Gardeners are typically anxious about the health of their prized plants as the colder months approach. Freezing temperatures might cause lasting damage to your plants in your yard.
However, with the correct tactics and safeguards, you can easily keep your plants from freezing and ensure that they grow even in the cold of winter. In this article, we will explore the ways to protect your plants from freezing.
Ways To Protect Your Plants From Freezing
1. Bring Potted Plants Indoors
Various fuchsias blooming in white containers in a rear yard indoors, including a standard and trailing variety.
One of the simplest ways to protect plants against frost is to move potted plants indoors, particularly sensitive container plants.
Potted plants are more vulnerable to frost damage since they are not as well insulated as those planted in the ground.
Overwinter potted plants in a conservatory, garden room, garage, porch, or frost-free greenhouse, not in a hot room.
If you’re wondering how to winterize hydrangeas or how to overwinter fuchsias in pots, this is a fantastic option.
2. Spread Mulch Over Garden Beds
Dry mulch, such as chipped bark or straw, should be applied around borderline-hardy plants including agapanthus, phygelius, hedychium, and architectural melianthus.
You might also use leaf mold or mounds of leaves to provide extra protection and a barrier against the cold on garden beds.
Learn how to prepare leaf mulch to protect young and sensitive plants.
3. Cover Plants With Fleece
You might be wondering how to protect plants against frost once they’ve been planted in the ground. Covering larger garden plants and shrubs with horticultural fleece is one way that works well.
You may also make a protective cover out of blankets or bubble wrap. Reviewers strongly suggest these Amazon plant covers.
Place several poles around your plants and cover them with the material of your choice to form a tent-like structure. Weigh down the corners to keep the blankets from blowing away during the night, then take them off during the day.
Beneficial for plants that require winter protection, including agapanthus, cordyline, and tree ferns.
Fleece is quite effective, but if you prefer something less visible, a circle of wire netting filled with bracken or leaves will also keep the cold at away.
If you’re cultivating some of the best fruit trees or know how to produce lemon from seed, you can also wrap the trunks of young plants with horticultural fleece or blankets.
4. Plant Tender Plants In A Sheltered Location
The adage “right plant, right place” comes into action when determining how to protect plants from frost.
Always place half hardy and frost fragile plants in a sheltered location, especially near a south or west-facing wall that will absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night.
Removing the wind chill factor can significantly lessen the amount of frost damage.
Other sheltered areas include those adjacent to fences, behind large evergreen trees in gardens, under the protection of pergola concepts, and in patio or courtyard areas that receive an abundance of sunlight.
While a sunny, protected location is great for many sensitive plants, avoid placing early-flowering plants, such as magnolias and camellias, in the morning sun. Rapid thawing of frozen buds can cause blackening and bud loss.
5. Tender Perennials, Lift And Store
Lift tender perennials that have blossomed and faded down to protect them from frost.
Roots, bulbs, tubers, and corms should be stored in a cool, frost-free location, such as a potting shed or greenhouse.
If you only have a few sensitive perennials to protect, Amazon has a plethora of small greenhouses to choose from.
This is an appropriate way for how to overwinter dahlias or begonias.
6. Use A Cloche To Protect Tender Plants
A cloche is one of the most effective ways to protect plants from frost in the vegetable patch. Seedlings and smaller plants can be protected from frost with a cloche.
Cloches are bell-shaped glass or plastic covers that can be placed over plants. Cloches can be purchased or made from recyclable materials. On Amazon, they also sell a variety of cloches.
Cut-off huge plastic bottles or milk containers can be fashioned into handmade cloches to embed into the soil around young plants and seedlings to provide protection.
Remove them during the day so that the plants can benefit from the sun’s warmth and vitality.
Cloches are appropriate for use with fall-planted young vegetable crops such as broad beans, spinach, scallions or spring onions, and asparagus.
7. Place Plants In Cold Frames
Young hardy annuals seeded in the fall may also benefit from frost protection.
Place them in a cold frame throughout the winter, but make sure they have ample ventilation on warmer days.
To create your own temporary cold frame, follow these steps:
- Bend thin metal rods into loops – wire coat hangars could be used for this.
- Insert the metal loop ends into the ground on either side of a row of crops or plants.
- To protect the plants below, place a sheet of clear plastic over the frame and hold it in place.
8. Water Plants In The Morning
You would not think that your watering routine would make a difference when considering how to protect plants from frost, but it can help support any preventive measures you take.
During the winter and when there is a possibility of frost, it is better to water plants in the morning since wet soil absorbs heat during the day and acts as an insulator.
9. Wrap Containers
If you cannot relocate containers indoors as a technique of protecting plants from frost, attempt to shield them from the elements outdoors by placing the pots in protected areas, grouped together where feasible for increased protection against the cold and wind.
Container plants are more prone to having their roots freeze. The RHS experts suggest covering the containers with Amazon bubble wrap or straw, or burying the planters with only the rim exposed to take advantage of the insulating properties of the soil.
Raising containers with pot feet or by resting them on bricks allows water to drain more readily and keeps plants from sitting in frigid water.
To protect your plants from freezing conditions, a mix of strategic planning, good maintenance, and prompt actions is required. You may preserve the health and lifespan of your garden over the winter months by selecting cold-resistant plants, employing protective coverings, and implementing other procedures.
Thanks for reading. I hope you find it helpful.