The first frost can arrive with little warning. Here's how to guard your plants as the days turn cold.
Created by jflgardens.co.uk
The first frost of autumn often creeps up on a garden that still feels like summer, catching tender plants and late crops unprepared. With a little forethought and a few simple covers, you can keep your garden protected through that first real chill.
Keep an eye on the weather as the nights cool and watch for the cold, clear and windless night that brings a ground frost. The day before, move the most tender pots somewhere warmer and plan what is easy to cover.
A single layer of horticultural fleece, an old sheet or a cloche makes an effective frost shield. Throw it over tender plants before dusk, weigh it down gently, and lift it off again in the morning so they get their light and air.
Move pots into a greenhouse, a porch or near a warm house wall so the frost finds them less, and raise them off the cold ground. In borders, tender plants in the shelter of a hedge or wall are rarely caught out by a light frost.
Harvest any remaining tender crops like tomatoes, peppers and squash before a frost and bring them inside to finish ripening. A few minutes spent ahead of the cold can protect both the plants and the last of your harvest.
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