Gardening in Prince George has its challenges, one of them being late spring frosts.

This past week we had a couple of cold nights where the temperatures dipped close to freezing. There are many plants that can handle a slight frost of zero to minus one but there some plants that are very frost tender, and are damaged with even the slightest frost. Annuals such as Dahlias, Begonias, and Impatiens, cannot handle any frost. There are vegetables such as beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers that are not frost tolerant. When the weather predictions call for possible frost, these plants must be protected or they will be damaged and possibly killed depending on how cold it gets.

Frost protection blankets (Reemay) are available at the garden centres and these work very well. They are made of a non-woven, polyester white cloth, that allows the light, and moisture to go through, while keeping a few degrees of frost out. The idea is cover the plants with Reemay in the afternoon, trapping the days warmth, when you hear there is a chance of an upcoming frost. Frost normally happens in the early morning hours. The Reemay is a floating crop cover and can be left on the plants for a number of days if cold weather is anticipated or to speed up the growing process. Reemay comes in different sizes so you can cover the entire garden or just a few plants in a pot.

If there is a potential frost, water the garden in early evening. The moisture from the soil will surround the plant keeping it slightly warmer. Moist soil retains more heat then dry soil.

Knowing your yard before planting is helpful as some areas are more prone to frost than others. Cold air finds the lowest areas, so if you know this, you can plant the frost tolerant plants in the lower areas, leaving the more delicate plants for the higher areas. Ideally a south slope is the best location for a garden.

Gardeners tend to be weather watchers. If the forecast is for low temperatures, and there is a clear sky with no breeze there is a higher chance of frost. A cloudy sky or a breeze will help keep temperatures warmer. A full moon on a clear night can also add to the risk of frost when the temperatures dip.

If you don't want to have to worry about protecting plans from frost, then choose plants that are more frost tolerant. In the vegetable garden, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, carrots, turnips, beets, onions, leeks, potatoes can all handle a slight frost. In the flower garden, perennials are ideal, but you can also grow pansies, and flowering kale/cabbage which are very frost tolerant, asters,verbena, snapdragons, dusty miller, salvia, will all take a slight frost.

There are some years when we do not have a frost free month in our home garden, so we have come to rely on covering the vegetable garden with Reemay when the temperatures dip. It has helped us be able to grow and harvest many of our frost tender vegetables!

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp Home and Garden Centres in Prince George:

Highway 16 west at Kimball Road

Highway 97 North at Northwood Pulpmill Road.