The Ukon Express

Freeze warnings have been given a few times the last few weeks. It has been a very interesting spring. Richie's soccer games have been very cold, snowy and windy. Freeze warnings strike fear in gardeners trying to get an early jump on the rest of the competition (anyone anywhere that plants the same kinds of plants). We have used some interesting ways to protect our little plants.

Grandpa Hawkins gave me the little cold frame seen in the image above. We have had this for about 18 years. Lynne and Richie are attaching some plastic because the plants have grown so fast under the cold frame. We propped up one side to give the the needed room and attached some plastic on the raised side. We also put a about 5 gallons of water to help warm the space. The gallon jugs warmed by the sun give off heat throughout the night. This was Richie's idea so I give him props for this strategy.

After wrapping up the cold frame, we secured it with a heavy brick. All the tomato plants in this structure survived the cold. A few had some damage but they have grown back and look unscathed.

In the next design, we surround the plant with some jugs (the Richie method) and cover with plastic. Worked great, no damage was seen on the plants. We also had a few walla-water's that worked great on a few of the plants.

A closer look at the Richie method you can see the protected tomato plant from freezing temperatures. We outfitted these plants in the early evening with hot water in the jugs.

These tomatoes were planted inside large (6 feet high) tomato cages, so we had to try to cover and insulate them. This method did not work as well as the others, and unfortunately we lost a couple tomato plants. On the bright side, Rich and Grandpa G. has bought SO many tomato plants, that I think we will survive. (I believe they have actually purchased over 80 plants!!!)