After spending hours moving hundreds….maybe thousands….of plants yesterday, to protect them from the predicted lows of 24 F. tonight (May 12!) I feel like many of you might feel: NEVER! And “safe” is a relative term. I do have a chart that I compiled a number of years ago, showing average last frost dates in spring for some of the nearby locations. Average means that there are years when the last frost occurs much earlier, years when it occurs much later. When I could find the information, I added the latest spring freeze ever recorded for that location.
Colorado Springs
Average Date of Last Freeze……………May 8
Latest Spring Freeze……………June 3, 1951
Pueblo
Average Date of Last Freeze…………………..April 30
Latest Spring Freeze……………..June 2, 1919
Rye
Average Date of Last Freeze……………….May 23
Walsenburg
Average Date of Last Freeze: …….. May 9
Westcliffe
Average Date of Last Freeze……. June 16
Last recorded freeze date……… July 1
For those of us who live at higher elevations, any kind of protection for tomatoes, basil, peppers, and all the tender vegetables is really crucial. Even if a tomato plant doesn’t freeze to death, 40 F. will slow it down and set it back. I usually don’t plant my tomatoes in the garden until Memorial Day. Some years I never get them in the garden, and just grow them in pots in the greenhouse. This year I decided to use a Wall O Water and plant one one April 21. That’s about a month before our average last freeze. Since I planted it, the temperatures have been in the 20’s many times, and the tomato plant is growing and happy! I might get my earliest garden grown tomatoes ever! A cold frame, a greenhouse, all of these things make a big difference to tender vegetation! Here’s what the Wall O Water looks like this morning.
Tulips today.
