WINTER IS COMING WITH A VENGEANCE

We're getting horrible weather info this week.

Last week the forecast was for mid-20's.  Yikes.  That's dangerous for plants (even covered) and worrying for pipes at the farm.  Then they changed it to upper 20's.  Then low 30's.  Then no freeze.

We thought we were out of the woods, so to speak...

Peach blossoms

Here is the peach tree...all covered in beautiful blooms.  Apparently it thinks Spring is just around the corner.

Side note, we love the blooms on fruit trees, just always so stunning and pretty.

But since there was a much higher chance of a freeze coming soon, I spent part of my post Zen Machine rescue time last weekend covering the citrus trees.  

Covered citrus

They've already made it through two freezes this year so we were hoping for them to make it through this one so they'd have another year under their belts.

That was for this week.  Then the "revised" forecast appeared and it has gotten worse day by day...

Check out Sunday...high 42...low 21...Monday high 26 (never above freezing) and then low of 10.

TEN DEGREES.

That's record breaking.  No, it's record shattering.  They even say we could end up in single digits.  

NOTHING freeze sensitive will survive these temps.  The covered citrus is probably a waste of time.  The trees are so young, even if we put the Christmas lights in there, that could add ten degrees according to experts.  At 28, ten degrees puts them at 38, fine.  At 25, that's 35, fine.  Even at 23, that's 33, still fine.  

But 9? 10? 11? That's still 19, 20, or 21. They will not survive. I'll pile up mulch around the graft knot and we'll see but honestly we doubt they will make it. We've resigned ourselves to buying new citrus in the Spring. 

I'm going out Saturday to shut off the water (2nd Family protects the well since we share that and it's at their end).  Then I will drain the pipes, open the faucets and blow air through it to drain everything.

I'll be bringing the bananas, the pineapples, the bay laurel, and a couple other small plants that would NOT survive back into town.  I can leave them in the parking garage as it will not be below freezing there.

There is also talk of snow and ice over the roads and records back to 1899 that might be broken.

All we can do is cross our fingers and hope for the best.  As one weatherman put it last night, this could very well be an almost once in a lifetime Winter storm for our area.

Sigh.