If you enjoyed this video, please "Like" and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😊TIMESTAMPS for convenience: 0:00 How Cold It Got In My Garden 1:13 3 Reasons To Cover Plants During Cold 2:25 Veggies 1-4 4:22 Veggies 5-7 5:46 Veggies 8-13 7:38 Young Transplants 9:32 Veggies 14-15 10:04 Veggie 16 11:19 Grocery Store Leeks 12:00 Veggie 17 12:19 Veggie 18 12:30 Veggie 19 12:53 Veggie 20 13:26 Full List Of My Hardiest Veggies! 16:45 Adventures With Dale
Dollar store hula hoops make great inexpensive support for row cover cloth so that the cloth doesn’t touch your crops. I just open the joint of the hula hoop, stick the ends in the ground and clip the cloth to the hoop with binder clips.
North Carolinian here (Piedmont). What little I did have left in my garden (Cabbage, broccoli, thyme, oregano, rosemary, 3 different varieties of kale, collards, garlic, and onion) flew through the cold with flying colors. I didn't even cover them and they still did really well.
My uncovered carrots laughed at the 11F we had in SE Virginia. So did my Brussels sprouts. Strawberries uncovered but mulched, also laughed at 11F temps.
I am so glad you came through almost untouched! Where I am in Georgia we went down to 6 degrees and about 60 hours below freezing and it killed everything that was not covered (I didn't have enough covers). Even my green and purple cabbage was devastated! I covered 3 of my beds and 1 of them did ok, 1 of them lost 50%, and 1 of them lost 80%. So I have a lot of bed prep to do and looking for new plants to put in!
It got down to about 10F in my garden and didn't get above the mid twenties for three days. I lost young onions and turnips, and leeks. But I also lost my mature kales and tree collards which all died to the ground. That was Christmas week.
That really stinks to hear. These covers will make a dramatic difference, because even if you only get into the 20's during the day, under the covers, you'll easily hit 50+ degrees with the sun out. It's probably not the cold minimum that killed them, but the fact that it never warmed up enough for them to bounce back and recover. It's a good idea to have these covers in stock for these events to trap in the warmth the next day.
I'm in Wake County, NC. In my area night temp dropped to 9°F, the next day temp high was 28°F, then dropped to 18°F for the night. There was still ice in the ground like a week later even though it was in the 60s/40s. A covered bed with my red cabbage, cauliflower, and Kohlrabi. Only the cauliflower did not make it. The Kohlrabi is doing well. A bed with lettuce and carrots I forgot to cover, and some died. An uncovered bed of mature tatsoi and komatsuna, only like 2 of 9 tatsoi survived. I feel stupid not harvesting them since they were mature already, but we had visitors and I wasn't going to eat for the week. I didn't cover my Broccoli or Brussel sprouts because I ran out of extra sheets to cover them. The broccoli was severely damaged and I thought they were done.....but I'm happy to report than since then they regrew leaves, and they all have a 1" head. 😅 Brussels sprouts and arugula were unbothered. Mizuna and lettuce, which were covered, were severely damaged but the plants were young so that's probably why.
We live close to you near Raleigh in Zone 7b, and I have to agree ... most of my vegetables laughed at the Arctic blastic (which dropped to 11 degrees here) EXCEPT my Swiss chard, beets, chamomile, and pineapple sage - they died back at least to the ground. Parsley, cilantro, kale, sweet mint (took a small hit - 25% of the leaves burned), red mixed lettuces, green onions, leeks, garlic, rosemary, oregano all *survived* ... everything was uncovered but right up against the house foundation. I don't know whether the beets will grow back, but I already see the Swiss chard producing new, baby leaves. The Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes and red sweet peppers were safe inside in the garage during the cold nights.
I’m in Lexington Ky zone 6b. We had three days of -7 to -4 over Christmas. Record lowes. My winter lettuces survived covered. But my Chinese cabbage survived uncovered! My Swiss chard leaves died, but now two weeks later they’re growing back! My broccoli and cauliflower died covered. But is was fascinating to see what things can live at -7.
I grew up in NJ and lived in PA, so I grew up in cold. We didn’t get to plant our tomatoes until May 15, sometimes later! It’s all about experimenting, trial and error. Thank you for watching!
