Boulder County horticultural-extension agent Carol O’Meara knows she sounds somewhat sacrilegious when she says a freeze warning for Monday night into this morning came as welcome news.
“I’m just so exhausted,” O’Meara said. “I’m done.”
What has been a banner year for gardeners, with plants such as tomatoes, winter squash and beans still yielding plenty of food, likely got a frosty kiss goodnight from Mother Nature.
National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Baker said the Front Range plunge will be “just a memory” by mid- morning. And things could have been worse.
“There was a cloud system coming down from Montana; without it, the temperature would have fallen to around 24, 25 degrees,” he said. “That would have put an end to any growing.”
Highs should bounce back to the 60s through the weekend, but the temperatures could dip to the low and mid-30s in Denver tonight, forecasters said.
Monday’s wintry blast left a blanket of new snow on many areas above 8,500 feet, including in the Park, Gore and Elk Mountain ranges and along the Flat Tops Wilderness.
The Colorado Department of Transportation said the storm left icy and snow- packed roads, especially over mountain passes, including Loveland Pass and the approach to the Eisenhower Tunnel. Visibility in some areas was reduced to less than a mile.
While Monday night was the first official freeze of fall, O’Meara said sudden plunges of the thermometer in some pockets of the Denver area have had gardeners doing “a Dance of the Seven Veils thing” for a couple of weeks now.
“We’re covering plants at night and then taking them off in the morning,” she said. “We’re going up to our bosses at work and saying we have to leave early to attend to them.”
While O’Meara offers a tip for growers — make sure to cover plants all the way to the ground to maintain the warmth that rises from the soil — she adds that the changing weather “is as much about what you’re not doing.”
For example, she says people should stop pruning their roses, trees and junipers, allowing them to go dormant.
However, one thing they should make sure to get done is blowing out sprinkler systems to insure against freezing pipes and their often-costly aftermath.
Jeff Frazier, owner of Mountain Dew Irrigation in Littleton, says he does 400 blowouts a season in October and November. While his average of about 16 procedures a day won’t change because of Monday’s freeze, he does appreciate the fact that the word is getting out to the public.
“I think it gets people motivated,” Frazier said. “There’s only so much time before the real hard frosts come, and I need time to get everything done before then.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
