NO! Not my newly planted kohlrabi!!!
Man, these things are supposed to go through winter here.
But not this kind of crazy winter.
AND NO! NOT THE PAK CHOI WITH ALL THEIR BLOOMS!
And wait… what about the radishes???
Are the radishes okay?
NOOOOOOO!!!!!
They were so beautiful, and generally so cold-tolerant. This ain’t New York! This is Alabammmmmmmmmmy!
What in the heck of the world?
Out in the Grocery Row gardens, it looks like my two Peruvian apple cactus turned to mush, which is terrible. I’m hoping at least one of them will grow back from the roots.
On the up side, the citrus trees I put the barrels next to and covered with sheets seem to be okay.
This was truly a very, very hard freeze for this area. It happens. Now it’s time to direct my attention elsewhere other than gardening, at least for a month and a half or so.
Lower Alabama is a strange climate, as we swing from warm and balmy to below freezing regularly, often a couple times in the same week. So close to the tropics… yet so far.
Some times you can garden right through the winter, other times you can’t. So you plant and see.
This year, it just wasn’t warm enough.
2 comments
Ugh I feel this. Frost damage is “the gift that keeps on giving” because you think you know the extent on morning #1 but the real story shows up a few days later when things turn brown or wilted. For a hot minute I’ll say “fine, we’ll only do deciduous from now on” but my resolution never lasts long.
If anyone can survive and thrive in this, it’s David, and I can’t wait to see how he rides the waves that Alabama dishes out.
That’s the hard part of being on the border of warm/cold. We usually get a good snow cover before temps go even into the teens and stuff sails right through it (except the fig which dies to the ground every year because it can’t get completely buried in snow) but we can only push the zone so much. Y’all got a hard freeze with no snow cover and that’s tough. I’d try throwing some brassicas and lettuce out there again since the seedlings are supposed to be more cold tolerant than the grown plants…just to see what happens. Maybe wait a bit till the days are just a bit longer. They’ll be slow growing, but you might get something out of it, even if it’s the equivalent of cover crop/organic matter for the soil. But, nothing wrong with taking a break either. We don’t have a choice in the matter but we’re raring to go when the weather starts to break. Also, give Tatsoi a try. I had some living under snow that seriously had no damage.