When the single digit temperatures hit South Louisiana a few weeks ago, even though I had everything wrapped securely, we had one problem. A ball valve on some PVC that I ran from the house out to the water troughs in the pasture, the garden, and the barn froze and burst the pipe. After a couple of trips to the hardware store, I had everything I needed. The line was dug up and put back together. After a little time to cure, I pressured the system back up and... it held! We're back in business.
Immediately following the arctic blast, we had weather in the 80's, literally 70 degrees warmer than the previous week. It felt like spring. But guess what? According to the weather report, we'll be in the 20's again next Wednesday and Thursday.
Let's check in on the plants we're growing. All these seedlings were planted on New Year's Day. Most of the tomatoes are putting on their first true leaves. That means I'll be hitting them with a diluted dose of fish emulsion to really get them jumping.
Here are a few more tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. Their germination is a little slower, so they're behind the other, but they'll catch up.
I know I'm early on this, but the 80 degree weather got me raring to go. I planted three different varieties of cucumbers, yellow squash, butternut squash, zucchini, and pasta squash.
Here is our homemade greenhouse for seedlings. It's simply a baker's rack covered by a shower curtain. That's it. Nothing fancy, but it works.
But with the 20 degree weather coming, the greenhouse will be moving inside the house. Once we get through the final cold weather, we'll harden these seedlings off and transplant in the garden.
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