plankets – Cat's Garden

Happy New Year’s Eve

admincatsg Uncategorized December 31, 2021December 31, 20212022, cold, cover, front, humid, humidity, plankets

2022, here we come. Today is the last day of 2021. The weather here has been warm days, and humid nights. Its been so humid the dew is condensing and dripping off my roof. The deck covering drips each night. It leaves a good inch of water in the bottom of a barrel. And it is from nothing but the humidity. For reference its been evenings of low 70-high 60’s, with humidity of 99%. Its not cold enough to rain, so all that moisture just sits in the air. Even now, its Friday evening, New Year’s Eve, and its 71 degrees and 93% humidity outside. That’s humid and warm, but not cool enough to actually rain.

And so have been our evenings.

But tomorrow, Saturday January 1 2022 we are due for a cool down. Tomorrow during the day we should hit a balmy 79, almost 80 degrees. Yet our low for tomorrow is forecast to be 28 degrees. Sunday our high is forecast for 48, with a low of 26. Monday is 52 and 35. By Tuesday we should be back to 60-70 daytime highs and lows in the 40’s.

In preparation for this cold the raised beds have been covered with Plankets, those green plant cover thin blankets. The citrus tree in the ground is small enough to be covered with an upside down pot. We’ve put a large rock on the pot to keep it in place just in case wind kicks up. I expect some plants will die in the cold, and I’m okay with that. I’ve still been harvesting jalapeno peppers, even today. Also, my bell pepper plants will probably die, that I’m really okay with that. Even the tomato will probably die, but again, its not a bad thing. These plants dying will allow me to pull them with a clean conscious.

So we shall see what the weather brings for 2022.

Happy New Year.

FROST!!

admincatsg Uncategorized November 30, 2020November 30, 2020Austin, cold front, cold snap, covers, deck, freeze, plankets

We finally have our first real cold snap. Our temperatures have dropped from the 70’s down to low to mid 50’s. And tonight (YEAH!) we should get down somewhere just below freezing. I’ve seen the temperature for tonight rated as anywhere from 27-30, so we’ll just have to see where it gets. But we are due for a cold snap. Since we got rain over the weekend, just shy of 1″ here at the house, we’ve had time to dry out. So I don’t expect a lot of icy roads tomorrow, but it could happen.

In preparation I have covered plants. I have not covered my swiss chard nor my lettuce. I did cover the squash coming up and all the citrus trees. We did get some light wind over the weekend, after I had covered the squash. I ended up putting pieces of wood to help hold down the plankets (you know those plant blankets they sell, more like thin flexible paper than blankets). But I have high hopes for the squash surviving. We’re shooting for a high of 53 here, but by 10pm the temperatures should have already fallen down to mid 30’s.

I’ve also moved plants that were outside on the deck close to the house. Since the area close to the house is covered and sheltered, it does keep a few degrees warmer than out in the open. Its will get chilly, but not quite as cold as those plants out in the yard. Obviously these are plants in pots, including some succulents and my tomatoes.

I will say, I do miss the weather station set up we had at the old house. I may have to figure out how to set up something that will give me that same amount of information. That system showed me the changes in 5 minute increments, so I knew how quickly temperatures dropped. But of course, when we moved, we couldn’t easily move that.

Let’s see what tonight’s weather brings.

UPDATE: its 10:45 pm and it is already 31 degrees outside. It will be a cold night for Austin.