Protecting Plants From Frost

Here in West Central Florida we can garden through Fall and Winter, but we need to be ready to protect our gardens from occasional frosts.  There are just a few simple rules to follow when covering plants to prevent freeze damage.

Do not use plastic to cover your plants.  You will still get areas of freeze damage where the plastic touches the plants, plus it does not provide high quality insulation.

Avoid Plastic 

Do use fabric to cover plants.  You will get good protection from frost and wind damage.  I use old sheets and can easily find mismatched pieces for a dollar at thrift stores.

Make sure that the fabric cover touches the ground all around the plant.  Any gaps will allow freezing to take place under the fabric.  You can anchor the fabric using stakes made from old metal clothes hangers.  Just cut off a section, then bend it into a U shape.

Cover Touching Ground

Remove the covers after daytime temperatures go above freezing.  Why protect plants from freezing just to have them die from heat exhaustion?

Don't get lazy and think that skipping one night won't make a difference.  It only takes an hour or two of freezing weather to kill a plant.

God bless,
Pam

Dooryard Garden: Fall Cleanup and Planting

The front dooryard garden took a beating this summer since I couldn't get out to keep it cleaned up or plant my usual summer flowers and herbs.  We had a pretty rainy summer and what I call witch grass took over.  DH took over the clean up a week ago and started with the planting for which I am very grateful.

Witch Grass

Our dooryard garden is right outside the front door and is usually planted with Florida native perennials, seasonal annuals, herbs and sometimes vegetables.  It also has our two lemongrass plants.  It is the garden that anyone passing our house sees.  It is very visible.

DH planted (from seed) basil, cilantro, and oregano.  He trimmed back the lemongrass and perennials and began planting some fall mums.  It's looking a little sparse right now, but will fill in soon.  We need to go to one of our County parks to get some free mulch.

One of the major tasks that I am in charge of is maintaining the micro irrigation system.  DH  told me that some of the sprinkler heads weren't working, so we spent part of a morning testing the system.  Most of the nonworking heads were clogged with a bit of dirt and were easily cleaned out with an unbent paper clip.  A couple of them are just worn out and need to be replaced.

We have two kinds of sprinkler heads in this micro irrigation system.  The older kind are fairly complicated with filters and shut off valves.  These tend to need alot of attention to keep them working. The newer kind, and the one I hope to completely transition to, are made by Rainbird.  They have no moving parts, are very basic and take almost no maintenance to keep them going.

Older Sprinklers

Newer, Simple Sprinklers

If we lived in a cold climate I would be cleaning up dead debris and heavily mulching the garden, paying extra attention to the perennials.  But, we live in Florida, so we are just starting our Fall gardening season.  I look forward to Fall and will keep you posted on how the gardens are doing.

God bless,
Pam