Season-Extending Garden Techniques
Article Published by the National Garden Bureau
Few gardeners are content with the length of their growing season. In the far North, there’s barely enough time to ripen tomatoes or melons. In the South, drought and intense heat limit gardening activity to the spring and fall months.
The good news is that by using a few simple season-extending techniques and plant-protection devices, you can shield your plants from extremes of weather, and stretch your gardening season by two, three or even six months.
Wind: If the plants in your garden must battle strong winds, they’ll need to use most of their energy to survive, rather than developing strong root systems and putting on healthy growth. To protect your garden from wind, you can build a wood fence, plant a windbreak of trees and shrubs, or put up windbreak netting. Your goal is to reduce the wind speed, not create a dead calm.
If there’s a prevailing wind direction, a fence on that side of the garden may be all that’s needed. If putting up a permanent fence or hedge requires more time or financial commitment than you are ready to make, try a temporary plastic mesh fence or cover your plants with polypropylene garden fabric. Seedlings grown under the shelter of garden fabric will often put on twice as much growth as control plants.
Cold soil: If you protect your garden over the winter with a thick layer of mulch, be sure to pull the mulch off the planting beds in early spring to expose the soil to the sun. Raised beds are another way to warm the soil more quickly. Covering cold spring soil with black plastic can also boost soil temperature by several degrees. The plastic can be left on all season or removed prior to planting.
Combining black plastic mulch on the soil with clear, slitted plastic or spun-polyester garden fabric overhead, will get melons and other heat-lovers off to a fast start. In the fall, covering plants with garden fabric will retain heat and keep soil several degrees warmer. This can give heat-loving crops, such as peppers, okra and tomatoes, a couple extra weeks to ripen.
Sun and Heat: Hot weather can be just as challenging as cold weather. Young plants can be stressed and stunted by excessive heat; salad greens turn bitter and go to seed, and getting seeds to germinate can be very difficult. Shade netting keeps plants and soil cool and helps retain moisture. It can be laid right over wire hoops or a movable wooden frame. A piece of wood lathe attached to a frame can serve the same purpose.
Frost: For most gardeners, frost is a limiting factor in both spring and fall. One night of 32 degrees F. will usually put an end to all but the hardiest of garden crops. Sheets, blankets and cardboard boxes are good emergency solutions, but garden fabric (or row covers) is far easier to handle and much more effective. These fabrics are available in a variety of thicknesses, and some, such as GardenQuilt, will protect to temperatures as low as 25 degrees F.