This video was filmed right as all my tech problems began. It’s been stuck in my other software for a year! But I finally freed it and got it out! Lots of you live in much colder places, and some of the test I did really don’t need much protection here, so I want to know what you do to get around these extremely cold months!
What a great experiment and thank you for sharing it with us. I was actually surprised about the lettuce. That's very good to know. I live in central Florida where I can grow lettuce in the winter too but this cold snap was a doozy! I went ahead and harvested the heads but wish I had watched this before I did. I'll know what to do next year. I've never experienced carrots freezing, so your area must be a little colder than where I live. I'm glad you persevered and got this out for us. I hope your garden fared well this year as well, especially now that you found out the best way to protect your garden.
Thank you! Truth be told the only time I ever had carriage freeze was and they were really really small so I think I’m probably OK with them all the way around now. In fact this year’s cold snap definitely seems to have proved that! It’s definitely way too cold though! Lol
Thank you so much you’re very kind. I really hope it helps you out too. If you have to deal with it in your own garden! If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out!
I have loads of hay when my horses toss it on the ground and reject it soooo that goes on the beds for a deep blanket. I have supplemented with a frost cloth for the coldest nights. West of Fort Worth here, worked great on my lettuce, kale, beets and dilll in the snow. Going to try hoops over the beds next weekend when the next cold blast is coming, to keep the frost cloth not touching the plants. Thanks for sharing the experiments!
It’s good to hear that works so well for you especially with the amount of cold you guys got the last few weeks. This last round I had an old piece of metal building insulation that I suspended over my lettuce bed and it worked really well again. I’m thinking about putting something together. That’ll make it easier to take often put on. The hoops definitely make it easier to put frost cloth on or plastic on, and keeping that stuff up off the plant is definitely a win. I’d love to hear how it goes this next round. I’m already getting ready for it myself!
Oh, that’s a great one! I tried it once before, but it wasn’t a deep freeze. Putting an overhead sprinkler on and I actually let it run most of the night and it worked really well. It did warm up the next day though so I never really got to test it again. That’s an excellent one thank you so much for sharing. I’d completely forgot about it!
Good experiment Doc, Some of those methods appear to have work well. I got a couple rolls of frost cloth to be ready in case we get freezing done here by the border. Never tried it before so we will see. When i was a kid I remember my parents would always start watering the plants before the freeze, now I know why. Keep them helpful video's coming Doc !
It can never hurt to have some laying around, that's for sure! Although if you get a frost or freeze, I'm done for! It'll be the 21 snow-pocalypse all over again! =)
Hi Doc, this was a great experiment. Loved the various methods. My favorite was the black bucket cover. 👩🌾 I'm not growing too many crops (lettuce & cabbage) because of the cold weather. Both crops are under a freeze cloth. So far, they're doing well. Most of the raised beds are resting. Leaf mulch is covering them. 🍂 (My Ash tree supplies all the leaves.) ❤Allie❤
Allie! It’s great to hear from you again! Yes, the bucket experiment was the most surprising to me. I’ve actually already used it once for the first freeze a few weeks back, but on a much larger scale. It’s working pretty well. It looks like this next week will test that though as we’re gonna get down too much colder temperature or something closer to the low teens. So fingers crossed! That’s great you got your raised beds resting as well! I currently only have one endless call it a half raised bed resting at the moment. And truth be told that’s only because I ran out of compost to top it up and refresh it! Lol, but it’s just fine given the cold weather like you said I really can’t plant anything else out until it warms up a tiny bit or at least stops going into the sub freezing temperatures. Fingers crossed yours do well through this next round of real cold as well!
Hi Doc, I watched the video again and looked at the weather forecast for our area. Starting Saturday night temperatures are in the low 20's. 🥶 After that, some nights are in the teens. Daytime Temps are in the 40's or lower So, I decided to cover my cabbage and lettuce with a 2nd layer of freeze cloth. Hopefully, this will work. 😊
Yep, it looks like we’re looking at very similar temps. I’ll probably spend Saturday getting everything ready to go just in case. Right now I haven’t had anything covered since it quit going below freezing for a week. Luckily I don’t have to cover too much really only my lettuce is and a couple of other tender things that are just a little too young to be able to take the cold for long. I hope everything stays nice and cozy under the frost cloth and comes out the other side looking amazing!
I'm trying something different this year for my figs. I went and got 3 large cardboard boxes from an appliance store. Used yard staples to keep them down. Opened the top and filled them with leaves then sealed the top. Gonna see how they look this spring. Maybe it'll keep them from die'n back all the way to the ground. Good little video. My sun chokes always come back.
