In the Garden: Protecting plants from the weather

Even though it’s too early to transplant our seedlings out in the garden, a few mild days can make any gardener want to jump the gun. Unfortunately, this can lead to disastrous results in this region.

In the Inland Northwest, we typically have frosts until the middle of May. Savvy gardeners always keep an eye on the weather forecasts to be safe.

It will soon be time to plant our cool-season crops in the vegetable garden. They include beets, carrots, kale, leeks, lettuce, parsnips, onions, peas, spinach and Swiss chard. These crops are planted in early spring, once the soil is dry enough to work with. I hope to plant most of mine in about two weeks.

Warm-season crops – cucumbers, eggplants, melons, peppers, pumpkins, squash and tomatoes – should be planted after all danger of frost has passed.

If you have started any cool- or warm-season crops indoors, there is an important step you need to take so they will be ready for their new life in the garden when the time comes: acclimating them to sunlight and outside temperatures.

Just like we humans, young plants will get sunburned if they go from spending their days indoors to being out in direct sunlight full-time. If you’ve ever done this to seedlings – don’t worry, you can admit it because I’ve done it, too – you’ve seen how their leaves turn a sickly white color. That’s because they’re not used to the full intensity of the sun. Of course, we humans do the opposite, by turning a bright shade of red.

A little advance planning is in order. A week to 10 days before you plan to transplant your seedlings, start moving them outside to a sheltered area such as a deck. Don’t put them in full sun or in a windy area. The first day, they only get to be outside for an hour and then moved back indoors. The next day, it’s for two hours, and so on. By the time you’re ready to plant them, they’ll be ready for the real world, too.

Now, call me over-protective, but there’s another step I go through to keep my plant babies safe from surprise frosts. This primarily applies to warm-season crops but also to my pea seedlings since an unexpected frost can really set them back. I cover the plants for the first two weeks of their outdoor lives.

There is a fabric-like product called floating row cover that is very helpful for this. You can purchase it at large garden centers or online. Row cover is a lightweight bonded fabric that looks like the interfacing used in garments.

It lets air, light and moisture through, but also gives a few degrees of frost protection. That makes it useful both early and late in the growing season. I have hoops over my raised beds – made from flexible black sprinkler pipe – to support the row cover. The ends are held down with bricks so the wind won’t blow it off the beds.

If you keep floating row cover on your warm-season crops for a couple of weeks, you’ll be amazed at how well the plants grow thanks to this protected start. Just remember to remove it before the plants start blooming so the bees can work their pollination magic.

To learn more about protecting your plants from the weather, look for today’s “Everyone Can Grow A Garden” video on my YouTube channel, youtube.com/c/susansinthegarden.