Garden, Plant, Cook!

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Cold Moving On In - Have Plant Frost Protection Ready.

Dear Folks,

The warm weather time (La Nina) is ending with a blast of cold air coming in tonight.  Near freezing in some areas of the valley by tomorrow (Monday) morning. It looks like the low night temps will be around for about 2 weeks according to long-range forecast.

Have you frost protection ready.  This does not look like these will be killing frosts here in the valley area BUT can damage the tops of all sensitive plants.

If you have stuff in the ground, use the jug cover method (poor man's cloche above), cardboard boxes, even lawn chairs to shield plants.

If you have a pile of dried leaves (I keep a pile handy for this and mulching) pile the leaves OVER the seedlings temporarily covering them.

If you have none of those -- sheets, blankets or towels will protect the plants.

You can leave blankets, boxes, sheets and leaves on tender plants for up to 5 days without harm, but it is best to remove during the day if you can to let them have the light.

If you have seedlings, bring them in at night - they still need light during the day.

AND keep the protective stuff handy.  As I posted before this transition time when cool and warm air can collide with winds and atmospheric moisture can bring HAIL.

We ARE heading into spring, it is just going to come in fits and starts for a couple of weeks, then temps will start to rise!


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

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2 comments:

Sky said...

Thanks for the heads up! Do you think even my mustard seedlings need protection? They are in a large earthbox container.

Catherine, The Herb Lady said...

Hi Sky,

The mustards are cool weather lovers, so they should be fine.