Snow (!!!) in the garden

Ok, so last week it was in the 70Fs and this week so far in the mid 60Fs. I got one good planting bed dug and planted in my allotment. I put in a dozen broccoli, six kale, six rocket, transplanted two dozen early wonder and kestrel beets, and put in a good three dozen onion sets since then. Plus I sewed more beet seeds and some carrot seeds.  I have just started working a second planting bed, getting it ready for carrots/more onions/leeks, etc. I have a couple of smaller beds that have baby leeks (Mussleborough) in them - they are still just tiny. Looks like a lot of the other people in the allotment gardens did pretty much the same.

So I got home to listen to the news at noon and they are saying we may get snow on Thursday, overnight.  Arrrrrgh. 
Apparently the temperature won't be freezing, but it's going to snow.

I have put a floating row cover over the main bed. Assuming we don't get a lot of snow, it should hold up ok. I'm thinking of putting plastic milk jugs with the bottoms cut out over the rocket, since it's more tender than all the rest that are under the row cover. Not sure if I need to cover the leeks.

Anybody run into this kind of situation before? I have only gardened where it almost never freezes, and never snows. I've dealt with the exact opposite - too much heat, too much sun, too little water. So I'm not quite sure how to handle a very late snow with plants already in the ground. 

Ok, so last week it was in the 70Fs and this week so far in the mid 60Fs. I got one good planting bed dug and planted in my allotment. I put in a dozen broccoli, six kale, six rocket, transplanted two dozen early wonder and kestrel beets, and put in a good three dozen onion sets since then. Plus I sewed more beet seeds and some carrot seeds.  I have just started working a second planting bed, getting it ready for carrots/more onions/leeks, etc. I have a couple of smaller beds that have baby leeks (Mussleborough) in them - they are still just tiny. Looks like a lot of the other people in the allotment gardens did pretty much the same.

So I got home to listen to the news at noon and they are saying we may get snow on Thursday, overnight.  Arrrrrgh. 
Apparently the temperature won't be freezing, but it's going to snow.

I have put a floating row cover over the main bed. Assuming we don't get a lot of snow, it should hold up ok. I'm thinking of putting plastic milk jugs with the bottoms cut out over the rocket, since it's more tender than all the rest that are under the row cover. Not sure if I need to cover the leeks.

Anybody run into this kind of situation before? I have only gardened where it almost never freezes, and never snows. I've dealt with the exact opposite - too much heat, too much sun, too little water. So I'm not quite sure how to handle a very late snow with plants already in the ground. 

Horticultural fleece. 

Thanks, Larabee.  Is that the same as this stuff?    https://www.homedepot.com/p/Agfabric-6-ft-x-25-ft-0-9-oz-Floating-Row-Cover-Plant-Blanket-for-Frost-Protection-and-Terrible-Weather-Resistant-RC0906025/315398466

I already have a mini hoop-house made of it over the bed (wires with this draped over it).

Do the leeks need to be covered up? I do have a very good amount of straw available.... They say it won't be freezing here, but it will snow. Which confuses the heck out of me, but whatever.  I just don't want the plants to die. I've raised them from seed for weeks....

Thanks, Larabee.  Is that the same as this stuff?    https://www.homedepot.com/p/Agfabric-6-ft-x-25-ft-0-9-oz-Floating-Row-Cover-Plant-Blanket-for-Frost-Protection-and-Terrible-Weather-Resistant-RC0906025/315398466

I already have a mini hoop-house made of it over the bed (wires with this draped over it).

Do the leeks need to be covered up? I do have a very good amount of straw available.... They say it won't be freezing here, but it will snow. Which confuses the heck out of me, but whatever.  I just don't want the plants to die. I've raised them from seed for weeks....

That looks like it would do the job. Leeks are winter hardy but I think if they are still little as they will be at this time of year, if in doubt, give them some protection.  I just planted an asparagus bed, the day before a week of nighttime frosts and I protected it, just in case.

The weather is crazy at the moment, we've been having little showers of snow and hail while the sun has been shining! 

Anybody run into this kind of situation before?

All.the.freakin.time. in the Scottish Highlands 

    https://www.homedepot.com/p/Agfabric-6-ft-x-25-ft-0-9-oz-Floating-Row-Cover-Plant-Blanket-for-Frost-Protection-and-Terrible-Weather-Resistant-RC0906025/315398466

That should do the trick!

