ACL Letter #7 - Widespread frost and a freeze!
Getting the garden ready for the upcoming cold weather.
I got a couple notifications this past week about upcoming frosts and freezing weather. It's unfortunate timing because the kids have fall break and we will be away when the weather dips down below freezing for a few nights. This meant I had to get the garden ready before we leave. I took some extra care and made sure the sides were well secured. I'm pretty happy with the end result.
I used thick gauged fence wire to make supports for the floating row cover. I cut the wire with wire cutters and made semi circles. I put the two ends in the ground to make little arches that support the cover. The floating row cover is water permeable and lets sunlight through. Leaving it on for a week isn't ideal, but the plants will be fine.
If you don't have wire or a row cover that's ok. As long as your plants are covered up, they should do just fine. Towels, blankets, and bed sheets would work great. They will block the sun so be sure and remove them each morning. If your plants are still really small and you are worried about crushing them, use whatever you have for supports. Buckets, stakes, jugs, boxes, etc. You could even put buckets and boxes over your plants for protection.
In my opinion, the fall/winter garden is the best garden. It does take some work to protect it during the cold and freezing nights, but harvesting fresh greens in January and February makes it all worth it!
Lastly, You may notice that the trellis is out. I had sugar snap peas growing on it and they were doing well. Unfortunately, they are not frost hardy and being on the trellis, there was no easy way to protect them. Especially for a whole week. To make protecting the rest of the garden easier, I begrudgingly cut them at the base and removed the trellis. No sugar snap peas this year. I seeded them in the garden on Aug. 21 this year. Next year I will aim for early August.
Make notes in your garden journal.
If you are a member of A Common Life and getting our seasonal guides, be sure and add first frost, first freeze dates in the notes section when they happen! This is really good info for knowing when to plant your fall garden.