Home and Plant Tips for Freezing Temperatures
For Your Plants 🌱
I partnered with my favorite landscape architect, Rachel Raise, to send over helpful tips for your home and your gardens!
Before the Freeze:
Water plants thoroughly. Seems counterintuitive but you are giving the plants a life raft to drink from for when things get rough.
Cover as much as possible. You can buy freeze protection cloth online or at most hardware stores. I also use blankets and towels.
Bring potted plants inside when possible.
If you have small seedlings or plants you can take a plastic cup and cover them during frost events. Just be sure to take them off after. Clear is best.
Lawn and Grasses: Though lawn does go dormant in the winter, a sudden drop below 20 can permanently damage it, especially if the sod was laid less than a year ago. Try not to walk on it and give it some time before mowing. When you do mow, go to the highest possible height. If you want to test if it’s alive, you can pull a few small plugs from it (make sure roots are still attached) and put it in water in a sunny spot. If it grows back, you’re in luck!
Trees: The best thing you can do for trees is provide them some nice mulch around their roots after the frost has thawed. The leaves of your trees may be black or dark brown, wait it out until you see some new growth and those leaves will start to fall off. If your fruit trees have started to bloom and flower, here is a good resource with pictures to see if the damage is salvageable for the buds and flowers. Prune back any dead branches that are clearly broken or damaged as soon as you can, especially if they could potentially fall.
After the Freeze:
After threat of frost has passed: Remove coverings. I know it’s tempting to remove the coverings at the first sign of the sun, but there may still be frost looming around the corner. Check the forecast and when you are without frost for 18+ hrs and above 40 degrees, it’s time to take the covers off and let the plants breathe. If there is still frost threat and snow on top of the coverings, leave it on, snow is good insulation.
After removing coverings: WATER! Give everything, even the things that looks terrible a big, bad soak. There is something called a frost-line, and often-times the roots go below that, meaning they are unaffected by the frost, but also meaning water has not gotten to them because of the frost. The water will help reach their roots and defrost the soil around them.
2-3 Weeks without frost (Typically early March): Fertilizer. Once the threat of frost has fully passed (maybe 2-3 weeks after it’s been above freezing), you can go through and add some natural fertilizer (kelp oil is a great option- Foxfarm has a great fertilizer that you add to water. It works for indoor or outdoor). I prefer liquid fertilizer because I think it is more bang for the buck and my dogs don’t try to eat it (dogs like all the gross smelly stuff in fertilizer pellets). I would avoid Miracle-Gro, etc. Those just turn into salts over time and do more harm than good.
Mid-March Prune/Cut back. The good news is, a lot of things need to be cut back in the spring naturally. Treat it as the most important haircut of the year for the plants. They get to remove all their woody, dead weight just in time for spring break! Below are the different ways to prune the different plant categories. I know it’s tempting to cut away all the dead, ugly, ick but it acts as insulation for future events. We are typically out of the clear March 7 (thanks Farmers Almanac!) This will also give you some time to see if there is new growth on the plant (aka it’s not a goner).
For Your Home 🏡
Let your faucets drip. Keep your faucet on at five to ten droplets per minute to alleviate pressure in the plumbing system.
Open your cupboards. Leave the cabinet doors under all sinks open so that the pipes will be ventilated with warm air. Opening the bathroom and kitchen doors helps, too.
Purchase outdoor faucet covers. The ultimate goal of a faucet cover is to protect pipes from freezing. These inexpensive covers helps to trap heat that naturally radiates through your pipes and helps it recirculate back into your plumbing.
Heat your home. If you leave for the day (or an extended period of time), do not turn the heat completely off. Instead, set it to the lowest setting you’re comfortable with -- we recommend no colder than 60°F.
Stay alert. If your water won’t turn on or if you see any leaks in or around your home, contact a plumber immediately!