Over the past week or so, we’ve been getting absolutely blasted with cold weather and freezing temperatures. Up until now, our winter weather had been relatively mild; something which is very common here in my zone 6b/7 garden. That all changed about two weeks ago, however, when the snow began to fall and the nightly lows starting dipping into the single digits. Let’s take a closer look at our winter flowers.
With about eight inches of snow headed in my direction, I started the process of “locking down” the hoophouse, covering the plants with row covers, and hoping that everything would survive. Of course, it couldn’t just snow – we had a wind advisory, as well. With gusts over 50 mph, I can’t even begin to explain how worried I was that the hoophouse would be destroyed by a strong gust. Luckily, the pvc clips and landscaping pins that I had used to secure the hoophouse held strong, and I had very little issue.
After a long night of scraping snow off the top of the hoophouse every few hours, I’m happy to say that this cheap ($150) make-shift hoophouse has survived yet another winter storm. I’m still very thankful for my privacy fence, however. I’m not sure the hoop would have withstood the high winds without the added protection of the fence.
Next, yet another winter storm came. This time, the snow was lighter – but, the temperatures were much colder. For about a solid week now, our temperatures have remained constantly in the single digits. As someone trying to overwinter hardy annual flowers for spring, the threat of this kind of cold weather makes me extremely nervous.
Until today, I hadn’t even gone into the hoophouse for over a week. Though extremely cold, I was lucky that the sun was out for several days. At our lowest, the night time temperature was -5F. The windchill during that time was an extremely bitter -25F.
Upon checking the flowers, there was definitely some damage (and definitely some complete losses). Since it’s still cold, I haven’t had the chance to take photos for an update. As soon as it warms up a little, I’ll be back to post more about the progress of the hoophouse.
That’s it for this post. How has your garden handled the cold weather? What are you growing through the winter? Hope you’re having a wonderful day!