You are the second person I've seen that used the frost blankets with great results. This may sound dumb but looks to me there could be a good possibility that a couple layers might protect the questionable stuff maybe? Good video! Thanks!
What I've found is that single layers are good into the low to mid 20's if you have a warming source underneath (C9 incandescent lights, water barrels). Below that, they'll bleed too much heat. When I think teens are coming, I throw a tarp or a second layer on, and it makes an enormous difference. It's a pain to do, but since we usually only see teens 1-2 nights a year, it isn't a big deal to do the double-covers. This was a rare triple-dip into the teens for us, but it seems these Arctic air outbreaks are becoming more frequent and later into the season.
We are zone 8a in SE Virginia. I didn't cover anything here. Broccoli, leeks, carrots, kale, collard, onions, garlic, cilantro, parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary all did great over the cold snap.
I have been waiting for this video for a long time, here in Georgia my whole garden died, I covered it with frost blanket, I put sheets on top of it, to help in my grenhause everything died, I had tomatoes full of silentz tomatoes, and early girl, everything died and lived In Georgia for 20 years we had never had such an intense and prolonged cold, what survived was the garlic and the strawberries, I had fava beans, kale, swich chard, brocolli, cabbage, cauliflower, cilantro, onions, peas, radishes, and it started all from seed again maybe early spring have a harvest
I totally agree with you. Growing in the winter is the best! No pest to worry about and the veggies you mention in my zone area doesn't even need covering! Thanks for the video
Great video as always 😊 Thank you for the info. Your garden looks great. Using hula hoops from the dollar tree to make a hoop house. I'll make a video when I get started on it. Have a great day and happy gardening 🌿🌱😊🤗
In 6A I have been evolving my extension of my autumn vegetable growing season. (We get killing frost in October and then below freezing temperatures with snow loads) I started in a similar way to your occasionally draped Ag fabric covers. This year I have used cheap hula hoops (shoved directly into soil every 2-3 feet), and 1.2 oz Ag Fabric (ie mid-range) sewn into low tunnel tent/ Quonset covers with additional light Ag Fabric (.55oz) directly draped on plants below. I was able to extend the growing season about 10 weeks and get an additional crop of about 10 bushels of similar cold season vegetables as your list.
@@dorindafulton The beauty of Ag fabric is that is perfectly designed for gardening. ( ie. Light permiable, rain permiable, quick drying, light weight, insulating, easy to cut and sew, etc) Research Ag fabric and wait for a great deal.
I’m in southeast Missouri and we got some negative temperatures. I’m pretty sure it took out my kale and Swiss chard, but the strawberries, carrots, garlic, catnip, and bee balm all made it through.
I just saw today that I had some napa cabbage starts and another container had fallen on top of it, and they survived. So I planted 6 small plants. My dill, cilantro (both types) and a bell pepper under and igloo cooler made it. Tomorrow they will all get some fertilizer. My bunching onions made it with only straw around them. My tabasco pepper froze, but a new stem from the bottom is growing. For what little I did have in my garden survived my surgery and frost we just had. Tomorrow, I will sow some radishes and carrots and move my tomatoes to bigger containers. Busy day ahead, and hope to sow some lettuce in the trays as well. Thanks for the great content
Zone 8b...My spinach, tatsoi chives, and some lettuces survived under a hooped planket with christmas lights 😉. My romanesco did ok, also covered and lighted. Two plants froze thru the stalk because they were on side of the bed that took the brunt of the wind and the windchill was 1°!!!
You might want to consider covering you crops with a couple of layers of floating row covers like Reemay before you put your frost blanket on. It would keep it from touching the blanket and help hold the ground heat in. It's amazing how much moisture is released in the cold temps under those frost blankets. We use to put newspaper over our plants before covering them.
That's what I was thinking. I know for certain that plastic or polyester should never touch the plants because they may actually freeze quicker. I am near Chicago and we had a heavy frost for one night sometime in October. I wanted to save some of my flowers and tomatoes, and all I had was black polyester tablecloths. I did use them but they were completely stiff in the morning. The plants and tomatoes survived but that could be because the heavy frost was only overnight and it warmed up pretty quickly after that.
@@sbffsbrarbrr We've tried clear plastic, black plastic, blue tarps to cover end of season greens and lettuce and found the same. Lot of failure until a neighbor told us about Reemay and the need to put space between plants and covers. Newspapers were pretty successful but tedious to remove so plants get some daylight. I garden in zone 4/5 with frost dates in September.
