The temperature finally dipped below freezing Friday night. This is the time of year when we gardeners nervously watch the weather forecast, the skies, and the thermometer and try to predict the first hard frost. There are so many micro-climates in Anchorage that the forecast alone is not reliable. On Friday afternoon, I weeded a perennial bed while the sky shifted from cloudy to sunny to blustery. Alex moved among her usual garden spots -- bird bath, celery row, tall grass -- and back to the deck while I cut bouquets of dahlias (still blooming!), yarrow, bee balm, calendula, golden rod, and nepeta. I decided the clouds would keep the frost at bay for another night, as the newspaper predicted, and hurried inside with the flowers as a light rain began to fall. While Paul and I took a long walk in the evening, the skies cleared completely. I quickly draped a cloth over the lettuce before heading to bed. Thankfully the frost was light, the vegetables are hardy, and I didn't lose anything to that first frost.
29 September 2006 Anchorage
The temperature finally dipped below freezing Friday night. This is the time of year when we gardeners nervously watch the weather forecast, the skies, and the thermometer and try to predict the first hard frost. There are so many micro-climates in Anchorage that the forecast alone is not reliable. On Friday afternoon, I weeded a perennial bed while the sky shifted from cloudy to sunny to blustery. Alex moved among her usual garden spots -- bird bath, celery row, tall grass -- and back to the deck while I cut bouquets of dahlias (still blooming!), yarrow, bee balm, calendula, golden rod, and nepeta. I decided the clouds would keep the frost at bay for another night, as the newspaper predicted, and hurried inside with the flowers as a light rain began to fall. While Paul and I took a long walk in the evening, the skies cleared completely. I quickly draped a cloth over the lettuce before heading to bed. Thankfully the frost was light, the vegetables are hardy, and I didn't lose anything to that first frost.
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1 comment:
I smiled my way through this vignette. Hands in the dirt, eyes on the sky... "clearing off cold" threatening to end this year's garden a few days too soon... Here in a cold little hollow in the North Country I share your concerns!
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