(wow, my garden bed looks really dry - I thought it was supposed to rain yesterday)
Anyways, how do you decide which plants get covered and which ones don't? I mean - I can't possibly cover ALL my plants. So I chose to cover the little pea and cucumber seedlings that sprung up the last couple of days in my garden, one of the newer plants that popped up around the flower beds, one of my new rhubarb plants (the rest are pretty much already dead) and my lettuce in various containers (I brought in the ones I could and covered the rest with a towel).
But what does a seasoned gardener do to heed a frost warning? I am new to this so knowing my luck I am doing it all wrong!
5 comments:
I'm wondering the same thing. It was 33 degrees here this morning, but it didn't frost. Tonight there's supposed to be a hard frost. What do I cover? I don't want any of my perennials to get killed. I am especially anxious about my lilies.
I think you made the right decisions on what to cover. Most plants are pretty strong but the seedlings would not do well.
I didn't cover anything because the seedlings I do have outside... peas, lettuce, spinach, etc. can usually withstand a light frost.
Established perennials, shrubs, and trees might get a bit nipped, but unless it is hard freeze, they usually grow out of it.
And, I wait until after Mother's Day generally to plant anything that is not frost tolerant like peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, etc.
The only time I've ever had any real damage from spring frosts is last year when we had a lot of freezing weather in April (nothing anyone could do about it) and one year when we had a frost on May 25th. That was not good. Even covering the peppers and tomatoes, I lost them all and had to buy new. But a frost like that is rare.
Hope this helps!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Anything I bought new is still sitting in the garage - I won't plant them until next weekend in Chicago. As for everything else out there, I just kept my fingers crossed and so far they weren't affected.
Thank you for all the helpful tips! You guys are great!
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