On Sun, 27 Apr 2003 07:03:45 -0400, Pat Meadows
wrote:



So far during the time we've lived here (two years), the
main enemy has been cold. It's easy to fight cold,
straightforward - you know what the enemy is. Compared to
fighting the bugs, fungi, and disease that plague more
southern gardens, it's a cinch, IMHO.


I wrote the above about half an hour ago... then I went
outdoors and found disaster.

We hadn't dragged all the pots into the garage or house last
night because last night's forecast low temperature here was
'in the low 40s'. I have a min-max thermometer. The
actual low was 15 F.


All my lovely pots of lettuce, Chinese greens, and chard are
frozen stiff. We've dragged them across the deck to the
shaded area to give them time to thaw before the sun hits
them.

I don't know if *any* of them will survive, they're frozen
solid at this point. If I touched a leaf, it would shatter.

And they would have been fine, if the forecast hadn't been
so wildly off. We've been dragging the pots into the garage
or house at night when we expected freezing temperatures.
Could have done it last night.

Our actual temperatures generally run 5-10 degrees lower
than the forecasts at the nearest weather station, but this
was 25 whole degrees lower! OK, now I know....

Pat (goes off sobbing quietly....)