This cold is ridiculous and last night I saw the forecast keeps getting lower and earlier. Got up to find 9°F this morning! -8°F forecast next week! That’s -22°C! That’s Winnipeg weather!!!
I changed my mind about the backyard strawberries
After thinking about what Judy and I have been texting about on snow vs ice and the extreme and unusual cold impending, I decided to cover the biggest part of every strawberry bed, even the backyard ones. I hope it will snow as forecast on Sunday before the most extreme cold for insulation.
A soft, sheltering blanket begins
Hopefully we will get the additional forecast snow to help everything from the single digits forecast for Sunday and beyond!
The big freeze: an outdoor stratification event?
Supposed to be really cold (with highs not above freezing) later this week, so I figured I should get my lately acquired native and wildflower seeds in the ground. These included desert globemallow, blue flax, Liatris mucronata, and mystery Aster sp. (the latter two from Mom, thanks Mom!!). The first three I also put some seeds in the fridge for manual stratification and the first two I saved a bit to try planting in the fall if the spring planting doesn’t take.
I also had a few indoor seedings to catch up on. Judy kindly sent me some Chimayo chile pepper seeds, my Jimmy Nardello peppers never sprouted, my ground cherries only had two sprouts, and the poor Tommy Toe tomatoes died of cat and damping off.
Window rearranging
Some guest plants are departing, so the Salvia greggii cuttings are moving into the plant window where it’s safer from the cat.
Plant window ventilation
No more cases of damping off since Wes has added the fan for me. Many plants were ready for watering! So I think the fan is helping dry things out.
Airflow to prevent damping off?
Wes rigged up a small fan with power supply to pull air through the plant window. Fingers crossed it works! There’s always taking the baby plants in and out each day for sunshine but I’d really rather not. Because I’m lazy.
Damping off fungus attacks
Well we are having some damping off fungus in the plant window. Lost the only surviving tommy toe tomato seedling and a lot of onion seedlings are falling over. I had hoped we left enough air circulation despite our cat blocking plexiglass but apparently not. The chef is looking into tiny fans to put there. I’ll have to start another tommy toe too.