Baby It's Cold Outside

Weather wise this has been a nearly normal spring.  Seasonally cool temperatures have many of our more tender perennials just now breaking the surface of the soil.  Still, with last night's low forecast to hit 24 F we had to break out protection.  A single large tarp covers thirty something pots of lilies.  Here we get a lot of protection with little effort.  In the background several wire cages containing freshly scooped leaves are intended to insulate newly emerged plants from the cold.  The leaves were surprisingly hard to find.  Strong winds preceded the cold and removed most of the leaves.  Only those held in place by ground briers or brush were free for the picking.

Our welded wire cages are intended to protect plants from the rabbits or the deer.  Here one supports a tarp over the lettuce plants that were set out way to early.  Still, the tarp is quickly and easily placed held by water filled juice bottles.

Despite the forecast, we found the air temperature just above freezing this morning.  These lettuce plants may have looked just as good if we had left them uncovered.

My passion for lilies has handed me more than I can manage.  These orange spotted lilies are out in the garden and were covered with leaves and a bucket last night.  The reddish leaves spring from mature bulbs that will flower this year if they are protected from late frosts.  The green leaves sprout from daughter bulbs that will flower next year.  Several of the mature bulbs could be potted up now so that they could be moved into the basement for protection on cold nights.  Since four pots of these lilies are now in the sod house and more of these lilies grow in two others places in the garden, there is simply no way that I can save them all.