Frost is the greatest threat to your fall garden. It can happen unexpectedly, and when it does, it can seem as if all of your hard efforts are simply frozen in the ground. Fortunately, there are some frost recovery tips you can employ that we’ve covered in our Plant Care Guide.
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Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Frost is dangerous because the chill damages a plant’s cell wall. This causes plants to become limp, blackened, and distorted. While you might believe the sun’s warmth will reverse this damage, the opposite is true. The sun’s rays and the rapid warming in morning can cause the cell walls to rupture.
In our plant care guide, we stress that prevention is always more effective than restoration. Even so, you can do the following if preventative measures have failed to protect your plants:
- Hide your plants from the sun using a tarp, buckets, or anything that keeps direct sunlight off of them.
- Cut back frosted growth in the spring. This allows a healthy, new bud to grow in its place. It might take time, but most plants respond well to this treatment.
- Give your plants a healthy dose of fertilizer. Balance the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium carefully. This will encourage a strong and healthy recovery.
- For more delicate plants, move them inside a greenhouse or into your home. This should be done without delay to prevent permanent damage to the plants.
- For plants that you can’t move, make sure they have not lifted themselves out of the ground, which is a common response to cold weather. If your plants are “rising from the soil,” simply tamp the soil down around them to refirm root contact with the soil.
Contact Rosehill Gardens to learn more about all you can do for your garden and get answers for specific gardening needs.