I'm in Central Texas and this last cold snap ruined my garden. I did cover with thick leaf mulch, plus not-touching frost blankets (mature beets, mature arugula and mature kale), even had my small red lettuce and curly kale plants in the green house (bags of leaves for extra wind break along the outside of the green house, plus additional cover directly over the plants inside it). The only thing that 's left are oregano and small onions under heavy leaf mulch. I'm sad. Question: can I hope for my mature rosemary to come back?
I grew collards over the winter cause of you, actually. It's been pretty mild here in Oklahoma, excepting the bad weather days, it is my first time trying anything in the winter. We used a make shift plastic 'greenhouse' outta plastic from the hardware store, and only covered them when it was below freezing. We harvested them all and had 'em for New Year's Day, and froze a bag of blanched. Love your videos!
I had -5F in the same outbreak, a few days earlier since I'm further west. Temperatures stayed below 10F for around 36 hours, and below freezing for three days. Consider adding collards to all the other brassicas on that list. Mine were pretty heavily covered and took no damage. Also undamaged with heavy cover was rosemary, which I was not expecting to do as well as it did. My onions took no damage with heavy cover, but were leaf killed with light cover. They'll recover. Winter wheat took more damage than I expected, but it will also recover fully. It's considered to be hardy to at least -30F.
We got down to 22f during that Christmas freeze. Thank you for the heads up that the mini lights in my hoop house wouldn't be enough at that temperature! Only one place had any incandescent c9 lights left. I ended up putting them up by flashlight. All the baby strawberry plants survived!
Great! A 100-strand of mini-lights are only 40W, but a 25-CT strand of C9's are 175W! They're literally more powerful than 4 strands of mini-lights connected. The C9's are the way to go for larger trees and significant airspace. I have a big stash of them in my attic just in case.
Just started some alliums and herbs in trays inside. Also started some lettuces and a micro greens mix with 5 cabbages, kales and mustards. Just got my south facing windows ready and I’m going to try to grow some salads indoors.
Great video! I live in zone 7a and we regularly get low temps such as these every year. I have not been successful in keeping a winter garden, but this information will be very helpful. Thanks!
Thanks for this very helpful info. Moved to Western NC 5 years ago from sunny Southern CA and still trying to figure out how to “do weather”. I haven’t braved winter gardening yet but I am working up the nerve thanks to you. The 7 degrees we had was quite daunting. Your videos are super educational and have given me much to work with in the garden. Thank you!
Southern Ontario here. We had the same cold snap plus incredible winds for days on end. I picked the last of my romaine lettuce before the cold hit and we enjoyed it in a salad on Christmas Eve. My spinach under my cold frame sailed through as always and I look forward to harvesting bits of it throughout the winter and more when it really takes off by March. I'm going to spend some more time exploring lettuce varieties that I may be able to push longer into the winter as I start to dream through the seed catalogues. Great video! Thank you!
I think you meant December 2022 in your description I'm in NW Florida and we had a low of 27 degrees and frigid cold for 3 days. Not so bad compared to so many others - but probably a low record for us. I've just started gardening and was thrilled my kale and broccoli and fruit trees survived. I was more worried about frozen pipes - but thank GOD none of them broke (since they were wrapped and left to drip). So much to learn - you are a wealth of information and experience.
I LOVE your channel, thanks for all the valuable content! Have you ever tried Komatsuna? My newest favorite green and it made it through the recent cold snap uncovered in 7b (got down to 3 degrees F).
Thank you! I assume that is an Asian green? My knowledge of Asian greens is weak. I like expanding and growing new things every season, and I intend on adding an Asian green of some sort next year.
The latent ground heat you have makes your list qualified for your conditions. The list is very different where air temp is close to ground temp below freezing for weeks at a time.
Great, helpful, informative video. I moved to central NC (7b) this year from SoCal (10b) and have never had to deal with cold weather before. I tried a small fall garden but it failed early due to squirrel attack. I will try to grow many of the veggies on your list this coming fall into winter and should be able to provide the protection they need for very cold nights. I was surprised this year, however, that my dill and cilantro were both killed by the cold even though I had moved their pots under my covered patio up against the house.
