Protect Baby Plants From The Cold: Homemade Floating Row Covers

It's late April and I have gotten a lot done in the garden, but with a few decently cold nights coming up, I am getting a little nervous about the baby plants making it through the Brrrr! 

Floating row covers are designed to protect plants from the cold.  They also act as little incubators - they trap the heat and sunshine and make a little hothouse for the plants.  You may not know, but you can grow food all winter long, if you have the right circumstances.  Another goal for the future...

But, floating row covers can be expensive AND I need them ASAP, so....of course I made them myself!

They're so easy!

First of all I went out and purchased my supplies.  For a little over twenty dollars I got the following.

If you order a row cover online or go to your local store, you may pay upwards of $60.

After I disassembled the wire fence, I cut the painters' drop cloth so that it reached down to the floor on both sides and had extra cloth on each end.

Then I used clear tape to tape the cloth on to the wire.

Keep taping till it's secure.

I walked the cover outside and stuck it in the ground, being careful to tuck in the extra cloth so that cold air didn't get in.

Here it is from the side.  

Voila!  Easy peasy!  Let me know in the comments if you try it!

April Showers Bring May Flowers, Yada Yada Yada

The last 5 days have basically followed this weather pattern: wake up, cloudy.  Lunchtime, sunny. Just when I run outside to work in the garden, clouds again and rain.  Yes, I know April showers bring May flowers, but to be honest, I want to be out in my yard working!

Ok, so what that 10 days ago, when I was watering a bare spot in the lawn it was so dry, it literally bounced off the ground.   So what that 15 days ago when I went on a little vaca with my family a friend came over to water the garden because it probably would have died from drought if she hadn't.

I am just kidding. I am not really that callous, but, I am ready and eager to be growing food this year like never before. 

I have reflected back on where I was one year ago.  I was just getting over a seriously bad reaction to a new medication I had started.  I had 10 days or so of debilitating nausea, and fatigue.  I was so pitiful, I couldn't even garden, I just sat out there in the middle of my garden in a chair.  And that's when I was feeling better!

I am so glad to have the energy and health that I have right now, I want to use it! 

The garden is actually coming along.  I am persevering with some things that in the past I would have given up on.  Cabbage for example.  It seems that cabbage takes a really l-o-n-g time to grow from seed.  I am definitely feel a little impatient, but I put in 4 today, regardless.  Then I went to Lowe's and looked at the cabbage they were selling.  That was a mistake. It was like 12 inches tall, haha.

As you know, we have planted fruit trees, 3 apple and 1 plum.  Maybe we might even get an apple or two this fall? I also went out and got new strawberry plants to add to the dwindling plants I have had for about 3 years.  You need to do that every once in a while. ;)

So, because I have so much going on here on the "homestead" I am excited to see it "bear fruit."

Do you every get frustrated with Mother Nature?  Do you ever feel impatient with your garden?

Let me know in the comments!

Jenny

MANY of our seedlings are in or on their way in.

Our partial, WAY TOO ambitious list includes: zucchini, peppers, carrots, swiss chard, potatoes, asparagus, squash, arugula, garlic, onions, broccoli, mint, dill, rosemary, thyme, milk thistle, pumpkin, tomato, blueberry, and strawberry.  We also have three new apple trees, a plum tree, a mulberry tree and a dying...sorry to say....grape vine which needs to be trimmed back to the root.  

Did I forget anything?  Probably.  Will it all make it through the summer and produce fruit?  Probably not.

But, here are some cool and inspiring pix for you!

One of the baby apples...

Rhubarb....

The new herb bed, facing the house...

 

The new pumpkin bed, still needs mulch....

 

Happy days!