Cold Snap

This past weekend was beautiful. Temperatures were in the 70s, flowers were blossoming and trees were budding. In a matter of hours, a large blast of Arctic air had settled deep into the heart of the States. This Arctic air brought freezing temperatures and even snow.

This cold snap has been more than a minor comfort inconvenience. The past few weeks of Spring weather has prompted the plants to come out of winter hibernation. A freeze at this point of the growing season can be catastrophic to delicate new plants. If you have plants that can be easily taken inside, remember to do so before it freezes! If you can't bring the plants inside, you can increase their odds of surviving the cold by covering them with plastic or a blanket. Alternatively, if you have a lot of leaves on the ground, you can pile them on top of the plants. If you use plastic, make sure to anchor it down to the ground with some stones, bricks, lumber, or anything heavy. Try to not let the plastic touch the plants (if possible).

Any sudden change in weather can have unwanted consequences around the home. A DIY type of person can have a lot of unplanned work as a consequence of the weather; a recent example is the ice storms we had a couple of months ago. Luckily for us, our roof was not damaged by the following hail storms, none of the siding was torn from our house from the tornado-like winds that storm brought, and we only have one tree, so limb clean up was minimal. Other people were not as lucky. Here are some photos of the ice storm.

Here you can see how thick the ice was on this plant.


Half of a tree just missed this boat!


These people's mess in their front yards was typical after the ice storm.


Encased in 1/2"-1" thick of ice, vehicles were very difficult to enter.