I came up with an idea to cover my flowers with sheets, while keeping the sheets above the plants during the freeze. It took less than an hour to set up. It's just PVC pipe sitting on top of tomato baskets. I secured it to the baskets with zip ties. I'm just going to lay sheets over the pipes and secure them down with bricks on the ground. It might not work if the temp stays in the low 20's too long, but it's worth a try. I can take it apart easily after winter to store for next year.
I have 8 raised beds varying in sizes from 4x4 to 2x10 to 4x8. Last winter I built hinged hoops that I could easily remove for the warmer months, or leave on and switch to mesh screen to protect from pests. I only did it on a few of them. They were quite the eye sore. I like yours better.
I like to cover plants with a usual frost blanket but I also run a string of c7 and c9 incandescent christmas lights beneath the sheet. They put off a little extra heat to at least keep the base safe. worked well last year. Not so much during uri when we had no power
That's a good idea. I bought some frost blankets last year but my plants all died under them with the long freeze. I returned the covers on Amazon. I thought this would help keeping the sheets off the plants. I'll just put extra mulch down and water real good ahead of time to protect the roots. If they die they should come back again anyway but I'm just experimenting with this to see if it helps. The temps might stay too low to keep them alive, but it's worth a try. I just hope I have enough old sheets to cover it all to the ground. I might be posting a pic of dead flowers later.
Trial and error but sounds like you’re doing the right things. The frost blankets don’t help for an extended freeze. I do like the incandescent bulb trick but I’ll see how it works this year for what seems to be a couple of hard freeze nights. I do elevate the string lights with stakes and run it along twine to keep the bulbs a few inches off the ground…
I spent way too much money on my plants after the last freezes screwed me over. I dig everything out of the ground and lay them on a tarp in my garage covered with incandescent string lights and frost cloth. The ones that are hardy down to 15 degrees stay planted and get frost cloth. Mostly cacti, succulents, yuccas, and agaves. My shrubs are all cold hardy. It's a lot of work once a year, but I can never be too careful.
It is. But I figured.. They either die and I work all year to travel and source them again, or they get removed temporarily and go back to the garden once it warms back up to continue where they left off. Mature plants like that are not cheap and they take decades to get to that size. Not gonna let a little freeze kill them off.
I might do this the next few days on my in ground Meyer lemon. I’ve lost two in the last two winter storms. I brought all my container citrus into the grow tent last night but they’re so much bigger this year I think I need a third grow light.
@deb4rockets are the flowers you're growing on the right of the pic just to attract pollinators or just because you liked them? Anyway, nice simple approach to a potential problem and cheap on top of it. Hope it works out. If not, then there's always next time. Also, are those green stakes you're using from Home Depot? I used those to stake a couple of container plants in the past (years ago) and stopped using them when the green dye was running off of them and I got it all over my hands. Maybe I was unlucky. I stake plants with bamboo nowadays. Those things last forever. Amazingly, I just tried my first Meyer lemons and now I want to grow them. lol. How are you doing irrigation on your raised beds? Drip or just hand watering? How did you build it? Just 4 boards and some dirt in it or did you use anything else like mesh at the bottom to keep animals out, braces for the boards so they don't bow, layer of gravel at the bottom for better drainage, etc.?
I planted my first Meyer 3 years ago. I've never been able to get a lemon because the tree/bushes have not gotten large enough to sustain the harsh winters we had the last 2 years. Now I have 1 in a container, 1 in ground. I just sadly plucked the flowers off the one in ground because, as hard as it is, I'm letting it devote energy to root and foliage growth for first year. Raised beds are all on timed drip irrigations. About 3 beds to a zone, which sometimes presents a problem as you might have beds in the same zone on different watering schedules, e.g. germination vs flowering. They're hooked up to several B-Hyve hose timers. Eventually I want to install a proper system with one timer and piping. But that's a lot of work so these work for now. Note, I've had to replace 3 after 1 year. They just die. Good thing is BHyve never questions it. You submit the claim online and they give you a credit for a new one. Built with untreated 2x12 mostly. 5 beds are about 12 inches deep but bare soil below so they root further than that. 4x4 beds are 20 inches and 4x8 is 30 inches deep. I applied multiple coats of raw linseed oil on most the beds, but honestly don't know if it's making that much of a difference. I'm on year 4 or 5 and, except for the oldest 4x8, they're holding up very well from rot. I put in a couple braces to keep from bowing out and stakes to keep in place. Didn't need to put mesh for animals, I have a small rabbit problem though. Filled with mixture of compost, top soil, vermiculite, and perlite. No rock. I'm considering expanding so I can devote a bed to asparagus. I have 4-5 crowns in one spot but it doesn't get enough sun to produce heavily. I have 2 beds dedicated to garlic. I'm gonna have like 120 heads of garlic come June
That's some dedication! I know a lot of folks will dig up pepper plants that perform well and treat them as perennials. Trim the roots, replant into pots and keep them inside for the winter. Then replant into the ground each spring. I should do that to this one pepper I grew this year that has grown to over 4.5 feet tall! It's trunk is like 2-3 inches diameter.
The flowers on the right are both because I like them and to attract pollinators. Actually, the bushes on the left are purple Salvia and still blooming like crazy. They really attract bees. I had bought those green stakes awhile back on Amazon for tomato plants, but don't use them any more. I was going to try using around a couple taller plants out front to drape a sheet over. Honestly, the pipework I set up is too big. I don't have enough sheets to cover it, and don't want to buy a big plant cover tarp. I'm just going to take out a big section and just try to save a Hibiscus plant and the daisies. It only takes a few minutes to take apart. I'm going to lower the poles closer to the ground just above the flowers. I'll just put the poles across the middle or lowest tier of the tomato cages. It's probably a waste of time. The freeze might last too long in the low 20's, and my Gerbera daisies actually came back to life after they froze last winter anyway. I guess I'll just cut the Salvia flowers down close to the ground and just lay a sheet over them without the bars, or just cover all around them in mulch. Maybe I can get some seeds from them regardless. I have a couple indoor Aerogardens that are great for starting plants from seeds. I'm going to plant a lot more flowers next year and extend the garden way out, and move the Salvia to a different area away from the other flowers. It spreads too much. The Salvia might come back, but who knows. It didn't last year. I'm just going to water the ground down really good tomorrow after putting more mulch around the bases of my plants. That should help keep the roots from freezing.
