Handling the Freeze In a Garden

Are you ready for the cold? I’m not. The weather forecast calls for temperatures to drop below freezing on Saturday with sleet possible. The temperature could drop to the high teens on Sunday morning and stay below freezing the whole day.

That’s too bad for my garden. I have a bunch of winter crops growing right now – cabbage, kale, collard greens, beets, onions and peas – at least those are the ones I hope to save.

I planted some fennel and radicchio seeds about a month ago. They’re just a little bigger than seedlings now. The seeds were several years old and I planted them, mainly to get rid of them, but with hopes of a mild winter. I don’t expect them to make it.

Cabbage can take a light freeze. In my experience, cabbage starts to get cold damage when temps drop below 2827º Fahrenheit. Kale is much more hardy. A few winters ago when it got really cold, I grew some kale that survived 17º F. Peas are also fairly cold tolerant. They can live through a few hours in the low 20s.

Onions can survive freezing temperatures as well. The green tops may suffer damage. But if the roots are established enough, they’ll send up new growth when it warms.

A blanket of snow can actually protect some of these crops. Inside the snow, temperatures stay closer to the freezing point, 32º F, even if the air temperature outside is in the teens. I don’t think we’re going to see much snow. So I’ll probably try covering the most sensitive plants with real blankets.