You gotta try setting up a small caterpillar tunnel with all that space. They are amazing for preventing hard frost and when it’s in that 32-50 f outside you can still get useful amount of growth .
I can't build anything tall, because structures are banned by the HOA. I'm only allowed a single 10x12 shed. No other structures are allowed in the property, so everything else must be below the fence line so it's hidden from the street.
@@TheMillennialGardener that’s a bit tough, I’ve seen some high aspect tunnels for raised bed that get up to 5/6ft and look like really stretched arches but yeah there’s so much utility being able enter it. Well that’s HOAs for ya, I’m glad you can do what you do as is!
I am in Nc zone 7b. My lettuces were covered. It got down to 8 here. The spinach was fine. The lollo rossa and the mache partially made it. The romaine, pak choi, salad bowl mix were all killed.
Is there a reason why you don't test collards? We Southerners love collards! I find them to be very cold hardy and to taste even better after a severe cold snap.. I am in NC like you - Zone 7b. Chapel Hill.
I grew up in NJ, and we never ate them. I can count on two hands the number of times in my life that I’ve eaten them. I like them braised with a ham hock, but they just haven’t been a part of my diet. I added mustard greens this season, and I’ll probably eventually add collards. However, I find them both to be similar in flavor when braised, and mustard greens are hardier.
@@TheMillennialGardener Thank you for that quick response. I have eaten both mustard and collards all of my life here in the South. They are very different. I actually do not care for mustard, but I love a pot of collards. I encourage you to grow collards if for no other reason than that they are a staple in the South; and, more importantly, they taste even better after surviving cold weather. They become sweeter and more tender after a hard freeze; and they last throughout the winters here. At least experiment with collards now that you live in the South and report on them for us Southerners who love your channel and rely on your experimental approach. Okay?
@@TheMillennialGardener imho mustard greens are my favourite and beet greens are excellent too. However, I grow collards over kale. I think they taste so much better!
The red lettuce looks a lot like my Sea of Red lettuce. It, too, did well in a similar cold spell with a frost cover. I covered my kale (Lacinato and Red Russian) with hoops and fleece row cover, and they were devastated. But, a young Lacinato kale plant that was uncovered looks just fine.
Maybe it was a hardier variety? I've noticed that the red romaines are a little tougher. It could be you're half a hardiness zone warmer than me and maybe the extra 3-5 degrees made a big difference.
So in 7b Georgia, we get frosts all the time at 37 degrees and lower. At what temperature would you cover these plants? I’m excited to see 16 with protection does well. We didn’t even get to 16 last winter.
It is probably doable with a little hoop structure around your bed. You could also throw a strand of C9 lights in there like I do for my citrus. That’ll give you 5-10 degrees. You can turn a Zone 6 into Zone 8 with that setup.
Hope to see how your citrus plants did soon. I’m hoping to plant lots of citrus trees on my property in south Mississippi and am following your advice on how to protect them.
Great info for winter vegetable growing. Could everyone responding include their approximate location so we can learn from our local neighbors experiences and observations ? Here in SE Wake County we recorded on the 24th 11 F with 30 + mph dessicating wind that night followed by 19 F Sunday and 19 F. Monday. Some of the heads of Romain lettuce were harvested on the 24th and the rest left uncovered. As expected the row of Romain died except for 2 plants which were still tight rosettes of leaves flat on the ground and survived undamaged. Let's not write the obituary for Romain lettuce yet.
As usual amazing video!!! I really, really, really liked the breakdown list at the end. You’ve literally saved me from years of failure with your videos. Btw got your fig cuttings yesterday and immediately got them set up. Thanks!
I haven't found any peas that are hardy below ~30F. I've grown several varieties, and they can only withstand the lightest of frosts. I haven't seen one that can tolerate mid-20's, let alone teens, yet. Can they actually take real cold?
How did your irrigation system hold up to the freeze? Have you been using it in the winter? Did you drain it for the freeze? Have you checked it since? I removed mine this year to redo for the spring but I'm curious how they hold up in freak freezes. I'm right on the line of zone 7 and 8. We got down to 5 degrees which is uncommon but does happen every so many years.
@@1MSally1965 You are behind the times my friend. These kinds of situations are exactly why they call it "climate change" now instead of "global warming". It's a much more broad, meaningless term now so that no matter WHAT happens, they can say "see, told you so!"
