How to Prepare Your Garden for the First Freeze

By Robert Bennett , last updated April 26, 2011

While planting and growing vegetables is fun as well as productive, the end of gardening season eventually rolls around and steps must be taken to prepare a garden for the first freeze. Proper preparations can not only extend your season slightly but can also make next season's garden even better. Some plants, such as Basil, are extremely sensitive to frost with the leaves immediately turning black. With plants which are this sensitive the first step is to determine whether they should be transferred indoors for continued growth, or completely harvested and preserved in some manner. For instance, Basil can either be continued indoors under a lamp or the leaves can be harvested and made into something like pesto, which can then be refrigerated and enjoyed for a period of time.

Source:eHow

Some plants can continue to produce outdoors as long as the temperature only dips below freezing but then warms back up during the day. These plants can be protected by covering with a tarp, blanket or even newspapers. Some gardeners even light small fires in barbecue pits or patio fireplaces and leave them in the garden area to maintain the temperature above freezing. Mini greenhouses can even be made out of cardboard boxes and used to cover the plants at night and extend the growing season.
 
Another tip to protect the roots of the plants form the first few freezes is to mulch the area around the roots thoroughly using a good organic mulch. This added layer of material not only helps the plants by holding in heat from the ground but also contributes to the nutrients for next year's planting as the mulch breaks down over the winter. If there are some perennial plants which are finished producing for the year just before the first freeze is the perfect time to trim them back to just a few inches above the ground and then cover thoroughly with mulch.
 
If the garden includes container plants, these can be moved to cover and begin the gradual acclimation required to bring them into whatever environment will be used to grow them during the winter. A layer of mulch around the roots and then wrapping the container with material like bubble wrap will help the plants make it through the winter.

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