That sounds like a really great idea! I was very surprised how the bucket and the straw worked over the lettuce. I’ve been racking my brain how to do it on a bigger scale and I think you found a great way to do it! I’d love to hear how it turns out once the cold is gone away. That’s good to hear about the sun jokes! I suspected they would be OK. I was a little worried about the woods. They were near the surface, but they turned out fine too. After the seat I ordered and 21 came to me as a mushy mess from being frozen, I was concerned that maybe they were a little sensitive to the cold, but they are definitely not!
Tonight is supposed to get back in the upper 20’s. I’m going to experiment with using black plastic plant pots and buckets to cover some plants (since I have 40 + pots)I. Also going to teepee some bamboo and various sticks to put frost cloth over. Everything has hay deep mulched already. Like you said, everything is an experiment! Thanks for sharing in detail, all your different tries.
Yeah, that’s pretty chilly! For me at least it seems to deep mulch is one of the biggest things that you can do or just completely topping greens as far as protecting those things that can make it through cold but maybe not extreme cold. Hopefully you’re waking up today Two lots of plants still looking great!
I love your experiment, Doc! We don't have deep freezing weather that often here, but your video is very informative! Whenever it gets below 35F, we just throw some burlap or used bedding sheets over our plants. I'm not sure how much that helps, actually. 😅 Stay warm!
Howdy again! I think it actually helps quite a bit. It just depends on the type of plant you have growing and the temperatures is going to get down to. A lot of stuff I do the same just kind of throw up bedsheets over things were a frost cloth. I’m trying to get to the point where I don’t plant things that need to be covered. That way it’ll have to stress about it so much and I can just enjoy what’s in the garden. But if I have to throw an occasional bed sheet or a frost cloth or something, it’s not too bad! So far so good we’re looking at another really cold three or four days next week!
I’m the same way for the most part exclamation point lol I’ve tried to avoid it, but there’s still something inside me that wants to grow certain things at certain times of the year that shouldn’t grow here. I’m working on a solution for that too to just appease myself, but trying to grow things that are more appropriate definitely makes it easier!
@TexasGardenDoc it's funny that I said we don't have much freezing weather often, and they just forecasted mid 20's for next week's lows. I guess I just jinxed it. 😂 Time to throw more sheets over my plants!
lol it’s been a little crazy for sure! We hit mid low 20’s last night and are looking to go the same or lower throughout the week and even snow! Hope you guys are staying warm and your plants are too!
Thank you for the kind words, and I hope it does help you out! If there’s anything you do or try that works really well. I’d love to hear about it too. Always love to hear from everyone and find out the different things they do that maybe I never thought of before!
Hey Doc! I’m grateful it wasn’t much colder last night (1/5/25). I used frost cloth over 2 beds, put 5 gallon buckets over my broccoli and left my young onions alone. It was 25f in our neck of the Piney Woods this morning and 31f when I went out at 8A to let the chickens out and everything looks fine. I’m very impressed with your experiment with straw. I think later in the week if we indeed get a little snow I will cover my onions with straw. 🤷♀️ It will be 41f ☀️ today!
We got a bit of surprise this morning over here. We’re down here, depending on where you are in the Piney woods! And got down to around 25 and the windchill was down around 12 for a while! I did not for any greenhouse plastic this go round based on my experiments from last year, so we’ll see how that goes. I did expand the straw mulch to some other, very tender greens so that’s kind of a new experiment. I’ll be seeing how that does. Personally, I’m concerned too with the possibility of light snow towards middle of end of week. I’ll also need to make sure I pull some straw off of those greens when I can because they definitely don’t like to be covered too long! You gotta love Texas winters, they’re all over the place! Best wishes with yours and if you do, try it over your young onions I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Boy can I relate to that! I have a whole slew of other onions and greens that had started in seed trays that I had not had time to get out yet and I’m very thankful I didn’t! I got way colder last night than I thought it would! Once it warms up today, I’m gonna give my garlic and onions to check to see how it went so far. Hopefully where you are it isn’t too too cold, and everything looks great when you get back!
No, that’s a great idea! Having a compost bed in the garden that’s nice and warm is a great place to start seeds as well during the winter months maybe with a little cold frame. Great idea thank you for sharing!
This video was filmed right as all my tech problems began. It’s been stuck in my other software for a year! But I finally freed it and got it out!
Lots of you live in much colder places, and some of the test I did really don’t need much protection here, so I want to know what you do to get around these extremely cold months!
