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Frost CoversThe best materials to keep your landscape plants from freezing. |
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Transcript: Frost Covers
Here in Texas, we really have pretty mild winter weather, usually. However, each winter, we have a few days where it gets really bitter cold. While we can garden all though the season on those winter days, our plants need some type of protection.One great way of protecting them is by covering the plants. Some people use blankets and sheets and plastic and other things. The best way to cover your plants is with a material called spunbound polyester fabric.
This particular fabric I have here is the heavier weight; it's about an ounce and a half per square yard and it makes a good frost blanket. It doesn't allow much light though, so you want to only leave it on for a day or two so the plants continue to get sunlight which they need. But it's a good way to provide protection for plants on a cold night.
One of the lighter-weight materials, such as this one here, is only about a half ounce per square yard. This material is not as good at protecting against cold -- it only gives you about two or three degrees of protection -- but that's usually enough for one of our mild Texas freezes.
Because it is lightweight, you want to handle it with care because it's easy to tear. But if you take care of it, it will last you a couple of years.
If you're using the heavier-weight fabric, you can create a hoop structure by using PVC pipe. Hammer some rebar into the ground and slip the ends of the PVC over the ends of the rebar and bend it into a hoop. This will create a nice, little hoop tunnel that will support fabrics very well.
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Last Updated:
July 6, 2006