Winter Freeze Protection in the Garden~

Covering~
This fall we had two hoop frames in the Potager. One covering the potaoes and one covering everything else.

• onions
• carrots
• radishes
• peas

I had the black tubing. I bought the conduit straps screwed them into the sides of the boxes and slid the black tubing into the strapping on both sides.
Covered with plastic—and put the clamps on it.
You can see the clamps in the picture below.

You can also see that I laid firewood around the edges where the plastic meets the ground; it helps to hold it down… the wind would otherwise blow the plastic up and off.  Even just the slightest cold wind would not be good for the plants as we found out with the potato plants.

We still have one hoop cover in the Potager, the other covered the Potato Plant Bed

   

( The wind blew up the plastic once and then later everywhere the plants touched the plastic… it wilted.)
They needed way more sun shine and air I suppose than they received through the plastic… and the result was wilted plants above the earth and fewer fall potatoes below the earth!)

Watering~
Using the netting on the front garden bed for the cold hardy veggies… I didn’t cover the plants with plastic. The tomatoes died…they need covering. As for the others I found it important to really wet the ground and root systems for colder nights thus protecting the plants that way.

Learning~
A few things I learned from this.

1. YES! we can grow veggies in the fall and even winter time. 
2. Lift the corners on warmer days; OR …take the plastic back on  sunny  days…plants need fresh air.
3. When it’s raining and not too cold… remove plastic. For one they need the water; also rain collected on ours (being it wasn’t drawn tight) and caused collapse of the structure. ** note: metal conduit would work better if finances allows; we used what we had on hand.
4. This didn’t seem to work so well for our fall potatoes. (see above)

farmgirl friday 

God Bless You and Thanks for Reading~