What a great experiment and thank you for sharing it with us. I was actually surprised about the lettuce. That's very good to know. I live in central Florida where I can grow lettuce in the winter too but this cold snap was a doozy! I went ahead and harvested the heads but wish I had watched this before I did. I'll know what to do next year. I've never experienced carrots freezing, so your area must be a little colder than where I live. I'm glad you persevered and got this out for us. I hope your garden fared well this year as well, especially now that you found out the best way to protect your garden.
Thank you!
Truth be told the only time I ever had carriage freeze was and they were really really small so I think I’m probably OK with them all the way around now. In fact this year’s cold snap definitely seems to have proved that!
It’s definitely way too cold though! Lol
Great experiment, thanks for sharing! Blessings!
Thank you so much you’re very kind. I really hope it helps you out too. If you have to deal with it in your own garden!
If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out!
I have loads of hay when my horses toss it on the ground and reject it soooo that goes on the beds for a deep blanket. I have supplemented with a frost cloth for the coldest nights. West of Fort Worth here, worked great on my lettuce, kale, beets and dilll in the snow. Going to try hoops over the beds next weekend when the next cold blast is coming, to keep the frost cloth not touching the plants. Thanks for sharing the experiments!
It’s good to hear that works so well for you especially with the amount of cold you guys got the last few weeks.
This last round I had an old piece of metal building insulation that I suspended over my lettuce bed and it worked really well again. I’m thinking about putting something together. That’ll make it easier to take often put on. The hoops definitely make it easier to put frost cloth on or plastic on, and keeping that stuff up off the plant is definitely a win. I’d love to hear how it goes this next round. I’m already getting ready for it myself!
Water everything ahead of time.
Oh, that’s a great one! I tried it once before, but it wasn’t a deep freeze. Putting an overhead sprinkler on and I actually let it run most of the night and it worked really well. It did warm up the next day though so I never really got to test it again.
That’s an excellent one thank you so much for sharing. I’d completely forgot about it!
Good experiment Doc, Some of those methods appear to have work well. I got a couple rolls of frost cloth to be ready in case we get freezing done here by the border. Never tried it before so we will see. When i was a kid I remember my parents would always start watering the plants before the freeze, now I know why. Keep them helpful video's coming Doc !
It can never hurt to have some laying around, that's for sure! Although if you get a frost or freeze, I'm done for! It'll be the 21 snow-pocalypse all over again! =)
Hi Doc, this was a great experiment. Loved the various methods. My favorite was the black bucket cover. 👩🌾 I'm not growing too many crops (lettuce & cabbage) because of the cold weather. Both crops are under a freeze cloth. So far, they're doing well. Most of the raised beds are resting. Leaf mulch is covering them. 🍂 (My Ash tree supplies all the leaves.) ❤Allie❤
Allie!
It’s great to hear from you again!
Yes, the bucket experiment was the most surprising to me. I’ve actually already used it once for the first freeze a few weeks back, but on a much larger scale. It’s working pretty well. It looks like this next week will test that though as we’re gonna get down too much colder temperature or something closer to the low teens. So fingers crossed!
That’s great you got your raised beds resting as well! I currently only have one endless call it a half raised bed resting at the moment. And truth be told that’s only because I ran out of compost to top it up and refresh it! Lol, but it’s just fine given the cold weather like you said I really can’t plant anything else out until it warms up a tiny bit or at least stops going into the sub freezing temperatures.
Fingers crossed yours do well through this next round of real cold as well!
Hi Doc, I watched the video again and looked at the weather forecast for our area. Starting Saturday night temperatures are in the low 20's. 🥶 After that, some nights are in the teens. Daytime Temps are in the 40's or lower So, I decided to cover my cabbage and lettuce with a 2nd layer of freeze cloth. Hopefully, this will work. 😊
Yep, it looks like we’re looking at very similar temps. I’ll probably spend Saturday getting everything ready to go just in case. Right now I haven’t had anything covered since it quit going below freezing for a week. Luckily I don’t have to cover too much really only my lettuce is and a couple of other tender things that are just a little too young to be able to take the cold for long.
I hope everything stays nice and cozy under the frost cloth and comes out the other side looking amazing!
I'm trying something different this year for my figs. I went and got 3 large cardboard boxes from an appliance store. Used yard staples to keep them down. Opened the top and filled them with leaves then sealed the top. Gonna see how they look this spring. Maybe it'll keep them from die'n back all the way to the ground. Good little video. My sun chokes always come back.
That sounds like a really great idea! I was very surprised how the bucket and the straw worked over the lettuce. I’ve been racking my brain how to do it on a bigger scale and I think you found a great way to do it! I’d love to hear how it turns out once the cold is gone away.
