With frost and freeze warnings for much of the area I’ve been anxiously looking at the thermometer each morning.
Yesterday it was 37 degrees so that was a relief. This morning it was 33 degrees so I thought well we just missed having a frost and boy I’m glad.
As I was coming back from letting the chickens out I thought the potato plants looked a little funny and when I bent over and felt the leaves I was surprised to feel a layer of ice.
My car had a nice layer of frost on it too, but I stumbled sleepily by it on the way to free the birds and failed to notice.
It wasn’t a big frost so I don’t think there was much damage at our house and I hope there wasn’t in other places.
Potatoes can certainly stand some cold weather as can all the early spring veggies we have planted. I did think about covering some of my flowers last night, but by the time I got around to actually doing it I was too wore out to walk out and cover them 🙂
Will this be the last frost? I sure hope so, but there is a good chance it won’t be.
In 2020 there was a big late frost in May that nipped back a lot of new growth. That one was unusually late, but Pap always said you ought to wait till at least May 10 before planting tender vegetables just in case. The Deer Hunter and I generally wait till May but often plant before Pap’s preferred date.
Last night’s video: Today Would Have Been Their 59th Wedding Anniversary – Married for 52 Years.
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We were suppose to get frost here and thank goodness we didn’t. I was glad because we have a huge Pineapple Pear Tree full of pears. They are so delicious. we have made Pear jelly, Pear honey and Mmm so good. It’s like one yr they will be full and the next none. I am so ready to plant my garden.
We’ve been close to frost here too. Normally we don’t plant potatoes until around May 24th, (Victoria Day here) I’m still having to use my heaters quite often and I’ve still got warm covers on my bed. My plum trees are blooming madly and I’m going to be drowning in plums come summer
OOPS! I left the E off potato because the E is silent and just like a secret, I do not publish it.
Now for the truth. I forgot the e and apparently my spell check did the same.
Learning that your parents would have been married 59 years, IIRC, was interesting. We passed 62 years earlier this month; so I’m more’n old enough to be your Daddy, Mrs. Tipper! 🙂
We enjoy the videos and the blog posts.
Keep up the good work.
Blessings to all . . .
Robert,
Can’t determine if that is a ’49 or a ’50 “Shoebox” Ford? My brother-in-law has a ’49 “Creampuff” that seems to have documented less than 20,000 miles.
Thank the Lord our temps haven’t been close to a frost in several weeks now here in South Carolina, but we have been having some really cool temps the past few days down into the upper 40’s & low 50’s at night and in the early morning, but it warms up pretty fast.
Hope all y’all’s garden crops do well.
We are excited about getting some more of our summer crops in the ground this week or weekend.
Thanks Miss Tipper.
Tipper,
I intended to reply to my own comments-Not Glenda. Please delete my reply if it isn’t too late.
Thank you!
It is raining here right now and I have got too much time on my hands, can’t go outside, I am commenting too much. Some have mentioned planting corn. The older generations in my area tried to plant their field corn -not sweet- in late March or early April even now it is planted in April. They would plant their corn in deep rows and begin filling the furrows back up with dirt each time they plowed it, by the time the corn was laid by, the stalks would have a large deep root system and dry weather would not hurt it as much as it would corn that had been planted in shallow rows. The deep row also help protect the early corn from a light frost. Remember me saying earlier listening to the older folks.
We’ve had some really chilly mornings this week but thankfully no frost. Here in Johnston County, NC hopefully by the end of next week, we will be clear of frost until the fall. This weather is something else. Up and down like a roller coaster. Tipper, I am glad to learn what a cornfield bean is. When daddy had his garden, I never heard him mention that name, but I do remember a few years when he planted pole beans and they are a running bean so maybe it’s part of the same green bean family. I’m going to check out the link you sent to Ann. Loved last night’s video. That’s when I heard Granny talking about cornfield beans. Your mama is such a sweetheart. You can tell how much she loved Pap and still does. Loved all her pretty sweaters. What a joy to have her nearby.
There has been frost warnings in our area, but thankfully none so far. My hubby and I have planted some of our tomatoes already so we are watching the weather carefully too. We have our covers ready for just in case. We planted in tubs this year because our ground needed a rest, so we don’t have a lot to lose like y’all do. Hoping none of us get a heavy frost and all we’ve planted will give us all bountiful harvest.
It was a wonderful START to spring and now the cool off. I’ve been dragging my pots of seedlings in and out so much I don’t know if IM coming or going either! Lol. I am sick of cold, sick of rain, and darn sick of the sick white sky! I hope it warms up nicely for you today. I wish I had chickens for healthy eggs and healthy food. Plus they are really beautiful to look at!
A local master gardener once wrote that we should never plant vegetables till after Derby. We have had a frost several mornings this week which makes me thankful that I took his advice except for the few potatoes I planted in mid-April. The potatoes are just peeking out of the ground and the tomato plants are still in pots that get moved from the hood of an old truck to the cab every night.
No frost here but it’s sure been chilly with temps at 40 degrees of a morning.
My tomato and pepper plants won’t go out until mid-May.
Have a blessed day.
The temps have not been that cold here, just a few nights in the low 40’s. Any time the temps drop into the 30’s like you mention, there will be a light frost at my home unless there is some wind. I planted some grocery store potatoes (as I call them) and not seed potatoes this year just to see what they will do. They had eyes on them and were too far gone to eat so instead of throwing them away, I planted them. I looked at them yesterday and the plants sure are pretty and healthy. I have done this before and they would produce potatoes. Looking at them made me wish for a pot of fresh green beans along with some small new potatoes cooked with a left over ham bone throwed in with them and a pone of good cornbread.
