Frost blankets and procrastination

It froze here last night! Hopefully the last of the season. This one was two weeks later than our usual latest frost, but the record is May 6 back in 1909.

I bought a DuPont frost blanket a few weeks back and it seemed to work pretty well. I had half of the veggies covered with the frost blanket, another third covered by a sheet, and the last fifth or so covered by an old salvaged window. All of the veggies are winter/spring crops and so were fine, even under the sheet. The difference showed up in some dwarf french marigolds that I'd already broadcast about. They're mostly in the two-true leaves stage and the ones under the frost blanket and window were fine, while the ones under the sheet showed slight frost damage. They were just slightly gray and curled up at the edges, but hopefully still alive.

Early Morning Score:
Window: 1 pt
Frost Blanket: 1 pt
Sheet: Goose egg

In other news...the licensure exam is two short weeks away from today and in a breath-taking show of study avoidance I dug a whole new tomato bed out front. Fifteen by Four. In three days. I added chopped up leaves, three grocery bags full of pine needles (our soil is very akaline), 160 pounds of mushroom compost, and 200 pounds of manure. I'd been thinking about growing a bean tee-pee up front because it gets more sun. When I started checking the row out back that I've prepped for summer veggies, I got a little worried about the amount of regular sun - we've got a photina hedge that is getting a little big for its britches (so pretty, though). In any case, now I'll be able to try out both and save the third spring bed for crop rotation next year (never plant tomatoes in the same place twice in four years! FortheBibletoldmeso!)

In terms of summer goods (yippee!) we've got Paul Robeson, Ananas, Sweet Million cherry, Opalka, and Golden Queen tomatoes at the ready. We've got a habanero (hot and mild), red bell, jalapeño, ancho, cayenne, lemon drop, and Hungarian wax peppers at the ready. We've got some orange eggplant and plenty of herbs, plus seeds for melons, bush, pole, and soybeans to go straight in the ground.

In other words: we're ready (note the usage of the royal we).

Licensure exam? Well, I suppose we're ready for that, too. (Look at me! I'm not studying right now! And, in my own defense, barrister, I've studied in excess of 100 hours at this point, anyway.) It's a lot of material but my excuse is that digging helps me integrate my left and right brain material, making more solid memories of what I'm learning. Or at least it's a good way to burn off excess cortisol!

Hypothetical score:
Licensure exam: 0 pts
Me: 100! (Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I will kick the damn thing's ass...)