Last Expected Frost Date

Trying to figure out when the first expected frost in your area will be can be frustrating.  The problem is that no one knows for sure.  Everyone is guessing - some using historical weather data, others not.  A good bit of the information that I found is old, whether it be taped to a desk at the Master Gardener's office or online in a 1988 NOAA report.  Another source I have for this information is Gardening in the Carolinas by Bob Polumski.  I'm going to lay out some of this information and let's see if we can reach a consensus.

MG Office - Average First and Last Frost Dates
Charleston Airport     November 20th     March 15th

NOAA - 50% Frost Chance Table
50% chance of Frost on or after the spring date indicated
50% chance of frost on or before the fall date indicated
Charleston AP            November 12th     March 18th

NOAA - 10% Frost Chance Table
10% chance of Frost on or after the spring date indicated
10% chance of frost on or before the fall date indicated
Charleston AP            October 30th         April 6th

Gardening in the Carolinas by Bob Polomski
average date of first fall freeze 11/21
average date of last spring freeze 3/11 or 3/16

What does all of this mean?  Let's start with the MG office information.  First of all, I don't know the source.  I believe it to have been reliable when it was taped to the desk, but I can't say when that was, but the dates are in the ballpark.  The info in the Polomski book is a little dated, but it's also a little hard to interpret.  Like the MG office, it's an average, but it's also a couple of graphics of NC and SC with wavy lines.  Once again, these first and last average frost dates are in the ballpark - see for yourself.

When I first started writing this, I wanted a clear answer - the NOAA information seemed too vague.  But now that I've reached this part of the article, it makes the most sense.  No one is going to know for sure when it will freeze, until it does, but the table gives a good estimate.  On November 12th, you should be planning on it to freeze, if it hasn't done so already.  The same thing goes in the spring - by April 6th there is very little chance that it will freeze again.  Like I've said before, none of this is exact, but it's the best we've got - unless you want to go by the farmer's almanac.

First Expected Frost Date

Trying to figure out when the first expected frost in your area will be can be frustrating.  The problem is that no one knows for sure.  Everyone is guessing - some using historical weather data, others not.  A good bit of the information that I found is old, whether it be taped to a desk at the Master Gardener's office or online in a 1988 NOAA report.  Another source I have for this information is Gardening in the Carolinas by Bob Polumski.  I'm going to lay out some of this information and let's see if we can reach a consensus.

MG Office - Average First and Last Frost Dates
Charleston Airport     November 20th     March 15th

NOAA - 50% Frost Chance Table
50% chance of Frost on or after the spring date indicated
50% chance of frost on or before the fall date indicated
Charleston AP            November 12th     March 18th

NOAA - 10% Frost Chance Table
10% chance of Frost on or after the spring date indicated
10% chance of frost on or before the fall date indicated
Charleston AP            October 30th         April 6th

Gardening in the Carolinas by Bob Polomski
average date of first fall freeze 11/21
average date of last spring freeze 3/11 or 3/16

What does all of this mean?  Let's start with the MG office information.  First of all, I don't know the source.  I believe it to have been reliable when it was taped to the desk, but I can't say when that was, but the dates are in the ballpark.  The info in the Polomski book is a little dated, but it's also a little hard to interpret.  Like the MG office, it's an average, but it's also a couple of graphics of NC and SC with wavy lines.  Once again, these first and last average frost dates are in the ballpark - see for yourself.

When I first started writing this, I wanted a clear answer - the NOAA information seemed too vague.  But now that I've reached this part of the article, it makes the most sense.  No one is going to know for sure when it will freeze, until it does, but the table gives a good estimate.  On November 12th, you should be planning on it to freeze, if it hasn't done so already.  The same thing goes in the spring - by April 6th there is very little chance that it will freeze again.  Like I've said before, none of this is exact, but it's the best we've got - unless you want to go by the farmer's almanac.

Getting Ready for Winter

It seems that cold weather is upon us this week - I saw a low of 20 in the next couple of days, but I don't think it will get that low.  At any rate, I had some things to do to get ready for it.  The most obvious one was to bring in a few plants - I started by putting my citrus plants in the garage.  They seem to be the most susceptible to the cold and I've taken more of an interest in them, since learning more about fruit gardening.  I have a few random plants in pots that would be affected by the cold.  If they were in the ground, I wouldn't worry about them so much, but since they're in pots, they could be harmed more.  I had a few plants that have been fine during previous winters, but tonight could be a little extreme, so I erred on the side of caution and brought those in as well.  I'll probably keep them in there for a few days, until the temperature returns to normal.

I haven't paid much attention to the pond recently - I'm still deciding what to do with it - redesign it, get rid of it - I still needed to do a little bit for it.  I cleaned it out some and filled it up with water from my rain barrels.  This was also important - emptying the barrels would potentially keep them from freezing and cracking or splitting.  I got the waterfall pump running and the water flowing to ensure that the pond wouldn't freeze completely.  I know it sounds like I'm going to the extreme, but I don't want to take any chances.