The leeks will probably be fine, but if you can cover too ,they'll be great.  The rocket will probably be okay too, but it might go a  bit bitter or even bolt once it gets warmer, so covering them should be good too.

Yep, this has been a weird year! I've had to cover my flowering blueberries a few nights this month as the temps have dropped and we got snow down here! Fleece should do the trick.

Ok, then I think we're set. It's supposed to be in the mid 60s today, so I'm going back over and planting some carrot seed that just arrived. Will be putting a sheet of cardboard over it for several days, so it should be safe enough. I'll put a thick layer of straw on the baby leeks  and am going to adjust the cover of the planted bed - weighing it down a bit more  as there are supposed to be some breezes on the way as well.

The Daughter was out there with me yesterday for about an hour, from 11:00-noon, and her face got sunburned.  (She had a hat in the car but forgot to put it on.) So we'll be going out earlier today, just doing the little maintenance, and then won't be able to get back into it until after Saturday. Tomorrow is supposed to be rain turning to snow overnight, and then rain again on Friday. I'm told they have been having a very dry year, by the other gardeners. I certainly have a very different perspective of what constitutes "very dry" but am adding many wheel-barrows full of compost to each plot and have a straw mulch available to help keep the moisture in for when the days get hotter and dryer.

When digging the second bed, which I am not planning to plant up for a month at least (beans and peppers), I found several carrots still growing from the former owner of the plot, I guess. One was a good foot long! I have never seen a carrot out of a personal garden be that long. I guess I can assume the soil is good!

Ok, then I think we're set. It's supposed to be in the mid 60s today, so I'm going back over and planting some carrot seed that just arrived. Will be putting a sheet of cardboard over it for several days, so it should be safe enough. I'll put a thick layer of straw on the baby leeks  and am going to adjust the cover of the planted bed - weighing it down a bit more  as there are supposed to be some breezes on the way as well.

The Daughter was out there with me yesterday for about an hour, from 11:00-noon, and her face got sunburned.  (She had a hat in the car but forgot to put it on.) So we'll be going out earlier today, just doing the little maintenance, and then won't be able to get back into it until after Saturday. Tomorrow is supposed to be rain turning to snow overnight, and then rain again on Friday. I'm told they have been having a very dry year, by the other gardeners. I certainly have a very different perspective of what constitutes "very dry" but am adding many wheel-barrows full of compost to each plot and have a straw mulch available to help keep the moisture in for when the days get hotter and dryer.

When digging the second bed, which I am not planning to plant up for a month at least (beans and peppers), I found several carrots still growing from the former owner of the plot, I guess. One was a good foot long! I have never seen a carrot out of a personal garden be that long. I guess I can assume the soil is good!

And now you know where not to plant the carrots! 

Yep.

I  put plastic gallon milk jugs (with the bottoms cut off) over the rocket, and the whole bed under the blanket, up on hoops.  I heaped up straw on the other beds. So everything made it through that spell just fine.

Then we had several nice days. And then yesterday afternoon we had a howler come through. Saw it coming on the radar and weather report and ran over to prep again. Very windy, cold, some snow, some sleet. Continued like that all night. I went over to the allotment this morning and found that the cover had been blown half off and was flapping violently in the wind, has a large hole in the top, and some of the milk jugs were tipped over. I put everything back in place as best I could  and will just have to hope for the best. With that big hole in the top it's not going to have kept much heat in tonight. The beds with the straw on them did just fine. Not sure anything is still alive under there, but I left the straw to keep the seedlings safe from the wind and cold.  I assume they can manage a couple of days like that, in an emergency, without sunlight. I now have a replacement cover available and will just watch the weather and go back out tomorrow when it's drier to try to tidy things up.

I was also using the cover to keep the little white butterflies away from the kale and broccoli (as their offspring are the dreaded cabbage loopers!) but I may just have to chance it without a cover.  Or I might put the new one on and if heavy winds are forecast again just go take the hoops out and let it lay on the plants, with some boards over it strategically to hold it down. On the good side, this will have almost assuredly killed the white butterflies. Which is sad, but.... They'll be back.

