The Garden Before the Freeze – Oceanic Wilderness

I took all of these photos earlier this month, before we had any actual cold weather. We had a night or two early in the month that might have touched freezing for an hour or two overnight but for the most part we just stayed shy of that line. After last year’s mild winter I was kind of hoping for more of the same this year but that was not to be. The strong front came through late evening Saturday the 17th and we woke up the next morning to temperatures around freezing or just above that. The sensitive plants in the garden still looked pretty good but I knew we were in for it overnight the 18th/morning of the 19th and we got it. Temperatures were in the mid 20s in my area overnight with daytime not reaching above freezing well into the day of the 19th. It was enough to nip the cold sensitive plants back and kill the tomatoes, peppers, and basil. The tomatoes were looking so great, too! Oh well, I’ll be starting spring seeds soon enough and now comes the time to clean up the garden and get it ready for another year of growing. I’ve got a ton of photos below with captions beneath some of them showing how the garden was looking before the freeze.

Bald cypress showing off down by the pond

I stuck a random brugmansia cutting down here and it has done well over the last four years. Barely died back last year but got nipped with the freeze. Will have to trim it back.