Saving my planted too early plants with an improvised cold frame

As a person who actually calculated the last frost dates (90 percentile) for Wilmington from the available data you would think I would know better. The above graph is the temperatures near my house for the past several days. Blue is below freezing, the dips to 25F were especially concerning to me and my poor plants. I knew ahead of time that temperatures would dip below freezing, but I now had lettuce, Brussels sprouts and strawberries newly planted and I wasn't sure they would be able to handle it.

I just started with just bottles with the tops or bottoms cut off to cover the plants I could and a black plastic bag for the row of lettuce.

Bottomless seltzer bottles just fit over the Brussels sprouts.

Topless jugs, a bottomless milk jug and a bucket serve to cover the new strawberry plants.

For the lettuce plants I improvised a cold frame from a plastic bag, duct tape and six dry wire hangers saved from the dry cleaning.

Linus helped me lay out a piece of black plastic a little longer than the row of lettuce. I just used a heavy duty 55 gallon garbage bag that I slit up both ends to make a double long piece of plastic.

Leftover hangers from the dry cleaning will provide a high enough support in the middle to be taller than these very short plants. I started by bending the tops of the hangers flat so that I could duct tape them to the plastic in the middle. I made sure that I had enough plastic on either side so that when I invert it and cover the plants, I can put some wood on the plastic to seal the end and keep it from blowing away.

I used four hangers, two on each end that will also be the sides and two dividing the middle space to provide support along the length. After I taped in the four hangers, I took two more hangers, unwound them and bent then into straight pieces and then duct taped them to the middle of the plastic to provide support to the spine of the cold frame.

Starting at the hanger on the end, I then taped the bottom of the hanger to the plastic to form the side of the cold frame, be sure that you have enough plastic at the end to cover the side and have a flap that you can put a piece of wood on to keep the cold frame in place when it is completed. Finally the frame is becoming more three-dimensional. Do the same to the hanger at the other end.

Next tape the sides of the wire hanger to the plastic for the two hangers in the middle. This will now make the cold frame into an upside down diagonal structure. Do this with both hangers.

I made sure that the hangers were taped well and that the straightened spine hanger wire was also taped well. Above is the completed cold frame, before it was inverted onto the plants.

The cold frame in place. I did use two sticks in the ground between the end hangers and the middle ones in order to give the spine extra support. Gently make sure the sticks line up with the duct taped spine so they don't poke through. The plastic overlapped at the edges gives a spot to put some wood down to seal the frame against the ground to keep some heat in and freezing temperatures out or at least moderated. They also keep it from blowing away.

Here is an angled shot to show the three dimensional structure a little more prominently.

I would estimate that I spent almost nothing but my less than an hour of time on this, since the ingredients were left over from other projects or free with other things.

So far my plants have survived the 4 or so days of deep freeze so the frame and the bottles seem to be working. I was finally able to begin the retirement of the device since last night's temperatures stayed above freezing, and what we have for the next few days is rain not freezing or frost.

For a detailed plan of the above project with measurements and a list of materials ... you will need to forget that you aren't watching This Old House or the New Yankee Workshop.

Suffering Junipers - this last snow did it!

The most recent snow storm (Feb 10, not the one before that!) was so heavy and sticky that I feared for some of the evergreens and plants in the garden and yard. It looks like we have lost a juniper due to the heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain (and then snow again).



The juniper, the bottom left limb should be pointing up, and the two right limbs should also be pointing up.

A close up of the right limbs shows the bottom one peeled down the trunk. The upper limb actually broke as I was closely inspecting the bottom one. That removed any hope of me saving the tree.

There is another juniper in the front of the house which is very interesting and tufty. It is also bowed done to the roof with snow.


Here it is yesterday in the afternoon, halfway through wave two of the snowstorm.


It still seems even more bowed down this morning, but not broken. I am hoping the sun melts the ice and frees it gently. I am afraid to tap it to free the limbs at the risk of them breaking.


Here is the front juniper from the other side.


And a closeup looking up. I didn't want to tap it and get buried on snow.

Ferntastic

I guess I have unrealistic expectations when it comes to ferns growing in wet shady areas like my backyard next to the creek. I wanted to have an explosion of various types by now but still have a only a few still adapting to the conditions. The key may be to realize that it is dryer in the back than I expected and so the ferns need some help in the high heat of the summer.

Here is the best fern, an ostrich fern, that actually seems to be spreading from its spot between the rocks near the creek.


We have also planted three Japanese painted ferns (Athyrium niponicum 'Pictum') that I wish would grow larger and faster. To their credit they came back after being trampled when one of the fallen trees was removed from the creek.

This cinnamon fern was dead last year in the summer, but has apparently come back to life. I hope it continues to grow. I expected it after its return to have more of the fuzzy brown texture on the young fronds, but it looks typically fernlike right now.


