Winter is Coming!
How to get your irrigation, garden, and landscaping beds ready for a hard freeze. We’ll let you know how we can help as well as walk you through how to DIY!
Weather forecasts predict we will drop down in the low 20’s in Houston this coming Monday and Tuesday. Are you ready? Here’s what to do:
IRRIGATION AND OUTDOOR PIPES
It's important to protect your irrigation before a hard freeze. Having water in your irrigation lines when it freezes can cause pipes to burst and/or sprinkler caps to break. This means costly repairs.
Additionally, insulating your outdoor pipes is helpful before a hard freeze to prevent damage and recommended when temps in Houston dip into the low 20’s.
How Monarch Garden Company can help: Our irrigation specialist can stop by and winterize your irrigation. This includes draining all water from the irrigation system and shutting off the main valve to the irrigation to prevent any leftover water from freezing and damaging pipes or sprinkler heads. Our team returns after the hard freeze to turn your sprinkler system back on.
We can also insulate your outdoor pipes and return after the freeze to uncover.
Email heather@monarchgardenco.com for pricing
GARDENS AND LANDSCAPING
While most winter crops like kale, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, beets, radishes, and arugula can withstand freezing temps, if Houston gets down in the low 20's like it's projected for Monday and Tuesday, you'll want to cover your gardens. If temps are in the 20's, even winter crops can get damaged.
How Monarch Garden Company can help: Our team can stop by and cover your raised bed vegetable gardens for you. Depending on the size of your vegetable garden, the price ranges from $200-$300. This does not include the frost cloth. We can use what you have for no charge, or you can purchase frost cloth from Monarch. Estimates will be provided when scheduling.
We will water your garden deeply and cover. Very limited spots available for this service because it needs to be done on Monday.
When temps dip below 30 it's also a good idea to cover landscaping beds.
We can cover your landscaping beds for you. Prices range from $200-$300 depending on size of beds. This does not include the cost of frost cloth. We can use what you have, or you can purchase from Monarch.
Get on the schedule by emailing heather@monarchgardenco.com
We will start covering landscaping beds and winterizing irrigation systems this weekend. Monday we will cover vegetable gardens.
WHAT I AM DOING TO GET MY GARDEN READY - HOW TO DIY!
Ordering frost cloth: If you haven’t already, order your frost cloth! (See below for links to products we use). For vegetable gardens, it’s really important to use a combination of frost cloth AND hoops. Frost cloth should not be touching your plants. If so, the plants can get damaged.
Harvesting and removing the following plants from the garden: Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, peppers, and beans (green beans, bush beans, and pole beans). These will not make it if temps dip down to the low 20’s even if you cover them. It’s best to remove these plants when you know a hard freeze is coming. Removing plants that will die from the garden before it freezes will help you cover the remaining plants in the garden a lot better, plus you can harvest as much as you can from the plant before removing it! Not sure what to do with all your garden produce? Check out our January recipes and all our recipes on Monarch Living!
On a day when it’s sunny (like today), I set up the hoops in my garden, so on the day it actually is going to freeze and it’s nasty outside, all I have to do is cover the garden and secure the frost cloth
Fertilize with MicroLife’s Super Seaweed: We use this year-round in our gardens and extra during the winter. I like to give the garden a boost the week before a hard freeze.
WHAT TO DO ON THE DAY IT FREEZES
Mid-day, water your garden really well (deeply). It feels wrong, but trust me - it’s right! Fun fact: wet soil stays warmer than dry soil. Water actually helps retain heat!
Cover your garden during the day. Especially if the sun is out, this helps trap heat inside the frost cloth.
When covering your vegetable garden, it’s best if the frost cloth does not come in contact with the plants. Using hoops is important. After covering the hoops with the frost cloth, secure cloth with landscaping pins, large rocks, bricks - whatever you have to keep air from entering under the frost cloth. Cold air is what will kill plants, so make sure air can’t get under your frost cloth.
Bring outdoor pots inside and/or cover pots that are too big to move (see products below). Note: it’s oftentimes not warm enough in most garages to protect tender potted plants. If you can’t bring the pots inside the house, make sure to cover your plants in the garage for added protection.
PRODUCTS WE LOVE
We use this hoop system for garden beds. The fabric is 50’ long, so you can usually cover 2-3 beds with one pack. You’ll need landscaping stakes (below) or rocks, bricks, etc to keep frost cloth from blowing up.
These drawstring bags are perfect for covering snap peas or snow peas on an obelisk you purchased from Monarch Garden Company. They are tall enough to cover all of our obelisks. Get the 71” bags if covering one of our obelisks.
I also use these to cover my outdoor pots that are too big to bring inside.
I use these frost cloths to cover hardier plants in landscaping beds that do well without hoops. For landscaping beds, I place short bamboo stakes throughout the beds. The bamboo stakes keep frost cloth from sitting right on top of the plants. I secure the edges with landscaping stakes below:
Landscaping pins are great for securing frost cloth to the ground. Pro tip: Use more than you think you need!
HELPFUL LINKS
Follow us on Instagram and/or TikTok for daily garden inspiration!
Wanting to start a patio garden? You’ll love our Patio Salad Planter! Grow salad greens and herbs year-round on your patio AND get our online course to learn exactly how to care for your planter for FREE!
Download Monarch’s FREE Monthly Tasks and Tips for your garden and landscaping to keep your yard looking beautiful all year long!
Don’t miss our Spring Tomato Guide to get your tomatoes off to a great start!
Need help designing and installing landscaping beds or rethinking your outdoor spaces? We'll be right over. Get started HERE.
Check out our Amazon Storefront for products we love in the garden and other fun items we use to bring the garden to our table!
Order your plants and compost for delivery! Plant Order
Want seasonal recipes and ideas for how to make the garden a part of your everyday life? Check out Monarch Living!
Wanting a garden of your very own? Want to add more garden beds? We'd love to help you create your dream garden space. Click HERE to start the process.
Looking for ongoing help taking care of your vegetable garden? Check out what Monarch Garden Company Maintenance has to offer (it's a lot)!
Need garden coaching? Wanting to plant something new? Things not going great in your garden? Want some help troubleshooting? Learn more about our Garden Coaching and get on the schedule!
