Protecting Plants From Frost Today's
video show how I protected my plants outside from frost with
straw to save them crops. I was minding my own business when the voice on the radio indicated temps going down to the 20'sF on May 13. What a bummer. Putting up my traditional PVC hoop sets with plastic sheeting is too much work at this late stage in the game and the gardens are too many in number and odd shaped to do an effective and efficient job. Luckily I still had some straw on hand and used what was left to cover the most vulnerable plants as best as possible.
Straw provides insulation and protection from damp cold weather. I was mostly worried about the tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and flowers and concentrated on mulching those. I had fertilized the grapes and kiwi and mulched them as well. The whole time I was doing this I was thinking I need to push my planting date out further like Mothers' Day but then I was confident that they have been out at least two weeks already so they
should be hardened off to some good extent.
Cold weather did arrive Monday night and the temp went down to the high thirties so it wasn't too bad and all the plants seem to have survived quite well. Now it's just an issue of getting on with more
gardening, raising bees and being prepared. When frost threatens your plants don't be lazy but don't waste too much time and money. A bale of straw runs about $7 and it's pretty easy to spread around plants and give you piece of mind. Tony Teolis
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