You probably have household items frost protection supplies sitting in your closet right now. Old bed sheets, blankets, and burlap sacks work great for keeping plants warm. I grabbed a worn quilt from my linen closet last fall. It saved my pepper plants from a surprise freeze that night.
These fabric covers add three to five degrees of warmth when you anchor them at ground level. The key is trapping heat that radiates up from the soil. I learned this trick after losing tomatoes my first year of gardening. Now I never leave covers loose or floating above plants.
Cardboard boxes make perfect shields for individual plants. I keep a stack in my garage just for frost nights. Place them over your tomatoes or squash before sunset. The box traps daytime warmth inside. Pull them off once temps climb above freezing in the morning.
Here is a DIY frost covers trick I learned from my neighbor. Fill dark plastic bottles with water. Set them around your plants during sunny afternoons. The water absorbs heat from sunlight all day. At night those bottles release stored warmth slowly around your plants.
These homemade plant covers work because water holds heat so well. Think of the bottles as tiny heaters that cost you nothing. I use gallon milk jugs painted black for the best results. They give off warmth for hours after sunset on cold nights.
In a pinch even newspaper can save your plants from light frost. I once layered several sheets over my lettuce when cold snuck up on me. It looked silly but it worked. The paper creates an insulating barrier between cold air and tender leaves.
Old bed sheet frost protection has saved my garden many times. Cotton sheets breathe better than plastic so moisture does not build up. I keep dedicated frost sheets in my shed all season. They go on every plant when forecasts drop below 35 degrees.
The most important step with any household cover is securing edges to the ground. Loose covers let cold air sneak underneath and kill your plants anyway. I use rocks, bricks, or handfuls of soil to weigh down edges all around each plant.
This simple act traps radiant heat rising from the soil beneath your covers. That warmth makes all the difference between dead plants and survivors. Your soil stores heat from the afternoon sun. You just need to keep it close to your plants.
Start gathering household frost items now before you need them. Check your closets for old blankets you can spare. Save cardboard boxes from deliveries. Collect plastic bottles over the summer. Having everything ready means you can protect your garden fast when frost warnings hit.
Read the full article: Protecting Plants from Frost That Works