My broccoli didn’t make it down here in Summerville SC under a planket that’s really the only thing we lost. The planket was not touching the plants. Oh we had radishes that did had a little burn but for the most part did well.
How cold did you get? My broccoli didn't even get burned under the Planket at 16.5F. I was surprised by that, honestly. The variety I'm growing maybe is just extra hardy.
I put frost blanket (allows UV and water through) over most of my plants before the holidays and I’m interested to see what survived when I get back! There’s been lots of rain so I haven’t worried about them being watered but I couldn’t cover my broccoli rabe or cauliflower or any of my hydroponic plants which were lettuces and cabbage. 😬I guess I’ll see what happened soon. I hope mine did okay like yours did! I still had little tiny Roma tomatoes growing. I’ll be bummed if they died. 😢Not surprised just bummed. I’m in zone 8b btw and we got down to 12 one night. Windchill was the worst though!
That’s probably too cold. Those Planket blankets are incredible. I highly recommend them. Mine are from when I lived in PA!! They must be 7 years old. I have them linked in my Amazon Storefront if you need them. They’re affordable.
I have an unrelated question for you. I have tried several sprayers, but I find that after a short while the lines become clogged. Can you access the lines in the sprayer you use (to clean them), or do you filter everything before putting liquids in your sprayer?
In my experience, Swiss chard is only frost hardy. I wouldn’t call it hard freeze hardy. Mine always gets beaten up. Usually, a few plants survive and regrow in spring, but I don’t think it is reliably hardy below zone 9 all winter.
@@TheMillennialGardener I’m on the south east coast of the uk. I’m 32 and never none it below -2c over night then picks up in the day but this year some days weren’t below freezing . Think we had it before you and the weather then came your way I believe. As it’s about 12december we had it I believe maybe but before then.
None of my cold hardy plays laughed at 6 degrees 😢 The only thing that survived was one small spinach plant and it still looks like crap. Thanks goodness for all my dormant perennials lol
You can't protect your yard from squirrels. They'll get in no matter what you do. Squirrels don't bother my trees, probably because I have a bird feeder and bird bath, so there's no reason to go after my low-nutrient, watery fruits when they can have fresh water and nutrient dense seeds instead.
@@TheMillennialGardener thanks , I put up a net around my garden .. so far I think I got them bewildered , until they remember they got some sharp teeth and start gnawing on it , I thought about feeding them too , I think that’s a good strategy , thanks for your show , you help me a lot . Ps , I bought some dwarf tomatoes because you made them look so delicious and you gave a good lesson on growing them , Cheers (I got the rosella purple and chocolate Cherokee)
In Missouri we got -9 with a wind chill of -23. It wiped out literally everything in my greenhouse. I'm pretty sure the planet is trying to kill us, figuratively speaking.
That’s terrible. It is crazy this outbreak happened only 2 years after that other bad one in Feb 2021. This one wasn’t as bad for Texas, but it was even larger. Building a little hoop house may be worth it to you.
The covers make a big difference. I took the extra time to cover, and it was worth it. Those covers stayed on for 3-4 days straight without taking them off. Even the days at high noon were pretty rough.
That is a risk, because it doesn't breathe. You can potentially suffocate and/or roast your plants once the sun comes out. Frost blankets, agricultural fabric and plant jackets use specially designed fabric that breathes so your plants won't roast once the sun comes out. Had I used plastic on these plants, they'd be dead, because they would've burned up when the sun came out. These fabric covers are *very* inexpensive, and I recommend having them on hand and in stock for these emergencies since they're designed for these uses. I have the exact covers I have linked in my Amazon Storefront in the video description if you'd like them. They're worth the investment.
I'm 1 to 1.5 hardiness zones warmer, so that's why. You can grow these types of vegetables longer into the summer in NE TN, so it winds up being a wash.
@@TheMillennialGardener I suppose I could put some type of plastic over them to act as a mini cold frame, but even then I doubt they would survive. I'm trying to start lettuce and other cool crops now so that I can plant them at the end of February since by the end of April it will be as hot as Venus!
They are very common. I've purchased them from Baker Creek, Victory Seeds and several times off of seed shelves at various big box stores from numerous brands. It's a very popular lettuce that grows almost anywhere.
Anybody know where I can get inexpensive frost protection or grow covers? My plants died this winter and I thought my cole crops could survive this frost but now I know.