My dear Mom always said May 10, but in West Virginia where it is colder there are frosts now after that date. I tried to always get beans and potatoes in the ground earlier because back then beans were cheap to buy. I had mom’s goal of having fresh half runners by the 4th of July. If I knew a freeze was coming, I usually went out with the hoe and speedily covered the new growth of potatoes with dirt, and it always worked. I had also read to spray water on plants before the sun hit them, and it would save them. Many times, I have run out with a big spray bottle squirting away before work and the sun hit them. I know this works because I once had an apple tree that only had apples on one side where I had not sprayed all around. Garden much smaller, and I rarely grow my own plants. I purchase them, and make certain to plant after danger of frost. I wondered if everybody got this short lull when planting done and hoed well, and not time to harvest. I always found a million things to do in that short period. As I became older, simmer was a time I could almost be happy to see over. The work was never ending, and seemed those who did not garden always scheduled events right when some crop was coming in. If it was a reunion, the garden had to wait, but I usually cooked or gathered garden produce. It was a nice treat for my city-slicker cousins. 🙂
God bless Tipper and her family in Jesus name, I have some watermelon and onion that I don’t think will sprout from seed, but if we didn’t have seed they’d be no onion, God blessyour garden, God bless your work , thank you for sharing, God bless friends of Appalachia
My Daddy useta say, “Don’t rush Mother Nature.” I find that plants planted later catch up with thuthers right smartly.
Tom Tenbrunsel
Carl Sandburg Writer for 2023
My Daddy said the same thing , anything planted early or in cold ground might sprout but will slow about growing. Wait until the soil temperature warms up (gets right) and the plants will grow and soon catch up to the things planted early. I think we might ought to listen to the advice from the older generations that had to depend so much on what they grew and did. They did not have the luxury of going to the grocery store or produce stand like we do today if things did not grow.
I remember that May frost in 2020. When we had a garden, we never planted any summer vegetables until around mid May.
I think this will have to go down as a cold spring, at least here. We have had a second run of lows in the 40s and are still in the second one. But I think we are past frost. I have everything but cantaloupe and okra planted anyway so I’ll just have to take what comes.
Tipper, what are cornbeans? That is new to me, and I couldn’t find them on the Internet.
Ann-Cornfield beans are a type of runner green bean. There are several different varieties called cornfield beans. You can see some here: https://www.heirlooms.org/store/c17/Cornfield_Bean.html Thank you for reading!
I had no idea there were so many varieties!!! Thanks! All I ever grew were Kentucky Wonder beans.
In my life and with my family cornfield beans were green beans with long runners such as the Kentucky Wonder. They would often be planted in between the corn stalks and the runners would run up the cornstalk. I have a mule drawn planter manufactured by the Cole Corp. of Charlotte, NC with two seed hoppers that would alternate between planting a corn seed or bean seed. We always waited until the corn had came up and got about hand high and then plant the bean seed by hand.
Yep. when I was growing up everyone always said May 10th before you plant corn and beans. And that was for Randolph County in the middle of NC. I would think you would want to wait until then in the mountains for sure. But of course, sometimes you just do what you can when you can and hope for the best.
Whenever we suspect a frost here in central FL, depending on time in season, the sheets or blankets come out to cover the young tender things.
My daughter put her pineapple tops in wire cages to protect them from the rabbits that peruse the grounds which is useful for long sessions of back to back freezes. The cages also helps keep weight off the leaves so the covering can stay put for 2 or 3 days. giving them a personal mini greenhouse.
The orange groves at one time turned on water and used smudge pots to keep frost at bay. Now, there are few groves left here. Guess the agricultural community is moving on & definitely selling out to developers as ‘civilization’ presses in from Orlando.
My wife and I were told about a peach grove in Pierson, FL . Who knew? We’re going to pick some tomorrow. The Sand Hill Farm runs a U=Pick operation. The peaches aren’t all that large, but they looked good from the road last week. Check their web site, if interested.
I hope your veggies are ok. Maybe a little frost on them will be like waiting for collards to have a good frost to make them sweeter. Hoping for no damage. Happy Anniversary to your Mom and Dad. Even though he is in heaven, she can still remember and celebrate.
My father’s birthday was May fifth. His mother always said to never plant tomatoes before his birthday because a frost might get them. Your mention of your father and May 10 reminded me of that.
Late frost is why gardeners are the biggest gamblers – always up for a challenge. Florida gardeners aren’t just trying to get the stuff out early for fun – they have to beat the heat wave of pests and that late May frost wiped out all my tomatoes and peppers and was the worst year for pests ever. No squash, no nothing. I’m surprised so many new gardeners tried and have kept at it as there were more beginner gardeners than ever before. If one thing is certain, gardeners are persistent.
Tipper,
We covered our potato plants over with dirt so that the freeze/frost would not “bite” the plants. As I remember, that worked out well because it would not be long before the plants would push their way up through the dirt and flourish. Most of the time this worked out well, but I can also remember a few times when we got a later freeze/frost that would still “bite” the potato plants. The potato plants did not die but were “stunned” and it would take them a while to recover and start growing normally.
Granny is such a joy to watch and listen to. She is a treasure for sure. I just love her crochet sweaters or jackets and they will be a wonderful thing to pass on to your Grands when the time comes. As far as the garden, we are learning and it is such a lot to learn. I am using all the YT lessons and have a ‘steno’ pad worth of info to draw from. Can’t wait on the ‘Book’. I am sure it will be a treasure for me to pass on to my Grands. God Bless
The reason I did not use an E on potato is that it is silent and just like a secret, I never publish it.
Truthfully, I forgot that there was an E at the end and my spellcheck must have forgotten, also.