While, I am extremely grateful to be out of the dry spell from last year, it has caused me to care about plants in a way I never have before. This is the first year in my gardening history that I have taken the time to monitor the weather and cover my plants should freezing temperatures occur. Covering plants raises the temperature around them by about five degrees, so when the low of 31°F hits around 5 A.M. tomorrow morning, my plants should be a cozy 36°F.
To cover our plants, we just used some bed sheets that my mother-in-law gave us when she was decluttering one of her closets. Some of them are flat sheets, and some are fitted. We use them all. The fitted sheets work great around our square foot gardening boxes. The elastic holds them decently in place. We use the flat sheets for our garden beds right against the house. To secure the sheets, especially tonight with all the wind, we take advantage of a pile of rocks left to us by the previous owners. We were going to throw them away last year, but we’re very glad that we didn’t, because I don’t know what we’d hold the sheets down with otherwise.
These precious strawberry plants are now protected from the wind and any snow that my come our way tonight and tomorrow.