Freeze Warning May 13, 2013Okay Mother Nature, stop being funny! Another freeze warning, no – not like the Cha-Cha Slide song. It’s one thing to cover up flower beds, but now I needed to devise a plan to cover up the seedlings in the garden and the tomato plants. The later took a bit of MacGyvering using materials on hand – thank you Mickey Mouse!

It was pretty easy to figure to lay some tarps over the seeds coming up, but I didn’t have enough traps to cover the tomato plants. Think, think, think….. Ah ha! I need some buckets, like the plastic container my key lime came in, but I didn’t have enough. Ah ha!!! The sand buckets we got at DisneyWorld! Most kids meals at Caribbean Beach come served in a sand bucket so the kids can play with it. I know you can buy plant buckets, but really I don’t want to go shopping right now! I’m sure some people would pay a premium for Mickey Mouse Plant buckets! Finally, I grabbed some landscaping staples/anchor pins leftover from our landscaping fabric days to hold the buckets down.

At least after May 13, the chance for freeze/frost drops to 50%! (via the National Climatic Data Center)

Tucking in Tomatoes

Here we go! First get some buckets that fit your plants, I used a mop bucket for my larger plants.

Sand bucket on Tomato Plants

Gently put the leaves inside, pay particular attention to the main stem where it goes into the dirt. Make sure it is protected and if all else fails, you can still salvage the plant. Anchor the bucket handle, and gently push the bucket into the ground a bit, so it won’t flop around. It was really windy when I did this, but it seems very, very sturdy. (You can even see the plant all curled up inside.)

Sand bucket on Tomato Plants

I then took some leaves we had next to the garden from last fall and tucked them in around the plant. I figured it’d act like a blanket and keep some warmth in, plus they’ll help the plant retain moisture going forward.

Sand bucket on Tomato Plants

Here’s our garden all tucked in. I really hope this is it, because I’m not sure how we’ll cover two more beds since we have more planting to do. Maybe just buy a tarp for the whole garden, since we cover the beds to prevent weeds from starting in the spring.

Protecting plants from frost

Maybe the whole Cha-Cha slide approach to covering the garden wouldn’t be too bad. Definitely a lot of stomping and sliding!

thesugarpixieGardeningdisney,frost,macgyver,Pittsburgh,tips,tomatoOkay Mother Nature, stop being funny! Another freeze warning, no - not like the Cha-Cha Slide song. It's one thing to cover up flower beds, but now I needed to devise a plan to cover up the seedlings in the garden and the tomato plants. The later took a...Misadventures and fun in the kitchen and beyond