It’s that time of year when gardeners start planning their spring vegetable and flower gardens. But before you can plant, you must protect those plants from freezing temperatures. Winter is a great time to garden, but it can also be a harsh and unforgiving season. Frost can wreak havoc on your plants and your hard work. The good news is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on expensive protection. Here are some tips to protect your plants from frost.
What is frost?
Frost is water vapour that has condensed into ice crystals. It appears as delicate white patterns on surfaces, like the window of your car on a cold morning. When moisture in the air condenses onto a surface that is below freezing (32°F), it freezes and creates frost.
Why do plants need protection?
The most important thing to remember is that plants are only truly frost-tolerant when they’re dormant. After the first frost, all of your tender plants should be moved indoors or protected by a cold frame or greenhouse in the fall. Even if you have a plant nursery in Gurgaon, you still need to protect them as winter temperatures reach low. Those plants that have already been hardened off will have enough resistance to survive until spring, but they’ll need extra protection if temperatures dip below freezing.
Cover Your Plants
Plants need protection from the cold, especially when temperatures dip below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (-0’C). You can cover them with sheets, blankets or even garbage bags – anything that will keep the wind and cold off of them. Just make sure the covering doesn’t touch the leaves directly because this could damage them. If you have row covers, you can use these to protect individual plants instead of covering everything in a single layer.
Rake Leaves
You may want to rake up leaves from around your plants before it gets too cold at night, so they don’t block out all the heat from sunshine during the day. This will help keep soil warm longer into fall and early spring so that roots don’t freeze or dry out too soon.
Trim Your Plants
Prune your plants before winter sets in to make sure they have enough energy to survive the winter months. Dead branches can break off easily during freezing weather, so trim back any dead wood before it gets too cold out there! Also, remove any weeds or debris from around your plants, so they don’t interfere with their growth later on in springtime when things start warming up again! This will also give you an opportunity to be an angel in disguise for the environment.
Mulch your plants
Mulch helps insulate your plants’ roots from extremely cold temperatures so they don’t freeze as easily. You can use straw, leaves or grass clippings for this purpose if you want an organic option for protecting your garden during the winter months. In addition to mulching your plants, you can also cover them with frost cloth or even use blankets or sheets that you have on hand at home to keep the temperatures around them warmer when it gets chilly outside. It’s important to cover them before any precipitation starts falling so that water doesn’t get trapped underneath the covering material and cause damage to delicate plant stems.
Moving Plants Inside
If possible, try moving your plants inside before frost hits so you can keep an eye on them and ensure they don’t get damaged by the cold weather outside. You can also order plants online for the winter season. If you don’t have any spare space inside your home or apartment, though, there’s still hope! Look into renting storage spaces nearby which could easily be converted into temporary greenhouses where you can keep your plants safe until spring arrives again.
Hardening Off
Hardening off is simply acclimating plants to colder temperatures before they are exposed to overnight freezes. Simply put, hardening off works by exposing plants gradually over time to increasing cold while also providing protection from wind and sun exposure. This process allows plants time to prepare their internal defences against cold weather conditions, such as increased respiration rates, reduced transpiration rates and thicker cell walls that prevent water loss through evaporation.
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