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Fall Comes Unexpectedly

© Carol Wallace

Yes, Frost arrived unexpectedly this year, and definitely not on little cat's feet like Carl Sandburg's fog.

Instead of the usual teasing dips toward the freezing point, which afford the alert gardener plenty of warning, we went from nights in the high 40s to one light sweater day which spiraled downward until the thermometer hit a low of 25 degrees F.

I wasn't ready. This wasn't a matter of physical unpreparedness. After all, when it's time - it's time. You can race around the yard throwing blankets and protective tents all over things, trying to squeeze an extra week or two out of the season - and for vegetable gardening this may be essential. But when it comes to ornamentals, why postpone the inevitable?

I tried it one year. I heard the frost report on the way home from school and so ran upstairs to the linen closet and hauled out all the sheets and towels. It was, of course, dark, and so my husband and I struggled trying to make a tent around a giant brugmansia that we could barely see. It was too dark for digging, so a shield was the best we could give it. And it survived - although wherever we miscalculated and the covering actually touched the foliage, it got frostbite anyway. The blanket acted like a conductor for the cold in those spots where it actually made contact with the plant.

We struggled in the windy night trying to spread Re-may over the raised beds. Every stray gust of wind made that 30' length act like a ghostly jump rope. But we got it down.

And as a reward, we got maybe an extra five days of growing season - which we didn't go out to admire because it was just too cold to sit and enjoy the somewhat flattened remains of the garden. Three hours of work for a five minute stroll? I haven't done the cover-and-protect routine since. If it's time - it's time. And there's lots left that frost never fazes.

The problem this year was that I wasn't mentally ready. If I had been, I would already have had a firm list in my head of plants that needed to be dug before frost (the colocasia and caladium and probably the Pennisetum rubrum), those that needed to come out after they had been hit by frost (cannas, calla lilies and dahlias), and those that needed to be raced into the house before they were murdered by the frost (the jasmine and brugmansias).

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