I'm sooo frustrated! **Update**

The big freeze, which was suppose to be a little frost, has wiped out most of my garden
Ive lost all but about 6 tomato plants out of 36 and all of my pepper plants. I put plastic over everything, but only the corn lived through it. The plastic should have held up to a light frost, but apparently it was a bigger event than what was predicted. When I first pulled off the plastic the plants looked wilted, but okay. As the day progressed the plants began looking worse. I turned on the sprinklers hoping a little water would perk them up, but today everything is dark and dead looking. Whole tomato plants are laying on the ground. They were growing sooooo good. Some had doubled in size. I am so frustrated. It took a couple of hours to pull that plastic to no avail.

I'm concerned that the ground froze enough to kill the beans that I had planted a few days before. If they had sprouted and were close enough to the surface, they may have froze and all be dead. They usually come up pretty fast, but still nothing today. I'm worried they froze....ugh! Guess I'm gonna plant more tomatos and peppers over the weekend.

Don't be discouraged Gwen :/. Things like this happen now-&-then to all of us.

It's probably time to pick up a flat of plant starts at the garden center. Be a little cautious and harden 'em off where you can get them indoors overnight. A single blow like this at the start of the season is all that we should be expected to take.

Steve

Best of luck starting over. It happens. I wait till mid may to plant out most things since it can freeze here late too.

Gwen I am sorry about you losing you garden. Lucky for me I kept the frost sensative stuff out of the ground because I heard about the freeze before and I am also lazy. I hope your beans come up anyway.

Henry

Sorry to hear you froze. We don't plant here until the end of May because of the frosts and wet conditions.

Yeah, that really stinks doesn't it. You have my sympathies!

We don't get our last average frost here until the first few days of June -- not because it doesnt get warmer sooner than that (today and tomorrow are supposed to be mid 70s F, sheesh! although that is bizarrely warm for this time of year) but because we just get a lot of isolated cold snaps, esp. since we're in a low spot.

I've always been semi paranoid about frost, learned from my mother, but living here has taught me to keep a large stock of cardboard boxes and kitty litter buckets in the garage. So whenever they predict a night that *might* frost and is in the frost-plausible part of the year, I pop the boxes and buckets over the plants. I find them much better, in springtime, than blankets and sheets (which I do use for *fall* frosts). If a REAL late freeze is scheduled I will add water-filled jugs next to an extra vulnerable plant, under its box or bucket.

Like Steve says, buy some transplants to replace what you lost, harden them off gradually and well, and never trust the weather forecast again as long as you live

Good luck,

Pat

Thanks for the cardboard box idea, Pat. We have a bunch of moving boxes left over from our fall move and the old-timers here say that they have never seen a summer without a chance of frost- every day it is a possibility. Friends up the road do not put their toms in until the middle of June. The nighttime lows reached into the 40's last summer...in July. I've lived in cold, but this year will begin a new challenge for me.

Too bad about your loss of plants to frost! I'm in Zone 7, and the only thing I've tried outside yet is sowing lettuce seeds. When I do start my tomatos, they usually can't go outside until Memorial Day.

Any time that I've tried to hurry Mother Nature & vegetables along, Mother Nature always got the last laugh.

I feel your agony. We are about to get our own freak cold spell.

I have been very cautious this year. I wouldn't be surprised if we had a May frost this year. I am not going to assume anything until we are well into June. It bums me out.

Meanwhile, our house is a jungle!

Thanks to Pat for the wonderful tip! Keeping a full watering can next to a plant is a particularly smart strategy.

newchickwi said:

Thanks for the cardboard box idea, Pat. We have a bunch of moving boxes left over from our fall move and the old-timers here say that they have never seen a summer without a chance of frost- every day it is a possibility. Friends up the road do not put their toms in until the middle of June. The nighttime lows reached into the 40's last summer...in July. I've lived in cold, but this year will begin a new challenge for me.

Click to expand...

You may want to think about how you're going to keep your pepper plants warm, then (and maybe your tomatoes too)... choosing varieties designed for the North is part of the battle, but even those will not set fruit or flower well (or at all) if nights go below the mid fifties or so. Peppers especially.

I have read about people surrounding peppers and eggplants with a 'wall' made of old storm windows or etc, to make a warmer microclimate and to give you something convenient to throw a sheet over on cool nights. Haven't tried it yet myself.

It might really be worth investing in one of the red plastic mulch sheets that are supposed to help warm the soil and ripen fruit. My mom has seen considerable benefit from them in getting early tomatoes and peppers (she's in zone 7ish).

Good luck,

Pat, who will put a few tomatoes out in Wall O Waters in early May, but most of 'em not til June.