The hard freeze came and went, and life in the garden continues. Long periods of freezing temperatures can come back until the end of winter, so I am stilling watching my plants. I expected the tomato plants, eggplants, and peppers to suffer. I also thought my coleus to die back. However, I was not sure how bad the damage would be to other plants. My wife was quite worried that we would loose many plants, like last year, so she wanted to head out to cover plants. Last year’s freeze hurt plants that had never been effected in the past. With trepidation, I walked out into the garden to asses the fate of my plants.

    With the expectation of more damage, I was surprised to find signs that the freeze had not been that bad. The eggplants still had new growth, as did the pepper plants. The tomato plants did suffer badly. Outside of the vegetable garden, I found only the coleus effected by the freeze. Not all of the coleus died back. The only plant that I had covered was the avocado tree. Once established, this tree will be fine in our climate, but I had just planted this one, so I did not want to risk loosing it. I thought that my ornamental grasses would possibly succumb to the freeze. I had purchased them in the fall, when the season for these grasses was over. They have flourished though, and they still are fine.
    I did water the garden before the freeze. The moist ground mitigates effects of the freeze, and since we had so little rain, I felt that was needed. The task did make neighbors wonder why I would be watering, but a few asked, so I saw another neighbor do the same. I pruned the damaged limbs from various plants. The only plant that I cut down fully was the tomato plants. You might think the pepper plants or eggplants should be pulled out, but I have found that these plants can come back the next year. The evidence of the new growth may be a sign of hope. The pruning is necessary. The plants will expend energy dealing with the frost bit limbs, instead of putting the energy into the surviving limbs.
    My garden is being prepared for the next growing season. I am adding compost to the mulch. I am using my hoe to disturb the mulch where weeds pop up. I am also using my hoeing technique on the compost piles behind the bushes. I do not want to turn these piles, which is more work, so by using the hoe, I achieve the same thing as turning the pile. I am also shifting compost and dirt around to complete my new garden bed structure. No plants are in those beds yet, but this can be a time saver in the next few months. I can put the plants into place quickly.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

We had our first freeze and snow in Houston, which means going out to protect our plants with row covers may be in order.

I was so busy working on home inspections and writing reports that I did not pay attention to my garden, as I should have. I guess that I did not believe the reports that we would have snow, and I failed to pay heed to the freeze warnings.However, I have not been to keen on creating more work for myself in the garden, so I have not been rushing out to place row covers on the plants anyway.

    Established plants that are suited to our climate do not need to be covered. Yes they will experience some frost damage, but this can be pruned away. I like the look of allowing my garden to go through its seasons, so the skeleton of a branch is not so bad. I also strongly favor eating vegetables that are in season. If some annual vegetables suffer, that is fine. I let them go to seed, so many spring up again next year. I am surprised that many of my pepper plants seem hardy enough to continue through our cold snaps. Even a few tomato plants hold on through the winter. Trying to maintain these vegetables requires work that frequently does not produce much of a return. I do take cuttings for indoors to help with a crop for next year. Cuttings are easy. Take off the tip of a plant. Wet the cut end, and stick it in some rooting hormone. Place the piece in some potting soil.

    Of course, my winter vegetables, like Swiss chard, kale, collards, and beets have done well. The lettuce came through too. I am waiting to see how the nasturtiums fare. The lemon grass is strong, and I am about ready to harvest the sun chokes. Oh yeah, I have plenty of onions. I want to explore more plants in the allium family this year. I never really focused on them, and they do need this cold spell.

    I did have the good sense to harvest some basil (the plants have done well despite the drop in temperature). I chopped some leaves to be added to cooked rice. That was a hit with the family. For the remainder, I made a pesto. You could use a blender, but I prefer mincing with my knife. Ingredients(roughly): two cups of basil leaves, three cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons of sumac, a little black pepper, a tablespoon of lemon juice, a cup of canola oil, and three tablespoons of sunflower seeds pounded in my mortar. It came out great. I used it to flavor some frikadelle (a German style hamburger).Ingredients: ground beef, bread broken into pieces and moistened, chopped onion, egg, and spices. I used salt and pepper, and then added the pesto. Form patties, and fry them up. I added mushrooms and onions to the pan.

    If you do cover your plants, do not use blankets. Row covers are a light weight material that breathes and still lets the sun shine down on my plants. Blankets may protect from the freeze, but they harm the plants over time. Their weight can crush down on the plant, while preventing light and air from reaching them.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.