FIRST FREEZE IN ALMOST 3 YEARS?

The skies are clear and temperatures are falling like a brick.

The weather guy used the term 'plummeting'. 

Why do I have so many tropical plants?

Why do they ALL have to be so beautiful?

And why don't I live in Miami or Key West?

We all tempt our zones and push the limits.

In my case, it's life or death....to the plants that is.

I've been studying weather and climate with my students for the past 12 weeks.

It's been fascinating.

For instance, here's a painting from Peter Bruegel from around 1550. Did you know that from around 1550 to 1850 most of Europe experienced a mini Ice Age?

It's reflected in many of the paintings of that era. 

Yes, I know it snows regularly in Europe, but during the aforementioned years it not only snowed, it SNOWED!

I also talked to the kids about the last ice age. It was difficult for them to imagine all of Canada buried in ice.

But what about Texas? What was going on here? It turns out WE had thousands of years of weather similar to Quebec or Manitoba. Everything shifted south thousands of miles and Texas was host to woolly mammoths and other cool animals.

We also had lots of spruce trees growing here 18,000 years ago.

I'm thinking a lot about cold weather because my garden is right on the FREEZE line tonight.

Talk about a nail biter. Everyone else is thinking about turkey and dressing and I'm thinking about green, mushy, frozen plants.

The latest wind map has some northerly winds moving the air around. That's good, because it means less chance of frost. 

There's also some high clouds in Mexico that could float by after midnight. This would keep the temperatures a few degrees higher. I can only hope!

In the meantime, I've brought in about 40 of my favorites, and packed my little garden shed with a couple of dozen more. 

I don't have my greenhouse ready this early in the season. I usually set it up the weekend AFTER Thanksgiving.

Oh well, pretending to be a tropical garden was fun while it lasted.

In closing, I do have a piece of really good news; one of my students donated a weather station to our classroom.

I'm babysitting it this weekend so I'll get to watch the carnage (or miracle) from a warm, cozy chair.

In the past, I had to run outside every few hours to view the thermometer. Brrrr.....

So, will I wake up to....

GREEN plants or BROWN plants? 

Tonight's weather will decide tomorrow's color scheme.

****

That's it for today. 

Have a

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stay warm and enjoy your holiday....and thanks for stopping by.

David/:0)

NEXT MORNING: The color is still GREEN...a large deck of clouds came across from Mexico just after midnight and lasted most of the night. We landed on a low of 34.1 here at the garden and in the center of the city.

:0) Now I can get that greenhouse filled with GREEN plants.

P.S. I like our local weather service...someone has a nice sense of humor. (Read below) LOL

I'M THANKFUL FOR LAST NIGHT'S CLOUD COVER:

A CLOSE SHAVE WITH JACK FROST

We live deep within the Metro Houston 'Heat Island' . This makes for some interesting weather forecasts. I never actually know how cold it will be until it happens. We've had about 1 hour of frost so far this winter with a temperature of 32 degrees for about 20 minutes one morning. This was according to a home weather station in our neighborhood. It makes for some unusual scenes.

               Half the plant freezes. Inches away the other half is fine!  This happens with elephant ears as well.

                               Frost on the roof, but not on the plants.

                       I cover some plants with a blanket. Guess who decides to stop by? Our cat.

Jack Frost on leaves in our neighbor's yard across the street, but not on mine!

It's still a zone 10 (30-40 degree minimum) garden this year, but in January the tropical party will probably be over and my garden will settle down for its winter nap.