[dinahx]

What do I need to cover and with what?

I have spinach, greens, carrots, dill, beans already in the ground. I have blueberry and elderberry bushes, but I didn't cover them all winter. I have lemon balm and mint, but again, I didn't cover them all winter.

 

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

The beans are the most tender. The rest should easily handle a degree or three below freezing.

You can cover them with light blankets, cardboard boxes, milk jug cloches, plastic sheeting or anything that will shelter them from the frost settling into them without crushing them. It's really the frost itself that does the most damage more so than the cold.

 

[lightheart]

the reason you didn't need to cover the bushes in the winter is that they were dormant, they didn't have that new growth to them, their skin so to speak was already hardened unlike the baby growth that is on them now.

another idea is newspaper held down with rock along the eged so it doesn't blow away.

One hint, tip, if your plants get hit by a frost and you forgot or didn't know to cover them, get out there early in the morning before the bright sun has a chance to get to them. Cover them and let the frost/ice melt slow instead of letting it melt all at once with the bright sun, you can save many of flower blooms by doing this without the flowers just turning to mush.