We had our first frost advisory last night.  Good for me I was paying attention.  Bad for me I didn’t pay attention until late in the evening.  As in at 10:00 pm.  So off I went to the farm to lay the row cover that should have been waiting ready to spread.  It wasn’t ready to spread, so I was out there until almost midnight getting the tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini covered.

Working in the dark isn’t that bad, especially if you use the car headlights.  I had them on bright, so I had no problem seeing what I was doing.  As I started working, I made a mental note to check them often so the battery wouldn’t run down.  About an hour later, I checked them.  They were dim.  Oh, oh.  Mind you, the farm is about 4 miles from the house.  It was 11:20 pm, and Lisel and the kids were all asleep.  Or, at least they should have been, but that’s another story.  In a bit of a panic, I tried starting the car.  It wouldn’t.  Hmm.  As I sat there calculating how long it would take to walk home, I decided to try starting it one more time.  Hurray!  It started!

I left the car running and finished my work.  I’m glad I did, because this morning, the thermometer showed a low temp of 24.8 degrees F.

24.8 degrees F on October 7th!

It looks like most of the plants survived.  I used a combination of 6 mil builder’s plastic and Agribon 19.  Here are some pics:

Tomatoes under cover

A few tomato vines got zapped

But most were fine

Zucchini, summer squash, and sweet peppers under cover

Peppers came through fine

Summer squash came through fine

Basil (which was not covered) did not