30f this morning in my location with very light scattered frost.
Freezing!!
Ugh .. I guess we're not far behind .. I was at the post office on Tuesday and jokingly said to a man walking out .. "had enough winter ready for summer" and he stopped and said that he was a farmer and that he had been seeing signs all summer that we were in for a bad one .. earthworms were building high mounds, bees collecting more pollen than usual - I told him I was seeing the Gulf Frits in late July and he shook his head and said "oh dear".
I've been frantically filling my GH and back porch w/tropicals for the past 2 days. Yes, I waited til the last minute again. I've decided not to protect my Queen palms this winter, but I still have 3 date palms to wrap. I also still have lots of citrus to bring inside - I picked several brown satsuma oranges yesterday, and they were the sweetest I've eaten in years.
The NWS is still predicting below normal winter temps, especially here in the SE. I want my mommie!
There, there. Poor baby ... go eat some chocolate .. you'll feel better .. I learned my lesson a few years ago when we had a hard freeze the last week in October and ended up throwing everything in the greenhouse willynilly (always wondered about the origins of that). I spent that whole winter in a pitched battle fighting aphids, ants, sooty mold and whiteflies. Now, I always start getting ready around the middle of October grooming plants and checking for problems and shoot for having everything tucked away by November 1st.
My biggest mistake this year was placement of a key lime .. forgot about the thorns and every time I go in there get stuck .. suppose to get into the mid 70's this weekend so I'll be rearranging things.
If I was closer .. I'd be right over to help.
This message was edited Nov 2, 2012 9:10 AM
Ah, thanks, MmeX! I just finished getting everything inside, but must admit it's all helter skelter. I'll get things in order this weekend. I'll probably give everything a malathion drench, and keep a check on fire ants throughout winter.
Snacking on left over Halloween candy. Chocolate makes everything better!
Next year I'll start nagging you starting october.
Yikes! I have been traveling for a month, and just hoping for the best in New Bern...first a hurricane - that worked out all right, and then some cold temps but not freezing, at least according to NWS. Our hoses are still connected! Once I get home, lots of fall work to do as well as Sandy cleanup.
Entlie
I spent yesterday loading up my garage "greenhouse". Should've done it sooner but I am a champion procrastinator! :)
Got the majority in, about 8 or 10 to go, but the heaviest are in! Whew.
Forecast looks ok for the next several days, thank goodness.
Yeah .. suppose to be in the upper 70's tomorrow!!!!!!
Early Oct reminder sounds great! I'm in good company with the procrastinators. I'm going out now to organize the back porch and GH. I won't wrap the date palms until temps start dropping into the teens - hoping that kind of cold is it at least a month away.
My dog got sick in the middle of the night and it was in the 60's around 4am when I was outside hosing off the rug. Later when I checked again at 7am it was 51. Funny how it cools off right at dawn. We are in the 70's now.
I haven't brought anything in but I did protect a couple of things from the wind during Sandy's visit,, they were drying out faster than I could keep up with. It is heartbreaking to think of our neighbors in the northeast who have so much more to deal with.
We haven't gotten any lower than the low 40's here. From the info on Weather.com, we won't get into the 30's for a couple of weeks.
I still need to clean out my greenhouse...but not today. ;)
It's gonna be an interesting Winter!