In Louisiana, our weather can turn on a dime — especially this time of year. One day will be cool and crisp; the next, unseasonably warm. Then, surprise! There’s a freeze in the forecast.
That’s why it’s important to stay ahead of the game. If you make a few preparations now, you won’t be caught off guard and scrambling to protect your plants when a cold front approaches.
Here are our tips for getting ready for freezes.
Keep plants healthy and hydrated
Taking good care of your plants and making sure they are in good health is one of the most important defenses against cold damage.
Keep plants thoroughly watered throughout the season. Cold fronts often are accompanied by drying winds that sap plants’ moisture levels, causing stress.
Damp soil does not freeze as readily as dry soil. So, when a freeze is on the way, make sure to water all of your plants — particularly container plants, which tend to dry out more quickly.
Refresh mulch
Mulch is a multipurpose tool in the landscape. It helps retain soil moisture, insulates roots from extreme temperatures, suppresses weed growth — and it looks great.
A 2-to-4-inch layer of mulch around plants will help keep them safe this fall and winter.
Do some research
Get online and search for information about the cold tolerance of plants in your garden. That way, you’ll know which plants need attention when temperatures plummet.
Citrus trees and tropical plants native to warmer climates are most vulnerable to freeze damage. But many other plants — including established trees and woody shrubs along with cool-season bedding annuals and many herbs — can handle chilly weather without any special care. You may still want to protect bedding plants, though, to prevent damage to their flowers and tender growing tips.
Move container plants Even before a freeze appears in the forecast, you can preemptively move cold-sensitive plants that are in containers to warm locations where they can safely spend the fall and winter.
Otherwise, bring container plants of reasonable size indoors before temperatures drop to the freezing mark. If you don’t have space inside your home for your plants, moving them to an enclosed space like a garage, sunroom or porch is the next best thing. Place the plants as close to your home as possible — preferably along a south-facing wall, which will retain the most heat during the day.
Cover plants that can’t be moved
Not all of our tender plants can be moved to safety before a freeze. Some are planted in the ground, and others are in containers that are too big or heavy to lift.
For these plants, you can offer some protection with a covering material of some kind.
The gold standard is something called frost cloth. This white, woven material traps heat from the ground while remaining breathable.
Frost cloth becomes a hot commodity when freezes threaten, so you may want to go ahead and pick up a roll or two from your local garden center to have on hand.
Items such as old blankets and sheets also work just fine.
So do tarps and plastic sheeting — but you must remove these covers during the day. Solar heating will spike the temperature inside a closed tarp and burn the leaves and tender stems of a plant.
When installing any type of cover, make sure it completely covers the plant and goes all the way to the ground. Secure the material with sod staples or heavy objects such as bricks to maximize heat retention and keep wind from blowing off the cover. The key is to trap the earth’s ground heat — not just cover the top of the plant.
If you are covering a fragile plant, you can drive stakes into the ground to create a frame for the cover to rest on so it doesn’t crush delicate stems and leaves.
It’s OK to let some things go
Sometimes freeze prep is just too time and labor intensive. If you can only protect some plants and have to leave others to their own devices, don’t feel bad.
Prioritize plants that are most valuable — whether economically or sentimentally. Don’t stress over plants that are easy and inexpensive to replace.
Another thing to keep in mind is that, although tropical plants’ foliage is sensitive to freezing temperatures, many of the species we grow here in Louisiana — like elephant ears and gingers — are root hardy. Freezes will turn these plants’ leaves into mush, but their underground root structures will typically survive and send up new growth in the spring.