This autumn fern never thrives, but never completely gives up after a two years of being in this spot It is a single now that the companion that we planted with it did finally succumb.


I have not yet given up on my fern garden, it appears more patience is on order.

Slugs in the garden

Last night I noticed these giant slugs climbing the pots on porch. I am not sure I am comfortable with them getting closer to my height by climbing things.

Halfway up the pot.


A picture with slime trail with my hand in there for size.

This closeup also shows the slime trail, The ridges on the pot are nine to the inch so the length of this slug is about 3.2 inches not taking into account its curved posture (I guess it is not that big).

I am sure these guys are eating my vegetables and plants. We put ground-up eggshells under the tomatoes and Brussels sprouts for calcium and because the slugs don't like crawling over sharp objects. I was going to joke and call these Giant Leopard slugs, but in fact that is what they are, Limax maximus.

Orange daylilies finally bloom

This very traditional orange daylily finally bloomed after almost 3 years of us being at this house from a clump that is near the creek.

I suppose they were either planted just before we got there and needed some time to grow to flowering stage. The other variable that changed in this uncontrolled experiment is that some of the trees on our side and on the other side of the creek that were shading this clump and others by the creek have fallen down and been removed. Thus it is sunnier in these locations than before.

The only reason I want to know what finally got them to bloom is I may want to encourage these plants in the future and need to duplicate the conditions. Time means just wait, but sun means choose the planting location carefully. Are there any experts out there with an explanation?

Shellpot Creek Strawberry Festival

Last year I built a 4' x 4' raised bed in a somewhat sunnier part of the yard to plant strawberries. It is better to plant the strawberries in a raised bed because then it is easier to keep them contained as the runners like to spread out an colonize other parts of the soil. Last year was the planting year and this year is the harvest. Right now there are strawberries or flowers in every stage of ripeness.

Flowers

Green unripe berries

We picked the first of the ripe strawberries last week. This isn't all of them, many didn't make it to this picture because they were eaten. I just love growing my own stuff!

I think it is too early to officially declare the Shellpot Creek Strawberry Festival, but we hope to have a lot of strawberries. Enough that we run out of ideas of what to do with them and that we have to get out the canning jars for jam. Strawberry shortcake will be the first use after just eating them plain.

Screaming Yellow

These perennials are called Screaming Yellow. They are Baptisia sphaerocarpa.



Planted last year, they are doing well this year. Supposedly they do poorly in the year they are planted but then perk up as shown. We are big perennial fans for the simple reason that you don't have to plant them each year, and many of them look great.

Late Spring Flowers - Peonies smell so good

I wish there was a Sniffr(tm) just like Flickr where you could upload the smell of something. These peonies smell even better than they look. You will just have to go outside and smell your own or just imagine as you look at these pictures.


The ants love them


Three in a row.

Tulip carnage

Animal damage or rainstorm damage? What do you think?

It seems suspicious that only red tulips suffer this damage. That makes me think it is an agent of some sort like a squirrel. On the other hand, one might contend that red tulips are inherently more likely to be damaged by rain due to a weakness in the plant tied to the color (breeding red plants breeds weak plants, for instance).

I just want them to survive to flower and be pretty to look at.

Native Delaware flowers in my very own backyard

The backyard by the creek is very shady due to many trees growing on both sides of the creek. It offers the challenge of gardening in the shade. Mother nature has provided at least two very lovely native plants featured below. One transplanted, one that we found when we got here.

This Wild Bleeding Heart (Dicentra eximia) is a native to the Middle Atlantic states that we got from a friend's garden. We thought they had been trampled to death in the winter when a fallen tree was cleared from the creek, but they are back already and blooming.





This mysterious lily-like flower has bloomed from this crook in the roots of this tree this year and last year. We did not put it there. My wife suspected that it is a native lily (she should know, horticulture major that she is) suggested a lily with a "t" in its name but couldn't identify it further. My investigation on the web (using this excellent wildflower idenifier) reveals that it is most likely a Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum, NRCS USDA infomation), although many of the images you see of them have mottled leaves and more dramatic flowers. It is pretty enough, and unexpected. I wonder how I can get more of them to grow there.

More crocuses poke up through the leaves

The crocuses in the yard think that Spring is coming. Having helped to free some of them this week from the leaf piles that encroach on their area, they are now bursting forth at every location.

I also like to get closeups of the inside.


These are crocuses of a different color that haven't quite opened yet. Can you tell that purple is my favorite color.


Finally some snowdrops that I planted. Last year these didn't do much; I am hoping for better this year.


Spring is springing.

Snow on Holly Berries

With the snow falling and a camera that does better closeups than regular pictures I couldn't resist these pictures of snow on the holly bushes outside, with some holly berry red for some flash.


The pictures don't do justice to how prickly these holly bushes are. They will draw blood if you brush against them and the prick through leather gloves.

Beauty and peril in the same package.

