing. Even though it got down to 18 degrees Tuesday morning, the covered cabbage looks hardly fazed by it.
I definitely wanted to save my mustard greens and collard greens. They’re the only plants contributing to the kitchen right now, and they’ve been producing a lot. I’m really glad I covered them.
Onions are supposed to survive temperatures as low as the teens, so I didn’t bother covering them. I hope they live up to their reputation, because they look pretty rough right now. Most of the tops have slouched to the ground, and some of them feel mushy. But hopefully the little bulbs and roots will send up some new growth.
It was hard to locate my beet patch. I didn’t cover them either. The consecutive days of hard frost just about burned the tops away. But when I look closely, I can see little peasized root bulbs sticking out of the ground. Maybe they’ll survive. Maybe they won’t. If I don’t see new green tops emerge by next week, I’ll have to replant.
My fennel? They were a few inches tall before the freeze. They’re gone. No trace. Like they were never even there. I knew I was rolling the dice when I planted the fennel seed. I guess it was a hedge bet in case of a mild winter. Oh well.
Snow peas are supposed to survive down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. I think the temperature plunge Tuesday morning did them in. They were about three inches tall before the freeze. They were all laying on the ground Wednesday. I may have to replant them as well.
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