My biggest concern in the chickens.  I have been reading about winterizing coops and most people agree that it's not good to shut them up without a lot of ventilation.  Their breath is very humid and their droppings are moist as well, not to mention full of noxious gases which need to be vented.  Shutting them up would be very detrimental to their health.  I've heard of people putting Vaseline on their combs and waddles, to keep them from getting frostbite, but that's not going to happen here - I couldn't catch all of them to do that before dark.  The best advice I found was to make sure they get a lot of corn in the afternoon, before they go to bed.  The extra grain will help them stay warm through the night.  The last thing I'll do is to bring in their water after they go to bed.  It will likely freeze out there and I'll have to dethaw it - I may as well just bring it in and save the trouble later.  I just have to remember to put it back in the coop in the morning.

After the Freeze

The new year is a time for starting over.  In some ways I mean that literally around our house.  I can't say I was taken by surprise by the cold weather that hit us in early December, but I was surprised how long and how cold it was.  I could say that I was preoccupied with Ella's green roof science fair project - which I was - but the fact is, I would have been unprepared even if I hadn't been doing something else.

The extended cold really did a number on all of our winter vegetables - broccoli, onions, lettuce.  I've pretty much given up on them - I just haven't pulled them out of the ground nad thrown them into the composter yet.

I also had tender and somewhat hardy houseplants outside - only a few might live when warm weather comes around again.  Other plants I'll hold onto and see what happens to them as well.  So, I am making a sort of fresh start.  I need to get out in the garden and pull up the old vegetables and I think I'm just going to plant lettuce and spinach - it'll be more low maintenance and I can easily cover it when I have to - if I remember.

Major Freeze

I was in the process of writing about the life cycles of plants in the landscape - when they bloom, when they die back from the cold, etc. We had some temps near freezing and a few of the plants I expected would be fine, weren't and vice versa. I hadn't gotten around to finishing that post when we got a week of lows around 20 and highs in the 40s.

I brought in a lot of our succulents off the front steps - most of those are tender. I wouldn't worry about them in near-freezing temps, but 20 degrees? I hadn't put up the plastic in the garden area yet, so I grouped a bunch of plants together against the house and draped a quilt over them - they're doing fine. The ferns in our shade garden got pretty fried, except for the hardy ones I got on clearance at Lowes - they look good. I guess the other ones may come back in the spring, but I think I'd rather have the ones that stick around through the winter. A few things that I considered houseplants have managed well. I guess they're something called dragon tree or Dracaena. They look tender, but they've stood up well to the cold. I was told that the garlic I planted in the fall would die back during the winter, but it hasn't happened yet.

There is one plant I forgot about in all my preparations. I've got a citrus plant in the front yard that I didn't protect for several days. I finally went out there and put some plastic over it last night. Since buying a lemon tree from Darren this fall, I have changed my approach to citrus. I think I'm willing to grow them in pots, so I can protect them during the winter by moving them into the garage. I had decided to wait until spring to put it into a container. When we find one, we'll probably get some kind of rolling cart to put plants on, to make it easier to protect them in the winter. I also got a lesson in the need for row covers after seeing the lettuce and broccoli this week. It's all a learning experience and I'll be prepared in the future.

First Frost

I've been wanting to get a new wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer - the one we have doesn't work anymore. I got it for Xmas last year and I'll probably get a new one this year. I've looked at them online and they have ones with up to three remote sensors. I'd like one of those, but I can't justify spending the extra money. Believe it or not, but different areas of the yard can be different climates.

I've had conversations with serious gardening friends and they've told me about different areas of their yards being different temperatures and plants that thrive in the back yard, but not in the front - and I'm starting to believe the same is true about our yard.

I didn't pay much attention to the temperature when I woke up Thursday morning, but it was probably close to freezing. When I got the paper about 5am, there was frost on the ground. It wasn't until I got home from work that I was able to survey the damage the frost might have done. I've got a few tropicals by the pond that I knew wouldn't look good - hidden ginger, banana plant, etc - so I wasn't concerned about that. The vegetable garden looked fine - even the garlic, which is supposed to die back in the winter. It wasn't until I got to the front yard I notice that our asiatic(?) lilies showed some signs of frost damage - that's really the only thing I saw. I don't have multiple thermometers in the yard yet, but from what I've seen, the front yard is going to be colder than the back. The back has the pond and is a lot more sheltered with the house, garage, trees, etc. The front yard is mostly wide open - including the fact that the canopy of oaks that line our street, ends with our yard - the north side of our yard, where all our plantings are right now, is treeless and and exposed.

I wasn't expecting the frost, so I didn't protect the house plants I still have outside. To my surprise, everything is doing fine, including the night-blooming cereus, which I think might be trying to bloom. We've got near-freezing weather forecast for the weekend and maybe beyond - I just need to remember to bring in a few plants and everything will be fine.