Nice spring weather here in Colorado can often turn cold and snowy with little warning. This weekend it is dropping into the high 20’s at night and the starts we planted out in the garden a couple weeks ago are going to get pretty cold. Placing a heavy row cover over your garden in the evening can sometimes provide enough insulation to prevent damage to your plants.
Put some stakes in the garden bed to hold the row cover up from underneath and create a little tent. This will keep the row cover from resting directly on the plants, providing an insulated space that will chill more slowly than the outside air. This can keep your plants a few degrees warmer than the outside low temperature.
If you are expecting a lot of snow you are usually better off without the row cover, though. A deep layer of snow will actually provide quite a bit of insulation itself. Row cover that is weighed down by a lot of snow can also crush your plants.
Hopefully this will keep our plants from freezing this weekend. We will leave part of the garden uncovered and see if these plants are any worse off after the snow melts.
