While lying in bed last night I came across a post on Facebook that said parts of Southland and Otago could be in for a frost overnight, I checked Metservice and it said a low of 2 degrees. Since it was 11pm at night and pitch black there was nothing I could do anyway.
When I woke up this morning the sun was already shining and even in the shade there was no sign of frost. Thank goodness for that I thought to myself.
A few hours later I went out to check everything and my heart sank a little, although it could have been a lot worse...
All my kamo kamo, four zucchini, and a couple of pumpkin plants were black and what looked like frost damage. These are all in the paddock garden where the bed is on a very slight decline, and interesting enough most of the damaged plants were on the higher ground, and most were the smaller seedlings too.
The tomatoes in the main vege garden and the corn all look absolutely fine, as well as everything in the tunnelhouses. So I am counting my blessings as it could of been devastating.
I've feed the plants that I think can be saved with seaweed tonic, and shot down to the garden shop to replace the ones that are too far gone. The gentleman at the shop didn't think we had a frost either, until I showed him the pics and he agreed that it looked like frost damage. Whether we had a frost or not, it must of been cold enough to damage the smaller plants as they all looked fine yesterday afternoon!
Even by Southland standards early December is too late to be getting frosts, but it just shows you, it does happen! And it's been also a good lesson for myself to check the forecast even in December!!
Picture: showing that some plants are absolutely fine, the others not to much 😢
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