Freezing rain takes down a tree on Shellpot Creek

Lynn actually heard this tree fall about an hour ago. We ran out to see what happened and see that it has fallen across the creek.



This tree belongs to the folks across the creek and is one of the trees I expected to fall soon. I suppose the freezing rain weighed it down, and the rain of the past few days loosened the soil so that gravity and wind could take it down. Too bad it is completely blocking the creek. I will need to explore my previous picks of across the creek to find a before picture.

Some years have lots of acorns and some don't

Several articles in the press and out on the web today have sensationalist titles like "Where are the acorns?", "Acorns disappear across the country" and "Acorn Watchers Wonder What Happened to Crop". Even Topix has a a forum topic devoted to it. Then the various articles ring the climate alarm quite vigorously. Others use the false analogy of disappearing acorns to disappearing bees. Once again eye catching headlines win out over even reasonably thoughtful study.

The acorns and other edible parts of woody plants like tress are call mast. These acorns are a food source for many animals in a forest from squirrels, to mice to deer. Pig farmers sometimes let their pigs loose in forests to fatten up on acorns. The important thing to realize is that these trees don't produce acorns every year in the same quantity like a fruit tree or like a farmer farms wheat. There are good years and bad years. Good years (here is an example in California last year) are called mast years, in fact. The cycle is reported to be 3 to 4 years and tied to a wet or a dry spring (this abstract reports other factors as well). The article sometimes points this out but then go on to say no one knows to heighten the mystery. The lack of acorns discussed in the Washington Post is centered around northern Virginia. Not all areas report the same thing.

I wonder if this boom and bust cycle has ever happened anywhere before. A precursory search using google (which I imagine any reporter could do) reveals several free articles on the topic, one with a very good chart. Other articles would cost money, but I am sure that a newspaper might even be able to purchase an article if they needed it.

One the article has an interesting chart (click the chart for larger) with some data that I have adapted by stretching and lining up the years, that shows boom (1994) and bust (1995, 1998) cycles for oak trees in California, Missouri, and Massachusetts and over several years. Some years have no acorns at all, some have plenty. Even different species seem to produce or not to produce in synchrony. I guess an article reporting that some years there just aren't any acorns doesn't get the hits of one with a dire end of the acorn death knell.

From the figure caption from the article: Fig. 1 Example time series of mast production. (a) Hastings Reservation (California) site, Q. agrifolia, (b) Hastings Reservation, Q. douglasii, (c) Missouri, Q. coccinea, (d) Missouri, Q. alba, (e) Massachusetts, Q. rubra. In (a–b) each line represents values for individual trees; in (c–e), lines represent yearly means for each plot. Heavy lines represent yearly grand means.

Another article has an appendix with line after line of articles with historical levels of acorns and other mast over many years, some as long as 31 years. I would love to have the data from that article because I think it would put this issue to rest even better than the small amount shown above. Here is a chart (click for larger) of acorn production for different oak species in Florida (source abstract, source .pdf). Some years show almost no production, and even some synchrony between species.

It is interesting that people at least notice their environment somewhat, but noticing only the negative events and lacking the scientific curiosity to determine if the phenomena is fleeting or cyclic or permanent almost defeats the benefit of being observant in the first place.

The acorns will return.

Fall flowers last hurrah

This African daisy (Osteospermum) bloomed in the spring and but we got two bonus blooms in the fall. In spite of its annual nature, perhaps it will survive the winter to bloom again. I was attracted to its almost electrical purple color with an almost plastic like perfection to the bloom. It was only when I photographed it in close-up that I noticed the very subtle blue of the middle of the flower.



I have these blood red mums for free this year because these are last fall's mums that survived through the winter and started growing again in the spring. They are not really perennial in northern Delaware, but I have always gotten some back in each of the places I have lived and planted them.

The yellow mums are really for free since they were planted two years ago by the previous owners and have stubbornly survived two mild winters.


This Toad Lily (Tricyrtis, but I am unsure of the exact type, I guess latifolia) is a plant native to Delaware which we purchased at the University of Delaware plant sale. When it was first planted in the spring one of the friendly plant eater in our yard, my bet is on our "pet" groundhog, chewed it almost down to the ground. It rebounded to produce these interesting blooms this fall. This was a good plant for the shady back yard next to the creek, and I do have the patience to wait for late summer and fall for its blooms. I hope it continues to do well.



This hardy geranium (Geranium sanguineum) is one of the more interesting plants that came with the house already planted in a front bed. It produces these delicate blood veined white quarter sized flowers throughout the season from late spring until fall frost.



This strobilanthes (strobilanthes dyerianus), although not a flower, is really cool looking nonetheless. it is almost alien or reptilian with its purple foliage and ribbed leaves. I am trying to save this strobilanthes for next year, I have dug it up and taken it inside since they really get killed in a frost. I waited one day too long last year and that plant was killed to mush in a night. I have been told that these are really house plants up here but they do well in the summer.