Tips for Keeping Your Plants from Freezing Overnight

As temperatures cooled this week and have even dipped down to around freezing in the overnight hours, it’s a good idea that plant lovers make sure their greenery doesn’t die or is damaged as a result of the colder weather.

Keeping plants alive and thriving takes a lot of work and it would be a bummer if to see all of those efforts wasted due to something that we as El Pasoans don’t deal with on a regular basis (cold weather and freezes).  It’s true that some types of vegetation are hardier and less susceptible to freezing than others, but for common house plants or gardens, you may want to take some of the measures listed below in order to ensure they come through those low temperatures just fine.

• Bring potted plants inside
• Water plants in the afternoon at around mid-day – believe it or not, making sure the soil is moist will help protect plants
• Add a layer of mulch for those with gardens
• Cover them with a sheet or blanket – apparently covering up to stay warm is not exclusive to people and animals, carefully placing bed sheets or blankets over your plants will help protect them from being covered in a layer of frost
• Wrap the trunks of your trees up with blankets, cardboard, towels, burlap sacks, or just about anything that can provide some insulation – recommendation is for tree trunks to be wrapped up until the lowest branch of the tree

For a more comprehensive list of what you can do to prevent your plants from freezing, click here.