Protecting your plants for winter

ble covering material available to wrap or cover your plants with. You can buy a product called horticultural fleece which is a light transparent woven material that allows a certain amount of light to penertrate through to the plant while affording a certain amount of protection from frost, snow, hail and wind. This product comes in different grades of thickness ranging from 17g per square metre to 35g. The heavier the grade the better the frost protection but the transparency levels are reduced. Theses fleeces can keep off between 3 to 7 degrees of frost, you can double up to provide higher thermal qualities.

Because we rarely permanently wrap our plants for all of the winter opaque materials can also be used for short period, old heavy sheets, blankets and towels are all suitable for this short term use. In 2010 I used two large blankets to throw over a mature olive tree when a minus eight to ten degree frost was forecast. I tied it down with ropes and left it in place for around a week until the cold spell was over. Whether it saved this valuable plant from death I’ll never know but it certainly saved it from substantial damage.

Plastic sheeting can also be used but it is important that a frame work is constructed to keep it from contacting with the plant it is protecting, this is like creating a mini polytunnel around the plant. Plastic touching a plant surface in frosty weather can cause serious burning damage. Mulches are an effective way of protecting herbaceous plants from frost. A 75mm layer of manure or compost over the crown of Agapanthus, Canna lilies, Watsonias and Dahlias will not only provide a safety barrier but also imporove the soil conditions around them.

In reality the vast majority of the plants you have in your garden will go through the winter largely unscathed if the temperatures are what we would consider normal for the time of year but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for the unexpected.