On Monday I planted broccoli, lettuce and onion plants and showed a video of it on my first Movie Monday. The weather was beautiful and warm then. Well, just as March is prone to do, its now below freezing as I write this!
These plants are cool weather loving plants but I don't think they do very well below freezing, and can be damaged by heavy frost. That's why I decided to cover them last night.
It wasn't windy, so the upside-down buckets and bins covering the young broccoli plants stayed in place. I put plastic over the lettuce and onions and secured it with cloths pins. This was done just before dark, so it was a grab whatever I could find kind of thing. My daughter will be taking it all off for me as soon as the sun is all the way up. This covering is just for the overnight period in case we have a heavy frost.
The weather channel is telling us that we may have to do this for a few more nights since the low temps will be down into the twenties each night. The daytime highs will be in the forties, so as long as the plants aren't damaged by frost, they should be fine. Notice in the background, we also covered our young peach tree with a sheet. We just planted it last year so it is still small enough to cover. It is just getting leaves so I decided to baby it as well.
A few years ago, we had a terrible freeze in April that killed my broccoli and many of the tree leaves. I want this peach tree to get a good start this Spring.
Watching the weather is such a big part of gardening, isn't it? I hope the weather is nicer where you are.
Happy Spring anyway!
- Marc
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