That’s good to hear about the sun jokes! I suspected they would be OK. I was a little worried about the woods. They were near the surface, but they turned out fine too. After the seat I ordered and 21 came to me as a mushy mess from being frozen, I was concerned that maybe they were a little sensitive to the cold, but they are definitely not!
Tonight is supposed to get back in the upper 20’s. I’m going to experiment with using black plastic plant pots and buckets to cover some plants (since I have 40 + pots)I. Also going to teepee some bamboo and various sticks to put frost cloth over. Everything has hay deep mulched already. Like you said, everything is an experiment! Thanks for sharing in detail, all your different tries.
Yeah, that’s pretty chilly! For me at least it seems to deep mulch is one of the biggest things that you can do or just completely topping greens as far as protecting those things that can make it through cold but maybe not extreme cold. Hopefully you’re waking up today Two lots of plants still looking great!
I love your experiment, Doc! We don't have deep freezing weather that often here, but your video is very informative! Whenever it gets below 35F, we just throw some burlap or used bedding sheets over our plants. I'm not sure how much that helps, actually. 😅
Stay warm!
Howdy again!
I think it actually helps quite a bit. It just depends on the type of plant you have growing and the temperatures is going to get down to. A lot of stuff I do the same just kind of throw up bedsheets over things were a frost cloth. I’m trying to get to the point where I don’t plant things that need to be covered. That way it’ll have to stress about it so much and I can just enjoy what’s in the garden. But if I have to throw an occasional bed sheet or a frost cloth or something, it’s not too bad!
So far so good we’re looking at another really cold three or four days next week!
@TexasGardenDoc what you did seems like a success to me! I am prone to growing plants that's not suitable for my climate! 😂 Stay warm!
I’m the same way for the most part exclamation point lol
I’ve tried to avoid it, but there’s still something inside me that wants to grow certain things at certain times of the year that shouldn’t grow here. I’m working on a solution for that too to just appease myself, but trying to grow things that are more appropriate definitely makes it easier!
@TexasGardenDoc it's funny that I said we don't have much freezing weather often, and they just forecasted mid 20's for next week's lows. I guess I just jinxed it. 😂 Time to throw more sheets over my plants!
lol it’s been a little crazy for sure! We hit mid low 20’s last night and are looking to go the same or lower throughout the week and even snow!
Hope you guys are staying warm and your plants are too!
Appropriate mistake great timing 4 this video 2 come out it's gona b helpful right now thnx
Thank you for the kind words, and I hope it does help you out! If there’s anything you do or try that works really well. I’d love to hear about it too. Always love to hear from everyone and find out the different things they do that maybe I never thought of before!
Hey Doc! I’m grateful it wasn’t much colder last night (1/5/25). I used frost cloth over 2 beds, put 5 gallon buckets over my broccoli and left my young onions alone. It was 25f in our neck of the Piney Woods this morning and 31f when I went out at 8A to let the chickens out and everything looks fine. I’m very impressed with your experiment with straw. I think later in the week if we indeed get a little snow I will cover my onions with straw. 🤷♀️ It will be 41f ☀️ today!
We got a bit of surprise this morning over here. We’re down here, depending on where you are in the Piney woods!
And got down to around 25 and the windchill was down around 12 for a while!
I did not for any greenhouse plastic this go round based on my experiments from last year, so we’ll see how that goes. I did expand the straw mulch to some other, very tender greens so that’s kind of a new experiment. I’ll be seeing how that does.
Personally, I’m concerned too with the possibility of light snow towards middle of end of week. I’ll also need to make sure I pull some straw off of those greens when I can because they definitely don’t like to be covered too long!
You gotta love Texas winters, they’re all over the place!
Best wishes with yours and if you do, try it over your young onions I’d love to hear how it turns out!
I’m out of town for the freeze this week. I am hoping my garlic and onions do ok. Thankfully I’ve been too busy to plant anything else.
Boy can I relate to that!
I have a whole slew of other onions and greens that had started in seed trays that I had not had time to get out yet and I’m very thankful I didn’t! I got way colder last night than I thought it would!
Once it warms up today, I’m gonna give my garlic and onions to check to see how it went so far.
Hopefully where you are it isn’t too too cold, and everything looks great when you get back!
I’m in Louisiana. Zone 8b.
Sounds like you were right in line with me just farther east! So far so good. The worst night was the worst but still very cold!
Maybe hot compost beds ahead of the season for next year.
No, that’s a great idea! Having a compost bed in the garden that’s nice and warm is a great place to start seeds as well during the winter months maybe with a little cold frame. Great idea thank you for sharing!