FROSTY GARDEN UPDATE

Brrrrrrrrr, I moved from Michigan to California, to warm and balmy weather – right?

Let’s talk 12 degree nights this early December week, and my garden is uptight & hunkering in – as are we all!  Glad to be a human with a warm house, flannel sheets & cuddly guy in my bed…

As for my garden beds…well, i crunch around on the frozen mulch, and take a look…they are all frosty until almost noon, then have a brief fling with the slight winter sun until the poor things get shaded again and start to cool down.  I took the covers off my fabulous straw bale beds at 11am & put their little faces to the sun, gave them a deep drink of water, left it all open until about 4pm…which was too late, really – I lost a bit of gathered warmth, should have been open from noon until 2:30 maybe…

Soil temperatures continue to please me, the soil in regular raised beds was 35degrees at 6 inches deep noted at 11am, but the inner straw bales read 55degrees!  I MUST get an air temp measurement inside the covered beds to see if the “greenhouse effect” is working…

Also – want to figure out an end cap, as the ends are poorly gathered up, and loss of warm air to a cold/warm exchange must be happening there…maybe heavy cardboard cut to fit the hoop shape, and clipped on…

Eating fresh tree collards & cabbage that is holding up rather well despite the weather…hoping for rain tomorrow, and warming temps…

How to survive in case of global cooling…how much greenhouse fabric can we realistically use?