Frost In Your Garden

Frost can cause many problems in your garden, and a lot of people are usually caught out by early or late frosts.

The best way to tell if a frost is possible is to check outside at night, if it’s cold and there are no clouds, it’s very likely, especially during the late Autumn and Winter months, even into early Spring.

The moisture that your plants hold will freeze when temperatures go into minus figures, this will normally affect just plants outside, but if the temperature gets very low then even plants in your greenhouse could be affected.

Always avoid placing plants which are tender to frost where they will catch the morning sun, if their moisture freezes and the sun then hits them, it can rupture the plant cell’s walls.

Try not to feed your plants until the warmer months either, as they will start to grow green and soft which is more vunerable to frost. 

You are best to protect crops with a layer of fleece, like the fleece tunnel in the image and place a thin layer of fleece over greenhouse plants too.

Bubble insulation is a good investment at this time of year, it will help to keep the air in your greenhouse warmer for longer, so if you use a heater, it will also be more cost effective.

If you’ve been too late and frost damage has already happened, then don’t panic. You can still help your plants. 

First of all make sure to cut off and brown stems or foliage, next set up some protection by wrapping with fleece if the icey weather has been forecast to last a long time.

Drought In Your Garden

We all enjoy a lovely long and hot summer, but plants definitely do not enjoy it, especially if it's uninterrupted sunshine and dry for days. This is because plants need an adequate amount of moisture to grow, and in drought conditions they cannot, their roots shrivel up and leaves go brown and crisp. With crops like tomatoes you need to keep them permanently watered to prevent the fruit from splitting, well watered vegetables will also not taste bitter. Composts can be difficult to re-wet too, so it's important to stop them becoming dry and hard.

So what can you do to prevent drought?

Conserve your water! Use water butts in your garden, collecting rain from your guttering and fit an overflow into your drains so you can collect as much as possible and if it does rain a lot then at least the excess will drain away as normal.

In drought conditions always give new/young plants priority. Water them first and the rest afterwards sparingly, it may not rain for another couple of days or even weeks.

Always concentrate water at the plants roots, not their leaves, their roots are where the water is taken in by the plant. Water about once to twice a week heavily as opposed to little and often as the moisture may never reach the plant and just get soaked up by the soil or evaporate away. It also promotes plants to root deeply rather than shallow rooting.

Don't worry about your grass, it will go brown, but lawns are much more robust and come back quickly and strongly once drought conditions are over. Water the plants not the lawn.

If you're too late and problems have already started, then there are some things you can do to help still! If plants in pots have started to look droopy, then move them out of the sun and water them slowly, they will pick back up after a while.

Soak smaller plants in their pots into water and leave them to soak for a while, once out of the water, keep them in the shade for a while at least.

If your plants are drooping, don't be afraid to water them even when the sun is shining, we're told in tradition to avoid doing this, but when they are drooping it's a matter of life or death for your plant and you need to do something rapidly. You have to be careful though, don't splash onto the leaves or anywhere around the plant, just concentrate fully on the roots.