Dodged a bullet

Tuesday night's frost warning predictions varied from 28-32 degrees depending upon the source.  Wednesday night's frost warning had a pretty uniform prediction of 28 degrees.  That is more than cold enough to do lots of damage to tender new foliage, so this was a bit worrisome.  A quick survey after Tuesday night only showed some minor frost damage to some hydrangeas, so within our little heat island, it suggested a low temperature of just under 32 F.  Another 2-3 degrees below freezing was possible last night, but a look around this morning suggests, that for us, the 2nd night of frost was a non-event.  Just in case a few garden items were covered.  Most of our gardens are protected by tree crowns and that also seems to help.  Hopefully this will be the last bullet to be dodged this spring, but since it's only April 12th, this is pretty unrealistic.  Just a bit of an interlude will give my Magnolia tripetala a chance to flower.  Out of town the frost could have been more severe.  Last week's frost did no damage in our gardens, nor to all the plants on our prairie study site, with one exception, an invasive bush clover was damaged significantly, which is not a bad thing.  In other news, this looks like a good year for garlic mustard, so our neighbors in our shady neighborhood will have to be encouraged to do some eradication, but like pruning, which is either over done or never done, people seem to be afraid to pull obvious weeds.