This is 1 yr old Remy....way too cute and fluffy.
One of my old sculptures...I accidently hit it with a shovel so her arm and leg are damaged...but she still looks good in there
cucumber ready for seed saving
gerry, fluffy and red are getting stuck into the old corn bed in their extension
The new chook yard extension and the yurt got a new door at last.....
So.....Winter and frosty bits are here!
It’s coming on winter now and you’ll be preparing for the coming frosts and thinking of how to keep those frost tender plants going. If you do a google search of frost protection techniques you’ll come across a dozen sites trying to sell you the latest doofangle from fog sprays to heaters to fans. All these are said to be the best protection for crops when frost threatens, but siting the crop on a north facing slope where frost can drain away is ideal. What if you only have a flat space to work with or the site is facing every other way but north? Here are a few tips on how to beat the odds with frost.
Observation of your site is the key to understanding the intricacies of how the weather affects that site. Keeping frost records each year helps with frost prediction. Frost is caused by rapid cooling of the earth on crisp clear nights in still air. Some people can smell a frost coming. It’s those crisp cold nights with brightly shining stars that also indicate it may be frosty. Frost flows like a slow moving river, banking up in places where there is an obstacle and draining away where there is a tunnel or slope. You can design your site so that there are heatbanks of rocks, walls or a body of water that can keep the heat radiating through the night. You can use trees and shrubs as buffers for frost against your crops, a gradation planting of different sized shrubs and trees that allows in winter light and keeps out the cold. In Bill Mollison’s permaculture design manual he suggests crown cover by large trees works for small clearings if you follow the rule of one half as wide as high, keeping the sides trimmed to vertical. Clearings should not exceed 30ms across. Clear away anything that is blocking the drainage path of the frost. Are your fence lines clear of grass and weeds? If you have a hedge growing, blocking the flow, you may need to prune drainage tunnels at the base of the hedge. If your garden has been mulched you may need to loosen it with a fork as compacted mulch attracts frost. This is where deciduous trees and shrubs work well, as leaf mulch is quite loose and is a bonus cover over the winter months.
Remember to keep up the water levels over the frosty months as dehydration is also part of losing plants in this type of weather.
Raised beds can also beat the frost, but you will have to experiment with what height works best for your site. I have friends who are growing vegetables in netted half water tanks as this helps to keep out the rats and mice (they can’t climb the sides), but it has an added bonus of being above the frost line.
Thawing out rapidly causes most of the damage to plants in a frost. Frozen cells within the plant expand and burst, so if your hose is not frozen up as well, you can help plants recover by watering them before the sun hits them. There are plenty of gadgets to help set up a system of micro jets and sprays on a timer for your garden if you don’t need to take on a commercial system for your crops.
Covering plants with shadecloth, blankets or bags can help lengthen the thawing time. In Japan they prune back their favourite trees and completely wrap them in hessian over the winter months to keep them warm, but they are dealing with snow more than frost.
Growing the right crop that actually likes a frost is also one way of dealing with the problem. Working with what you’ve got instead of battling against it helps. What grows best in your area? Obtaining seeds, cuttings or plants provincial to your area is ideal.
Frost often sweetens a fruit and in some vineyards frost damaged grapes are used to make a special type of wine. But I have seen an Italian movie where a vineyard was kept from freezing by burning anything, including the furniture, so the crop could be saved. That’s a bit extreme,
but it was a usual practice in the ‘old days’ to have a small series of braziers burning throughout the garden at night to save plants from a frost.
Keeping up the nutrient levels on your crops also helps plants to become robust and frost hardy.
Compost teas, seaweed, comfrey and nettle sprays used weekly work well to promote
strength in plants.
Raised beds can also beat the frost, but you will have to experiment with what height works best for your site. I have friends who are growing vegetables in netted half water tanks as this helps to keep out the rats and mice (they can’t climb the sides), but it has an added bonus of being above the frost line.
Thawing out rapidly causes most of the damage to plants in a frost. Frozen cells within the plant expand and burst, so if your hose is not frozen up as well, you can help plants recover by watering them before the sun hits them. There are plenty of gadgets to help set up a system of micro jets and sprays on a timer for your garden if you don’t need to take on a commercial system for your crops.
Covering plants with shadecloth, blankets or bags can help lengthen the thawing time. In Japan they prune back their favourite trees and completely wrap them in hessian over the winter months to keep them warm, but they are dealing with snow more than frost.
Growing the right crop that actually likes a frost is also one way of dealing with the problem. Working with what you’ve got instead of battling against it helps. What grows best in your area? Obtaining seeds, cuttings or plants provincial to your area is ideal.
Frost often sweetens a fruit and in some vineyards frost damaged grapes are used to make a special type of wine. But I have seen an Italian movie where a vineyard was kept from freezing by burning anything, including the furniture, so the crop could be saved. That’s a bit extreme,
but it was a usual practice in the ‘old days’ to have a small series of braziers burning throughout the garden at night to save plants from a frost.
Keeping up the nutrient levels on your crops also helps plants to become robust and frost hardy.
Compost teas, seaweed, comfrey and nettle sprays used weekly work well to promote
strength in plants.
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