This is Part One of a three-part series on ways to protect your plants from frost. Protecting your garden plants allows you to get an earlier start to your garden and harvest tasty crops long after the rest of your neighbors have put their gardens to bed for the winter.
Let’s start with the easiest and cheapest forms of protection: cloches and row covers.
Cloches
“Cloche” is just a fancy French word that means bell. In the 18th century French gardeners put bell-shaped glass domes over their plants to protect them from the cold. The clear glass lets sunlight warm everything inside while the outside temperature is still cool.
Today you can make a cloche out of plastic jugs. Just cut the bottom off any white or clear plastic jug, one gallon or larger and put it over
your plants. This is especially helpful in the early season to keep nightshade plants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and okra.) happy and growing even when night-time temperatures fall below 40°.
Another great protection for tender, warm-loving plants is the the Wall-o-Water. I’ve written about it in detail here. The Wall-o-Water can allow you to plant your nightshades a full 4-6 weeks earlier than you could otherwise.
Floating row cover
The floating row cover is probably the easiest way to protect plants. Just cover your plants with a light-weight fabric. You can buy light-weight, non-woven fabric row covers from garden suppliers that are specifically designed for garden plants. This is especially good if you are using it in the spring because the fabric weave is just loose enough to allow sunlight through. That means you can leave it on the plants all day long and the
plants will get enough sunlight to grow. The cover also protects tender seedlings from strong winds and insect damage. Just be sure to anchor the edges with weights (like rocks or bricks) or garden staples.
But in the fall, when the plants are sturdier and well-established, you can cover them with sheets or light-weight curtains or blankets. You can re-use these for several years, much longer than the commercial floating row covers.
Eventually you’ll have to discard them for having too many holes and tears but that’s not for several years. If you buy sheets or blankets at the thrift store it’ll cost just a couple dollars, making them one of the best bargains for protecting your garden crops.
How it works:
An hour or two before sunset, cover your plants with the sheets you bought at the thrift store. The fabric will just rest on top of the plants, creating a sort of tent. If there’s a lot of wind, you’ll want to secure the sheets with weights. If I’m covering nightshades, I’ll secure them to the frame of the tomato or pepper cages with a clothes pin.
As heat radiates from the ground beneath the plants, instead of just dissipating into the cold air, the fabric traps all that warm(ish) air and protects the plants all night. Just take the sheets off the next morning after the sun has dispersed the frost.
Depending on weather conditions and the thickness and weave of the fabric, this row cover will keep the temperature surrounding the plants 2-5° warmer than the temps outside of the blanket. That means that temps can get as low as 30° and your cold-sensitive plants will do just fine. With a row cover cold-hardy plants can survive over-night temperatures as low as 23°.
Get a good start
This spring, get a 2-3 week head start on your garden by protecting seedlings with row covers and cloches. In Part Two I’ll introduce you to hoop house: how to make and use them. Part Three finishes up with cold frames, the powerhouse of cold protection.
There are pros and cons to both row covers and cloches. So let’s look at them, starting with cloches:
Pros
Using repurposed 1-gallon jugs is as inexpensive as you can get
Easy on and off
Works in any garden
Cons
Will only cover one plant at a time
Can only protect during early spring planting
Provides minimal 1° – 3° protection
Here are the pros and cons for row covers:
Pros
Very inexpensive if you repurpose old sheets and blankets for the job
Blankets and sheets are durable and will last for several years
Relatively easy on and off. You may need some help if it is very windy
Works in any garden
If you use commercial floating row covers in the spring, it will keep bugs and birds away from tender seedlings
Cons
Regular sheets and blankets are too heavy for spring planting. Must use light-weight commercial covers with tender seedlings
Provides minimal 1° – 3° protection
Difficult to put on during high winds
