My partner is home and among other topics we discussed, one was first frost date for this year. My printed copy of 2018 Farmer’s Almanac had Worcester as the closest city listed, and that was said to be happening on October 19th which I just recently added to our planting page. (Which I will note the change on after I post this.)
Welp, out of curiosity, I went to their site today to see if that changed. There I found out I could even click right on my city as an option. Bad news. Our first frost date is estimated for Sept. 20th. I should have expected this, of course. Even this year’s last frost date got bumped a bit later, which you may recall. (There’s even a picture with snow here that feel near or on April 19th.)
The site does say “Last and first frost dates are 30% probability.” Still…that’s a 30 day difference not in our favor for the kitchen garden! If we had started more on time, perhaps I would not be gnashing my teeth as much.
I also just now double checked my bought copy of their almanac, and it does indeed say Oct. 19th, though on their website, Worcester is now slated for first frost on Oct. 13th. So it appears they do update after printing the hard copy.
The good news is now I know I can track such changes on their site, though I don’t know how often they adjust them. The bad news is now I’m realizing we might have to be ready to cover some bits earlier than planned (the rosemary is but one concern).
Well, actually, now that I wrote that, it’s not really bad news–more an inconvenience due to planning shift and possible loss even with planning, not the outright problem it would be if I learned this info after the fact or never learned what I did today about their site so I don’t forget moving forward.
Better forewarned than to lose something due to being lazy about at least double checking data. Hmmm. I sense another note to future me needing to be written.
