Urgent Evoke

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The gatekeepers to food security - first and last frost

There is one vital piece of information you need to know about an area if you're going to try to live on sustainably and locally raised food, and that's the date-range for the first and last frost of the season. It may seem like such a little thing, but getting it wrong can mean losing an entire year's crop on either end.

Here in the mountains, our weather can be fickle. The temps get balmy fairly early in spring, often feeling downright temperate early as mid-March. But don't let those early spring days fool you. I remember the Easter Freeze of 2007 when several inches of snow and ice surprised the Western NC region after a month of record high temps. The freeze devastated the fruit crops and other plants that had been prematurely budding in the summery heat. Farms went under from loss of income and the region was labeled a national disaster area to enable farmers to apply for funding to get through the year and to replant frost-damaged crops.

So don't let Asheville's early spring lull you into making that mistake and losing your valuable crops. Never assume you're safe until after mid-April, no matter what that weatherman says. And if it gets unseasonably hot in mid-March, do what you have to to delay budding and flowering, including using shade cloth and other temperature-lowering or stress-delaying strategies.

On the other end of things, make sure you allow sufficient time for crop development before mid-October, because that's when Jack Frost starts making his rounds again. Keep in mind, however, that after that first frost or two, the area almost always gets a few week's grace period of reasonably nice weather, sometimes more. So if you can protect your delicate crops during those first winter warnings with some judicious wrapping or moving potted plants into protected zones, you can usually eke out another few rounds of harvest or get those last few lingering veggies to finish ripening. But be sure to note the date and don't let it slip past you, or you'll wake up one morning after a week of late-summer heat to discover that your entire garden has been blackened by an overnight frost.

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