Word is, we might be getting a freak late frost over the weekend. Perhaps surprisingly, this will be the first time we get to demonstrate our “emergency” back up plan and show you how we roll!
First, we need to get as much detail about the risk as possible. In this case, we know the primary risk is to our community garden. This lies at relatively low elevation and is also near a river, all of which amplifies the risk of frost. Plus, we just watered this garden, which further increases frost risk.
So, we know what we need to protect. At this garden, we primarily have squash that are at risk of frost, these are exceptionally frost sensitive. All your standard brassicas, peas, greens, root crops and anything else that is cold hardy or frost tolerant will be just fine with a light frost.
The tool for the job is called frost cloth, sometimes referred to as remay cloth. However, pro tip, this is also a useful application for the cheapest weed fabric you can possibly buy! (And it’s about 2/3 the cost of actual frost cloth!) That stuff won’t work as weed fabric, but it’s translucent enough to still allow your plants to photosynthesize.
The goal of frost cloth is primarily to prevent frost from settling on the plant’s leaves. The colder temperatures are not the primary risk. Remember, most plants can deal with rather cool temperatures. It’s the frost that is dangerous!
You’ll also start to see the wisdom of planting in rows when you have to deal with this. You can just rip a line of fabric and then pin it down with landscape stakes. They do make frost cloth in larger rectangular sizes for raised beds as well as bags that are good for larger plants.
Our current plan is to keep this frost cloth on through the weekend. The frost risk fully clears Monday morning, so we’ll remove it once we feel like we’re out of danger.
We did seriously also consider running the risk of just not taking this preparation. But, we ran the “strike” system against it and with three contributing factors to frost hitting this garden, it seemed sensible to protect them.
We still don’t regret planting squash early! Even had we waited for the most conservative “June 5th” date to plant, guess what? At a certain point, you could wait for the entire growing season for all possible risks to clear. We’d rather be growing!
