How to Protect your Garden Vegetable Patch during Winter

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As the summer draws to a close and the temperatures start to drop, the gardeners among us need to start taking into consideration how best to look after our garden for the winter period. This means taking the right precautions to protect precious vegetable plants from the upcoming frosts and resulting cold soil.

As specialists in garden maintenance services, we have given our top tips on how best to protect your garden vegetable patch over winter. Read on to learn more, or if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact our friendly team on 01202 722943.

Tips to protect the vegetables in your garden

We have outlined our top tips on how to best keep vegetables growing in your garden during the winter months.

Update your watering schedule

Your vegetable plants won’t require as much water in the winter. We advise watering during the warmest part of the day (especially if the soil is dry) to avoid the roots from chilling. We also advise not watering the leaves as this can lead to frost building up on the foliage.

Harvest with care

As vegetables won’t grow as speedily as they would do in the spring and summer, it may be worth adjusting the size of your harvest. We suggest harvesting during the day, so that they don’t go into shock from being picked during the colder hours.

Slight frost can make for sweeter and crisper vegetables – so it you like them that way, you may want to wait for an overnight chill.

Use nets and coverings

Whilst some vegetables can survive a few frosts (like broccoli and kale), other crops like lettuces and radishes are more sensitive. It’s best to cover your rows of plants with a garden cloth or tarp if frost is forecast. You can also use pots or plastic bottles (with the bottoms cut off) for individual plant coverage. To best protect your plants, make sure to cover as soon as the sun sets.

Create a wall to protect your vegetable plants from wind

Another form of protection is by way of keeping your plants warm – particularly if there are any bitterly cold winds about. You can stack bricks for smaller vegetable patches, or make a fence and wrap plastic or agricultural cloth for larger garden areas.

Cold frame

We also advise purchasing or building a cold frame, which is a bottomless case with transparent glass or a plastic cover that can be placed over plants. It’s ideal as it lets light in during the sunny days (creating a mini greenhouse), while it provides cover and retains heat during the night and for very cold days.

Hotbed

For a more luxury solution for your plants, you can evolve your cold frame to a hotbed by providing a heated bottom layer below the plant roots. You can do this by using weatherproof heating cables, heating pads or a layer of compost to create an ambient temperature for your crops.

Specialist Gardening Maintenance Services

To learn more about our range of maintenance and garden design and build services that we offer, don’t hesitate to get in touch via our website, email, or give a member of our friendly team a call today on 01202 722943.