Mother Nature isn't bluffing

I learned a valuable lesson last night.  It wasn’t something new to me, but rather a reminder of something bigger than me and my garden.  This blog is called Lessons from the Garden and a lesson can’t be taught unless it's personally learned.  So I humbly acknowledge my faults last night.  I called Mother Nature's bluff and she won.

You see, we had a freeze warning for the outlying areas.  Now, I heard this warning, I read this warning, and then I forgot about the warning.  It wasn’t until 10pm at night that I remembered.  At this point, I was snug in my sofa blanket and dozing off.  Unfortunately, my new cucumber and zucchini plants were not as snug.  I figured “who defines the word outlying” and how far out does outlying begin and end?  So I took my chances and didn’t cover them.  I called her bluff.  Unfortunately, I fell in that “outlying” area.  This morning, my sad little plants were struggling.  And by this afternoon, they’re pretty much gone.  Fortunately, it was only 2 cucumber plants and 2 zucchini plants.  The rest of the garden is filled with cold-weather crops which means they can handle the frost.  So I’m embarrassed to admit that this gardener must start over today and fill my peat pots with new seeds.  This time, I’ll wait till Mother’s Day to put them in the ground.