Slushy Anyone?

We have been in a cold snap here. The daytime temps are in the 60's and the nights in the 40's. But a couple of mornings have been into the 30's. So the bad news is that I just trimmed our bushes in the front and they might be more susceptible to the cold. The 2 bushes that had grown out of control I cut WAY back and I don't know how they will do. But on the nights that the 30's is forecast we have covered those 2 bushes and our little garden out back. Doug even lovingly brought out his worklight and put it under the sheet to keep the little plants as warm as possible.

Well after the first night of "freezing" one bush on the corner of our lot looked a little black and dry. So at least the outsides were damaged. We will leave it as it is and hope it survives. The things I covered seem OK but I don't really know.

So yesterday it was only supposed to get maybe 42 or so at night - according to the paper. So we didn't cover things up. Doug mentioned the garden and asked if we should but we both thought things would be OK.

But this morning at 5:30 when I saw our outside thermometer reading 37 I panicked. That sensor is next to the house and under the roof so I knew things were even colder on the plants. So I ran out in the darkness to quickly put some water on the garden and maybe warm the roots a little bit. But when I reached the hose I saw something frothy or bubbly at the end of the hose. Almost scary. But I bravely reached for the hose and then touched the froth. Guess what it was.

YEP. a slushy. It had gotten cold enough for the water in the hose to start freezing and as it expanded it oozed out the end of the hose and we had a pile of and "all green" slushy. (All green meaning that no electricity was used/wasted in making the slushy treat.)

We still watered and covered the garden with the worklight turned on. We have hope that since the plants are suited for cold weather they might survive. But I am not holding my breath. I am also not counting on the paper anymore for forecasts. I guess I'll use a current online site to give us more up-to-date and accurate weather forecasts.

But this morning I enjoyed something I've never seen before - an all natural slushy dispensed from our own garden hose. What a treat!