Monday, December 7, 2015

Late Frost - A Tale of Two Gardens


 November 28th - Two days until summer. Rising to milk the cow a little after six am I am greeted by a white tinge on the grass. I check the garden and all the plants are coated in a thick layer of frost. As the sun is reaching over the mountain I am pouring water on the tomatoes, basils, pumpkins and zucchinis. The convenient hose is no use as the water inside has frozen so it is lots of trips to the tap with the watering can. Too little too late. Within hours the leaves were withering and turning black.
The potatoes didn't look too happy but enough lower leaves survived. The grapes were hit and even the lavender was knocked back.
November 30th - 34 degrees!
December 2 - Woke to a snowstorm that lasted for an hour!

 
Frosted Potatoes
 
 
A very sorry looking zucchini
 
 
So the summer garden at Opportunity Farm is almost back to square one. Start again with more plants and even less chance of a decent harvest before we hit the next frost.
 
 
Luckily we have a back up. Our other garden is 600m lower in altitude. We have enthusiastic garden tenants to water and weed the plants and it is bursting with growth. The first tomatoes are close to reddening and we have already too many zucchinis.  
 

 
A raised bed with tomatoes, egg plant and capsicum.


 
Zucchinis galore just waiting for our piglets  

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