Frost and ginger

Well, we’ve had frost the last two nights. Despite covering the beds with flannel sheets (bought at resale for that purpose), my potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and beans all got a bit frostbitten. Do I need to trim those bits off, or will the plants be ok as they are?

On the up side, I glanced at my neglected pot of ginger root this morning, and it’s put up a shoot! This is amazing; I planted the ginger the wrong way (it should branch horizontally, like a hand with spread fingers pressed on top of the soil, and I put it vertically) and then I neglected to water it for, oh, two months or so. I’ve been meaning to dump the pot on the compost pile for a couple weeks now. If it’s this much of a survivor, though, I’ll start watering again and see what happens…wouldn’t it be fun to have local ginger?

And in the final news of awesome nature, I am 95% sure that was a pileated woodpecker that flew by my window at 9:30 this morning! I saw them in Kentucky this weekend, but never expected to see one here in the middle of the cornfields and young woodlots! Apparently, though, they’re becoming more common in settled areas…cool!