Warmer Temperatures Back

With the short frost gone and warmer temperatures back in swing my tomato plants are uncovered again and ready to keep producing.  There are several tomatoes still on the vine and although there was a slight bit of damage on some of the leaves for the most part the plants I was able to cover are doing great.

The parsley too seems to have grown significantly. Compared with the one on the outside it's almost twice as big.

No worries for at least a week and hopefully more. I left the stones out there for future use and folded the sheet up as well.

Tomato Protection

Made a protective cover for my tomato plants. I actually do have a greenhouse but these plants are in the ground and well established. Tonight is supposed to get into the mid to low 20's, no way they would survive without this.

What I did was get a medium thick sheet and put in stakes to support it over the plants. Sure some of the plants are hitting some of the sheet but for the most part they are pretty safe. The stems are hardier than the leaves anyway and with the warmth of the light in there they should be enough, with the small area, to keep warm overnight. I weighed the sides down with large concrete blocks.  Most of them took both hands to pick up and place carefully. There is also a parsley plant in there with them.

It;s supposed to freeze again Sunday through Tuesday next week so I will probably leave the sheet on until Wednesday and turn the light off during the day as long as it isn't supposed to be too cold during the day.

I used some of our parsley last week in my gumbo. Loved it!  Still have a few bowls left over in the freezer, one of the few really good freezer foods. Another of which is the muffins we made, fennel, fig, and chocolate. We made a lot of them about two years ago and I popped one out yesterday to thaw for a couple hours.  Almost just like we had made them that day.

Cold Hardy Tomatoes

The tomato plants made it through a little freezing weather but tonight is going to be below 30. I'm going to have to do something before night falls to keep them from dying overnight.

I plan to pick the peppers and let the bush go. We already have more peppers than we will use this winter and have some still in the freezer from last year.

Upcoming Winter Weather

I was really hoping to have a longer fall season before the temperatures froze. It's only supposed to be for a short time but that will be plenty to kill off my tomatoes if I can't get them protected better than last year.
That won't stop me from trying at though.  This year I plan to put in supports and weigh it down with some fairly heavy blocks. It isn't supposed to rain much so as long as I put it in well I also plan to put a light in with the plants for a little warmth, propped up off the ground a bit of course.
The saffron fortunately loves this kind of weather and will keep sprouting. 14 counted so far and hoping for at least 20 if not more. Eventually I hope to have hundreds of bulbs springing up each season. That would be enough to use more than once or twice, depending on the recipe.
After this week it's supposed to pop back up a little and be good growing weather again.
Carrots should be planted this week too, probably mid week when I get a little time to work on the garden again.

First Saffron Shoots

First sign of saffron this year. I checked it a couple weeks ago digging down about a half inch and there were no signs of anything at the time.

 

Just shows what a little cooler weather can do. I'm now certain what kind of saffron I have, fall saffron.  It hasn't shown back up in the spring.

 

Of course the flowers haven't shown up yet but they are sure to follow and bring a nice bit of color to the garden.