Frosts-The sting in February’s tail

Hard frosts, Winter’s little killer.

After one of the mildest January’s on record the temperature plunged in February back to winter’s norm. Then the nightmare arrived, hard frosts. In the garden the mother plants were thriving, the Pineapple Sage, salvia elegans, all the aromatic geraniums, the verbena, and even the tarragon, were showing signs of life, if not thriving. Then last week, February’s revenge arrived. Temperatures plummeted, first to a balmy -5C then a bracing -12C.

Everything got hit, the tips of the Winter Savory wilted, the geraniums froze, the Spring leaves of the verbena dropped off, the Pineapple Sage flopped. It is heart breaking. It really knocks you to one side.

So everything got clipped back. What was left was moved into the sunniest part of the garden and fingers and toes were crossed, and recrossed.

Were we are in March, after a stuttering start the temperature is rising, the sun is shining, and the rain is falling on afternoons and in the evening. After a little tour of the plant pallettes and the mother plants I am smiling again. here only a week ago there was nothing but devastation and frost brunt leaves new signs of life are emerging. Not on everything, lets not get too happy clappy, but the tarragon is back, at the base of the geraniums there are signs of new green leaves, not all but some, enough to provide a base for propagating. W will wait and see for the verbena, but it is early days. The roots are strong of those in the ground and in the half wine barrels, the ones in pots have a slimmer chance but with the sun maybe they will find some life down at the base.

Frosts are welcome most times, indeed we organic growers need them. They kill diseases, and they kill pests, a few -5C mornings are welcome. But there is a huge difference between -5, which most plants can survive, and -12 which the more sensitive little souls find too much. there are a number of things that can be done, covering plants in straw, bring indoors, heating polytunnels. A colleague over in the Minervois who farms with donkeys lays a base of donkey muck in her polytunnels, on top of which she forces her tomatoes, her toms and her basils are always ready a good month before ours. Maybe not this year as the high winds that came with the frosts blew her poly tunnel in but hopefully most can be rescued.

Down on the Catalan plains the fruit tree orchards have been hit hard, like our plants the mild January resulted in the trees being way in advance of normal, the tips and even buds were starting to form, then the frosts struck. Reports are that harvests will be hard hit this summer, particularly the apricots.

Last year it was the late April frosts that hit the vines, with yields down around 40% in places. So we still have a long two months to get through. But it is the same every year. weather will be weather, and climate change is upon us. Last year we had no rain from April to October. You just got to learn to have a plan for every eventuality, you can’t save everything but you can limited the damage and rebuild stocks at speed. It is the nature of plants and the environment, you can build artificial environments that require large amounts of energy and water, and therefore of cash, and produce lovely looking plants that will die within weeks of planting outdoors, Or you can learn to live with your environment, suffer the occasional setback and grow plants that are acclimatised to live in our part of the world. No guesses which we have chosen.