{"id":114,"date":"2009-12-05T19:16:16","date_gmt":"2009-12-06T00:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.1.5\/gardens\/gardenlog\/?p=114"},"modified":"2018-05-28T15:48:32","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T20:48:32","slug":"hard-freeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/weather\/hard-freeze\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Freeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dateline: 2009<\/h3>\n
\n

\n2009-12-05. Per the Weather Underground: Bouldin<\/a> station. Hard freeze (28\u00b0F or below) from 2AM-8:30AM. Freeze 9:30PM-9:15AM\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nI felt giddy and full of energy today because of (rather than despite) the hard freeze last night which laid to rest half my garden for the year. The garden was full of fresh greenery and bursting with flowers from this year’s weekly fall rains. My regret at seeing so much die back or die outright lasted only while I took my inventory. What I felt instead was freedom and a sense of new possibilities.\n<\/p>\n

\nZanthan Gardens didn’t get a hard freeze at all last year. Back in 2006, I was ready to start the year afresh and wishing that last year’s annuals would Just Die Already<\/a>. The worst kind of winter we can have in Austin is mild in December and January followed by a big winter storm in February or even March. By then, you’ve spent countless hours covering and uncovering plants and bringing pots in and taking them out again. You’ve babied the garden and pulled it through a few light frost or short freezes and then, wham! an ice storm<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nSo if Austin is going to have a hard freeze at all this winter, I’m glad it was the first winter storm and not the last one of the season. As @AnnieinAustin<\/a> remarked, “better swallowed by whale than nibbled to death by minnows!”\n<\/p>\n

\n Now I can really look forward to my spring garden. It helps that the pecan and persimmon trees dropped all their leaves in a matter of hours. (Quite a few Austinites tweeted about this phenomenon this morning.) The front yard is back to being in full sun and I can transplant my larkspur seedlings. The Port St. Johns creeper which smothered the back fence, the grape, a ‘New Dawn’ rose, and a stand of yucca can be pulled out.\n<\/p>\n

\nI’m still assessing the damage so I’ll be updating this list. Sometimes, it takes several days for freeze damage to become apparent.\n<\/p>\n

Killed<\/strong>
\nbasil, cosmos, datura, tomato<\/p>\n

Damage on some growth<\/strong>
\naloe vera, amaryllis, jalape\u00f1o, Meyer lemon (covered), Salvia madrensis (covered),
\n\"Meyer
2009-12-05. Although frost tolerant to 22\u00b0F, the Meyer lemon showed damaged to new, tender growth even though it was covered.<\/i><\/p>\n

Died back<\/strong>
\nfig, banana trees, coral vine, cypress vine, duranta, elephant ears, kalanchoe, Port St. Johns creeper, purple Wandering Jew, turks cap,<\/p>\n

Not affected<\/strong>
\nasparagus fern, cilantro, larkspur, lavender, love-in-a-mist, oregano, parsley, roses, sage (culinary and Jerusalem), sweet alyssum, snapdragons,
\n<\/p>\n

Dateline: 2002<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

When I wake up this morning, there is frost on the ground, finally. We’ve been getting freeze warnings since Christmas Eve. I don’t know whether it is the warming effect of the central city, or the siting of the winter garden on the sunny, protected south side of the house, but until last night even the basil remained green and the tomatoes were still flowering (though not setting fruit).\n<\/p>\n

\nNow I look out the window and see that the eggplant has blackened and the elephant ears are wilted by the frost. As the sun hits the frozen plants, still rigid and green, the damage becomes more apparent. The shattered cells dissolve into a mass of blackened green. The garden looks like it’s been decorated with large blobs of cooked spinach .\n<\/p>\n

Killed<\/strong>
\nbasil, tomato, hyacinth bean vine, broom corn<\/p>\n

Damage on new growth<\/strong>
\nrose, aurelia japonica<\/p>\n

Died back<\/strong>
\nTecoma stans, polka-dot plant, eggplant, Mexican heather, purple Wandering Jew, lantana, daylilies, purple fountain grass<\/p>\n

Not affected<\/strong>
\nDianthus chinensis, larkspur, bluebonnet, love-in-a-mist, iris, artemisia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Cosmos
2009-12-05. Cosmos sulphureus frozen after last night’s hard freeze in Austin.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[129,191,505],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5742,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/5742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}