On again, off again - please make up your mind!

Old Mr. Weather is at it again!  Right now it's snowing and sleeting outside.  It's definitely spring - you can tell by the temperatures - 70's one day and this morning it was 31 degrees and there was frost on the ground.  Damage to the blooms can occur with frost or temperatures around 30 degrees, so we knew we needed to cover the plants and give them some extra warmth for a few days.  It's hard work pulling the row covers on and off and you have to be careful not to break off any plants, but it gives them a few extra degrees of heat under the covers. 


 If the weather gets extremely cold and there is a freeze warning, we also turn on the overhead sprinklers to form a thin layer of ice, which actually produces heat underneath!  Hard to believe, but it saved our crop in 2007 from total failure.  We don't like to use water unless absolutely necessary, because too much water can cause diseases.  Brr - it was cold taking this picture!  But Jeff, Jimmy, and Kyle did the hard work :)