A Touch of Frost
Sunday, July 4, 2010 at 07:25AM Waking to a glittering coat of frost over the veggie patch is a very rare thing indeed in our subtropical climate. But some exceptionally chilly overnight temperatures brought a touch of frost to our garden this week...
Luckily there was no damage to our trees, and only a few of our veggies took a turn for the worse. The new cheery tomato seedlings aren’t looking to happy, but hopefully they might hang in there...
And the leaves of our sweet potatoes which we use as a ground cover in the food forest look a bit worse for wear...
On the up side, a bit of a chill is good for stone fruit like apricots and plums, so maybe they will reward us extra well this coming summer!
Anyone else been touched by frost lately? If so, we hope it hasn’t done too much damage at your place!
Reader Comments (8)
I didnt think the gong was sub-tropical?
We were bracing for frost out at Jamberoo, but didn't get any. I think it's because we're on the side of a hill, with trees on the borders, so we're a bit of a heat-trap (or frost-repellent zone!). The paddock on the flat at the bottom of the hill, with lots of trees on the north side to shade it, looked pretty white so I think it got frost.
We're very happy garden-wise. We're still getting the chill for setting apples, stone-fruit, etc, but not getting the damaging effects of frost. Yay!
We had many a morning with ice on the windscreens of the car that had to be physically removed and the surrounding school ovals that were white with frost but the garden seems to have had no ill effects.Time will tell I guess, thinking there is a lot more to come.
Hey Justine, the unique geography of Wollongong (long, narrow coastal plain strip bordered by the escarpment) makes it a subtropical climate with mild winters and humid summers. The historical average winter temperature is 8.5 min to 17.5 max and rarely drops below 3 degrees. In fact, Wollongong is surrounded by subtropical rainforest which is pretty much the southern limit on the east coast for this type of vegetation (although there are a few small pockets further down the coast)
Just a touch of frost, and so pretty.
Where we are (Wingatui, Dunedin, NZ) we get FROST. F R O S T. Really, HARD FROST.
It's cold too. Pretty, but really, cold. I scrub the car off in the morning with the ice scraper and car snow brush, which takes about 10 minutes, before the day even starts.
Nothing like West Virginia, USA, where I lived a decade ago, though. There you had to find out which car was yours under the feet of snowfall before you got started. So you began to DIG...
:-) Beautiful photos. Thanks so much for sharing :-)
We have had such a mild year for frost so far (touch wood) - hey how do your sweet potato go? Are they easy and where do you get them or do you use old ones like potatoes?
We had frost last night in Melbourne too. Not quite as unexpected as up your way but still only a once or twice a year event. Luckily our little garden seemed to have it's own warmer microclimate and missed out. Although, I think my new blueberry bushes might have enjoyed a frosting. And it was rather glorious walking through the park near this morning - like walking through a crystal palace
Thanks all for your comments!
Darren, great to hear things are going well at your new place, and you are in a good position to avoid the damaging effects of frost. Fay and Bee, we're glad to hear you didn't suffer too much at the hands of frost either!
As you say though Bee, there can be so much beauty in frost and a good chill - as it sounds like you know well Daharji! I've had time in Dunedin over a couple of winters, and you sure do feel the breeze fresh from Antarctica down there! It's amazing to think about how different our climates are, and how we all adapt differently to making the most out of gardening and food growing wherever we are.
Umatji, you can plant sweet potatoes from tubers or leaf cuttings - so you could pop in a sweet potato from the local store. To get a really bumper and easy to find crop they'd be best planted in the veggie bed, but we just let ours sprawl as a ground cover in the food forest part of our garden, and harvest them here and there when we come across them!
Best wishes for wonderful winter gardening all!