The beets were very tiny plants, and the fennel and carrots had just started to come up. Bummer! Oh, well. I guess there is still time to replant if they didn't make it!  It's been snow going by sideways, with the sun shining and the temp in the upper 30s. On and off all day. It comes in low dark squalls, then is gone. Looking out after or before one of the episodes and you wouldn't have a clue anything had happened at all! Lovely trees all in flower, etc.

Well, THIS is certainly a different kind of gardening experience for us!

I hope the weather improves soon and your little plants make it! 

So do I, thanks!

Supposedly our last frost day is around May 1, so I was pushing the envelope to get them in earlier. Long-range forecast says nice for the next 10 days, with in the 70Fs towards the end of that period. So I'll go back over in a few and see what is left and then plant some replacement seeds.

Next time I'll just put the floating row cover down on the ground over the plants. There should still be time to get them covered before the butterfly army returns....

So do I, thanks!

Supposedly our last frost day is around May 1, so I was pushing the envelope to get them in earlier. Long-range forecast says nice for the next 10 days, with in the 70Fs towards the end of that period. So I'll go back over in a few and see what is left and then plant some replacement seeds.

Next time I'll just put the floating row cover down on the ground over the plants. There should still be time to get them covered before the butterfly army returns....

It can sometimes snow in May so I'm surprised May 1 is the date. All the WNY farmers have to use the low to the ground plastic sheeting for their spring planting. Be warned, it may go from cold to very hot and humid quickly. The last frost here is in May!

Yeah, I'm getting that! The official "old" last day of frost was 15 May, but the unofficial new one due to global warming has been 1 May for the last few years I was told.

Just back from the garden - it was a wreck. I found four of the milk jugs at various places around the greater grounds. Walked the whole area and couldn't find the others. The large sheets of cardboard that had been held down by two bricks were in the next garden over. (!).  The fabric cover was flapping by one corner, which was under a really heavy brick.  So I collected everything I could find, put the fabric literally on the ground and doubled the weight on the edges by adding some 8' 2x2s I'd gotten for future use as fence posts, and then put bricks on the 2x2s.  Raked back the straw off the small raised beds and have happy little baby bunching onions. The red onion sets are coming up as well. There are still some of the Danvers carrots - will check again in the next day or so when I'm not quite so tired and replant as needed.  The fennel babies looked ok in the big bed. The beets were holding on. The broccoli looked like nothing had happened at all. It looks like the rocket has gone to that big garden in the sky, though.  Oh well. I have some baby boc choi (sp?) seeds I wanted to try out, so I'll put them in there.

Some of the other gardeners had covering cloth up about as high as mine was, but it appears mine was cross-ways to the direction the wind had been blowing. Theirs were pretty much still up. Or maybe they had a better anchoring system, I don't know. There were others that were in much the same shape as mine.

I noted that a lot of the other gardeners had big piles of compost in their spaces that weren't there the last time I was over, so I went to check on the "three-year-old" compost pile and it was almost completely gone. I wrestled a wheelbarrow up the hill and loaded it as full as I could get it and then brought it back down the hill and dumped it onto the new bed. So at least I got some. I really should have gotten a second load but simply couldn't do it - my lungs are not being as helpful as they could be and the wind was pretty epic. Plus the hill was seriously waterlogged and squishy. But at least I got that one and it's probably going to be enough. I may go back over later and try to get something more done, but maybe not. It depends on the wind - if it dies down, yes. Otherwise maybe tomorrow.

The city has left a big new pile of fresh compost closer in to the actual gardening plots, but the three-year-old stuff is lovely and full of earthworms already. Old compost is always better than brand new stuff, I think! I think, when planning the future beds, I'm going to check to see if there is a direction the wind usually comes from in early spring (there was when I lived in Texas) and arrange to have built-in windbreaks for the plots.  We're on the side of a gentle hill (the north-facing side, unfortunately) and it's a wide-open area that slopes down to a creek. There's not a lot out there to block the wind.

I felt bad for the beekeeper - there are hives up the slope from the garden and then were all in disarray this morning. I hope the bees are ok!

Oh, Gosh, the Daughter says it's going to hit 80F later this week!
Better go do most of my gardening today, and get some seeds planted.