This post, “Getting Started” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana
First Post. After reading many gardening blogs for months now, I have finally decided to join in. I garden in South Louisiana just north of New Orleans, which means Zone 8b. Santa gave me a digital camera for Christmas, so now I will finally be able to post the pictures of my plants and garden.
I spent most of today covering up plants as we are expecting our first hard freeze tonight. Tomorrow night is supposed to be even colder. It is supposed to get into the low 20’s, and if it does it will be the first hard freeze here in over two years. I have many tropicals that I have had for a long time, and I do not want to lose them and have to start over. I have some hibiscus plants (9) that I have sucessfully overwintered for over 10 years now and am very attached to them. I am sure they will survive, but tomorrow night they will have to have additional heat.
I had to cut back many plants so I could cover them up with pine straw and overturned containers. It is a shame because just two days ago I was out photographing flowers and now they are on the compost pile. Well, if I am able to save them it will worth it. To protect my garden plants I cover them up with plastic garden containers. If they are nursery pots, I line them with newspaper first and just stick them over the plant. It is surprising how many plants I have saved this way. For my container plants, I have to group them together next to the house and cover them with plastic. I know plastic is not the best, but when faced with that or losing plants, I’ll opt for the plastic. I really haven’t had much damage to plants from the plastic touching them, but then I am usually dealing with temperatures in the mid 20’s.
Fall color finally comes to the Gulf South – by the end of December.
