Cold frame update

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:06:48 PST
My cold frames got a real test last night: a cold front arrived on winds
which roared through the night. Wind speeds of up to 50 mph were predicted,
although since I don’t have an anemometer I can’t say just how strong they
were here. I can say that this morning at about 7 A.M. the temperature was
12 º F. 

 

I made a quick effort to cover the frames with a tarp late yesterday
afternoon, but the tarp was not long enough to cover both frames. When there
was only one frame to cover, I was able to cover the one frame on all
exposed sides. With two frames side by side, not only were the ends left
exposed but winds easily got under the tarp. The winds howled all night and
into the morning. There was a news report of a truck being blown off the
highway. 

 

When I checked the plants in the frames today all seemed fine. Even the
Chilean Tropaeolum look fine. The garden forms of Tropaeolum majus are so
extremely freeze sensitive that it’s hard for me to believe that these
Chilean species will survive the winter even in a cold frame. 

 

A big florists’ cyclamen in one of the frames also looks fine. Some snow
drops moved into the frame before the big (nearly two foot) snow fall which
started on Dec. 18 are still blooming in the snug frame. 

 

Daytime temperatures did not get above freezing today, so this is a good
test for the cold frames. So far, so good…

 

And I’m off now to buy a larger tarp.  

 

Jim McKenney

jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com

Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone
7

My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/

BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/

 

Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS 

Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ 

 

Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/

 

 

 

 

 

 


More information about the pbs mailing list