Protecting In-Ground Plants When Unseasonable Ice, Sleet, Snow, or Freeze Conditions Present

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Posted by @flaflwrgrl on
I sit here writing this on 1/28/14 while we await abnormal winter weather to strike this evening. Here in the south our perennials are showing signs of tender new spring growth, but the weather is predicted to give us a beating for the next 2 days in the form of unseasonable ice pellets and mixed winter precipitation, to include snow or sleet.

Although the plants may be well mulched, if ice sits on them, it will set them back terribly and possibly kill them. Here's an easy solution to protect your plants from such damage.

Use buckets of any kind and turn them upside down over the plants. Drywall buckets work great because of their size but any buckets will do as long as they cover the plant. I utilize anything at hand, such as mop buckets and plant containers, as long as they don't have drain holes in them. If it were simply to be freezing temperatures, then drain holes would not make that much difference as you would still hold in enough ground heat to protect the plants. However, in this case, we're looking at ice, freezing rain, and sleet, which could drip down onto your plants through the drain holes. You can plug the drain holes with paper or form tin foil over the bottom of the bucket to keep frozen precipitation out. The buckets will also hold in ground heat so your plants don't suffer too much of a setback. If strong winds are predicted, place a rock or brick on the bucket to keep it from blowing off.
Thumb of 2014-01-28/flaflwrgrl/b3f33b

 
Comments and Discussion
Thread Title Last Reply Replies
Untitled by sheilaris May 25, 2014 5:41 PM 2
Thanks by greene Feb 25, 2014 10:00 PM 19
Hail by Anderwood Feb 25, 2014 6:10 PM 1

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