I guess it’s just what you do when you’re a farmer and a freeze is coming: you scramble. So we scrambled like the best of them. We covered as many crops as we could. We watered – although not much; we’d had some rain. And we kept our fingers crossed. And then we cautiously peeked under the row covers the next morning…
So. The results are in. Mostly, things went as expected. The basil crashed and burned. We took the peppers out the day before, knowing they would go. But I thought the broccoli would have done better. My bad. While I believe the overall crop will be fine, many leaves were burned. I wished they had been covered. And the broccoli rabe was nipped pretty good, too. Surprisingly though, the Meyer lemons, which were accidently left uncovered during The Scramble, appeared to have survived.
What’s more interesting to me, though, is how on our small site, just under 5 acres, different areas must have sustained different temperatures. Basically, we have 3 gardens. The original planting area sits on the front of the property along the street and surrounded by trees. It was a great summer garden because it got plenty of sun, and the partial shade from the trees provided some much needed heat relief. That has not been the case this fall; with the season change and the planet shift, that garden gets too much shade now. But apparently it says warmer! Hmm. Paved road right there; tree protection… No freeze damage at all. That’s definitely Urban farming.
We also have a small garden in the middle of the property, also surrounded by trees. We grow mostly herbs there. Again, everything there came through fine.
Then there’s the Back Garden. It is a larger area and more wide open. No trees. No paved city road right beside it. It gets great sun and the fall plants have been happy there. And. It must have gotten several degrees cooler… Things I thought should have been fine: beets, broccoli rabe, etc all got a little bitten.
So as I’m learning about farming, (and I have to say the more I learn, the more I know I need to learn!), when the next freeze is coming, we’ll do The Scramble all over again, protect what we can, and keep our fingers crossed. Again.