Today is Sept. 10, which is the old average first frost date that I still go by. The new average frost date is now a range from Sept. 21-Sept. 30.
I don’t trust those new dates, at all!
Right now, however, we’re expecting temperatures to be all over the place. Today we hit a high of 27C/81F, and an expected low of 15C/59F Last night, we dropped to 9C/48F. By Tuesday, we’re supposed to drop to overnight lows of 6C/43F, and might go lower; the forecast changes depending on which app I look at.
Not a danger of frost, but temperatures that some of our garden plants don’t handle well. Some things, I won’t be able to do much to help them, like the summer and winter squash. Others, I might just be able to.
Like the melons.
When I was feeling better this evening, I went out to get some fresh and and, of course, check the garden beds. I had left the hoops over the harvested cabbage patch after removing the insect netting. Today, I shifted the hoops over to the melons, after replacing two taller vertical stakes with shorter ones I now had available.
The supports extend far enough to include the one lonely surviving melon from our own seed starts. It’s so tiny, I know it won’t make it, but I can’t help it. I want to give it every chance I can! 😄
I joined the hoops horizontally with twine at three levels to support the plastic it will be covered with, and to keep the hoops from tipping one way or the other. I also wound the muskmelon vines up the trellis support, then added twine at the vertical supports for a bit more structural integrity. They can’t be seen in this photo, but we have a surprising number of developing melons on there!
I haven’t decided on what I’ll use to cover this. The 6mm poly is out of the question, as it’s way too big and I don’t want to cut it at this point. The main thing is that I want to be able to lift the sides up. We don’t need to keep them covered completely all the time. I want to be able to lift the sides during warm days and for watering, then drop them for cooler nights, as needed.
I must say, I do appreciate the versatility of these hoop kits. The rods and connectors allow for a lot of flexibility. I had 5 hoops made with 5 rods each over the cabbage patch. I used that to make 4 hoops with 6 rods each to cover the melons. There was one extra rod leftover, and I’m using that to help secure one end of the horizontal twine, where it’s knotted together and secured with a ground staple, weighted down with a rock.
The kit with the metal connectors, rather than the plastic ones, works out better, too. I got two kits with the metal connectors and they are definitely worth getting more of.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 