Well I can't fault that forecast of a frost as last night, or rather around dawn on Thursday morning, the temperature dipped down to 2.2°C or 36.0°F.
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| Temperature & Solar Radiation Records 17/05/2018 |
Over the last eight years, it's actually the lowest temperature I've recorded this far into spring. It takes over from a late spring low of 2.8°C (37.0°F) which funnily enough occurred on the same date in 2012. After record breaking high temperatures this spring it's now a record breaking low. As most gardeners will be aware it's not the high temperatures that cause damage it's the low ones. On Wednesday afternoon I took what precautions I could to protect our strawberry flowers and potatoes.
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| Strawberries covered to protect flowers |
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| Early potatoes Casablanca earthed up as protection |
Our strawberries are in flower and if the flowers are frosted the centre of the flower turns black and that's the end of that flower producing a strawberry. There's no coming back. There's less damage if potatoes are frosted as ours have always recovered from frost damage but harvesting is delayed by a few weeks as the potato has to produce new shoots and leaves.
If all my protection measures work I'll be able to tell if my efforts were worthwhile from our kiwi.
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| Kiwi |
This is how the tender new shoots looked on Wednesday afternoon. Usually at any hint of a frost these turn brown and crunchy although like our potatoes the kiwi goes on to produce new shoots and doesn't appear to suffer any long term damage.
This spring is turning into a gardening roller coaster with record high and low temperature as well lots of rain and snow early on and now a long spell without any rain at all. I wonder what summer will have to offer?
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Gardener's nightmare is more like it.
ReplyDeleteBlessing in sharing Martyn thank you for your time in making this post
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