Keeping Jack Frost Out

So as I mentioned in last week's post, we goofed trying to keep ole Jack Frost out of our garden! We learned our lesson and we'd like to share our mistake with others in hope they don't make the same mistake too.

In the bed on the left, we planted cilantro and cucumbers.  The bed on the right has tomatoes and peppers.  As you can see the bed on the right is domed a little higher due to the height of the tomato plants.  We will show you that bed in this tutorial.

First my honey ripped 3 strips of 1/4" ply-board down to size.  Since our beds are 4' wide, he made the strips 4 1/2' long x 2" wide.  He screwed one side in to the bed frame and then bowed the piece up and screwed down the other side.  We applied 2 mil plastic sheeting that we purchased at Lowe's for about $3 per package (1 pkg per bed) we used more small strips of the ply-board and nailed down all sides of the plastic to hold in the heat.

Our design, which my honey came up with after doing a little research, was really a good one. We just made the mistake of "giving the plants some air".  See those two holes in the center? DO NOT do that!  As soon as we put the plastic in place, the heat from the dirt created moisture on the inside of the plastic. When the sun went down and the freeze settled in, our plants froze.  According to what we read, the cold air got in through the holes and froze the moisture.  It was in the 20s that night.  We were just crushed the next day when we saw them.  I was so sad that I didn't even take any pictures of them.

Good news though!  My honey wasn't giving up.  He went out the next day and trimmed all the dead frozen bits away.  He was taught to plant the first set of leaves under the dirt.  He flipped the dirt out of their way so maybe they had a chance.  He kept watching day after day and realized we really only lost our cucumbers.  Even though the  peppers and tomatoes were all frozen down to the ground level, they survived!

The cilantro on the other hand, was NEVER even bothered.  Just look how awesome its doing!  We've already harvested it several times.  Its way better than what you can buy in the stores.  So BEAUTIFUL!

Remember!  Be sure to protect your little plants from Jack Frost, but don't be like us and freeze them in the process! LOL!  We know better now!  You must also remember that the sun can cook them through the plastic too, so be sure to remove the plastic ASAP after the freeze has passed.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

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