Saving Garden Vegetables From a Hard Freeze

The experience of Don Finley at the Westbury Community Garden

Don Finley has a 25’ x 4.5’ garden bed with a border of 8” square concrete blocks. Prior to the late December 2022 freeze, he mulched around each vegetable with a thick layer of pine needles. He then covered the bed with sheets and sealed the sheets tight to the ground with bricks and wood wedges to prevent wind from blowing under the sheet.

When he removed the sheets after two days of freeze, his vegetables looked almost untouched by the freeze. There were a couple of leaves burned at the tips, but that’s it. All the other methods of covering at the garden were mostly unsuccessful, including the use of frost cloth.

The key was prevention of wind from blowing directly on the vegetables. The vegetables that were in his garden bed include an assortment of brassicas, carrots, parsley, multiplying onions and a few others.