If you live below USDA hardiness zone 8 , you ’ve believably write off winter gardening .
And for a while , I retrieve the same way . I garden in a zone 5 microclimate at 4,000 feet elevation , where our rime - free growing time of year is ( at best ) only 50 Day out of the yr . But through trial and fault , I ’ve learned that a hard hoarfrost does not usher in the end of the time of year . Even as my fall craw start to slice and the weather turns more wintry , my garden is still — and will be — acquire through the holidays and beyond .
I ’ve really been meddling sowing seeds and have transplants in the solid ground before the soil freezes . In the ground — not in a glasshouse or high tunnel , but right in my backyard in the same raised bed I ’ve been using all year .
This might raise an eyebrow if you ’ve resigned yourself to thinking wintertime gardening is unacceptable in your geographical zone . And if you ’ve ever image those table showing the minimum temperature limits for grow vegetables , you ’ve likely assume that horticulture terminate when winter temperature plump to 20 ° F or below .
However . I ’m here to assure you that there ’s no pauperism to throw in the trowel . I ’ve grown all of the vegetables listed on the correct side of this mesa through my zona 5 mood ( with repeated magnetic dip below 0 ° F in the depth of winter ) . Frost - allowance list like this one are only guidelines — you may “ cheat ” wintertime just by knowing how plants respond to the frigidity .
How plants adapt to freezing weather
frigid - tolerant plants have unique adjustment that aid their tissues better answer to freezing conditions . They compartmentalize freeze by moving most of the water outside of their plant cells to freeze out ( which is why frozen plants seem wilt in the morning , but cursorily springtime back to lifetime once they thaw ) .
Plants also bring out cold - tolerance protein and kale ( their ownnatural antifreeze ) , which roleplay to lower the freezing power point of piss inside works cell and bottle up the growth of water ice watch glass . ( This is why certainvegetables end up tasting sweeter if they ’re harvested after a few frosts . )
They ’ll even change thecomposition of fatsin their cell membranes , give way them a little more flexibility should any ice quartz glass form . Warm - season crops like Lycopersicon esculentum and peppercorn do n’t have these adaptations , which is why they turn to pulp after a freeze . It ’s a solution of their plant life cells burst as water expands , kind of like a water bottle bristle in the freezer .
What really injures plants
So if inhuman - tolerant plants can adapt to freeze out conditions , what really damage them ? In most of the United States , it ’s plainly desiccation : the dry effect of frigid wintertime tip . These plants have already moved water out of their mobile phone , then the low-toned humidity and harsh winds of winter dry out their tissues even further .
Early freeze legal injury typically read up first on the leaf gross profit margin , grow tip burn mark , or dried crispy edges . And frigid - patient of works do n’t turn to mush when exposed to extreme frigidness ; they simply look desiccated or dark-brown . So it ’s really dehydration — not insensate temperatures per se — that frequently damages plants .
Here ’s a mature chard flora in my garden , planted in the subject , show tip tan after multiple clear nighttime below freezing temperatures .
On the other hand , these vernal chard plant life suffered no legal injury , thanks to an insulating layer of snow .
The exposed outer leave on this cerise - veinlike Hibiscus sabdariffa became dehydrated after several night below freezing , while the protected interior leaves are still green and fresh .
Freeze-wrap your garden
With that bit of understanding of how wintertime really spite plants , it ’s not heavy to see how you may cheat the weather condition . you could crusade the minimum limits of those frost - tolerance table simply by giving your plant some protective covering , either in dispirited tunnels ( what I in person use ) or frigid underframe .
It ’s loose to think that these structures mould by trapping some rut from sun during the daylight and releasing it at night , but there ’s so much more to them than that . retrieve of it like frost - wrapping your garden .
Disclosure : If you shop from my article or make a purchase through one of my links , I may receive commissions on some of the products I commend .
In your freezer , freezer burning go on due to the sublimation of frigid water from the tissues of heart and vegetables . you may keep this by increasing the humidity in your Deepfreeze ( which is hard to do ) , encasing your foods in frozen water , or more commonly , by ensure you have an airtight seal in the packaging around your foods . ( I use and urge this vacuum sealerfor long - term computer storage in the freezer . )
you could mimic this freezing - wrapper concept by “ packaging ” your garden bed into low burrow or cold frames , which increases the humidness inside the anatomical structure ( reducing sublimation of water from plant life tissue ) and protects the plants from drying winds — much in the same manner that a serious snowfall can isolate plant .
If you ’re capable to irrigate your garden bed before an look insensate piece of cake , that helps as well . The wet further raises humidity inside the tunnel andmoist stain protects works roots from dry out .
So , how well does this oeuvre ? A few winters ago , I had multiple beds planted with several varieties of leaf lucre . Some were grown in the surface , some were grow under clear credit card sheeting , and others were grown under midweight frost cloth ( also known as run-in cover ) .
According to the frost - tolerance table I shared above , lettuce should die at temperature below 28 ° F and yes , some of the ones without protection did . ( This is highly hooked on the cultivar ; in the main , rut - tolerant lettuces are also more cold - tolerant , as contradictory as that sounds . )
But , all the gelt in the low tunnels easily survived temperatures down into the high teen Fahrenheit . And lettuces that had two layers of frost cloth over them even exist the scurvy teen Fahrenheit ( though a few of them did get leaf tan ) .
How stale did it getinsidethe tunnel that winter ? I had a temperature sensing element in the tunnel cover with just one layer of fabric and it drive down to 24 ° F . ( From personal experience , I ’ve found that medium - free weight Robert Frost covers like Agribon AG-30 provide around 5 ° of cold protection . )
So , temperature clearly is n’t the only factor that determines whether a crop will survive wintertime . ( These are the detector I usethroughout my garden to monitor temps and humidity . )
advocate
Frost protection for plants
Don’t baby your plants
If you need to give winter gardening a guess with these cold - protective covering caper , do n’t baby them . Just as the cellular changes and cabbage they accumulate are induced by cold atmospheric condition , they ’re chop-chop lost when the plants are exposed to heating .
That means youdoneed to pay attention to what the conditions is doing . Frost cloth is a great option if you prefer to be more hands - free , since cold frames and tunnels incubate in shaping need to be vented when temperature go up to 40 ° F or above .
On a sunny 40 ° fluorine wintertime sidereal day , the temperature inside a cold underframe or plastic - covered burrow can easy reach 80 ° F or more , which causes plants to lose the sugars and antifreeze protein they ’ll need to pull through when temperature dip at sunset . If you use plastic binding , invest in a temperature detector and be certain to vent your tunnel if it approaches 60 ° F inside the burrow .
( If you ca n’t determine what sort of cover to get for your miserable tunnel , I ’ve grow a guide thatcompares cloth vs. plastic words coversand when you ’d want to use one over the other . )
In my years of gardening in the Central Oregon high desert and harvesting leafy greens all winter , I ’m win over that keeping cool - time of year plants nerveless — what they ’re by nature conform for — is the key fruit to successful wintertime gardening .
For ideas on what you may grow all wintertime , bookmark my pathfinder oncold - hardy vegetablesandcold - hardy herb that can survive a voiceless Robert Frost .
