Gardening is a great enterprise. It has countless benefits, like having the freshest food in the world right outside your door, or for some of you, inside your door (if you have a sunny indoor space or grow lights). Have you made the decision to grow some of your own food and/or flowers this spring? If not, what is holding you back?
Maybe you don’t garden because you have failed too many times. You haven’t overcome the enemies of your gardening efforts.
Know Your Enemy
Well today, on this first day of Spring, we are going to slay four of those dragons that live here in the High Plains and seriously injure a fifth, so you will no longer have them around to attack your garden plants.
They are
- wild temperature swings
- burning undiffused sunlight
- a short growing season
- poor seed germination
- harmful bugs
Wild Temperature Swings
We basically have only two seasons, Winter and Summer. It can be Winter one day and Summer the next, and then back to Winter, and then…you get the idea.
Burning Undiffused Sunlight
Additionally, we have clear skies most of the time, a thinner atmosphere than at lower elevations, and very low humidity. The sunlight is fiercely bright and concentrated. Cloud cover, thick atmosphere, and high humidity all act as light diffusers. We don’t have light diffusion, so our plants suffer from sunlight that is blinding.
Imagine living outside, dressed for summer weather, and all of the sudden an arctic blast hits you and it starts snowing. It’s a regular occurrence here in Colorado. If you had to sleep outside, you’d suffer, possibly get sick, frostbite, or even die. But what if you had a blanket that made the climate more mild, one that softened the burning brightness of the day and kept you warmer at night or when a cold-front moved in? If only there was such a thing.
Well there is! It’s called a horticultural blanket, horticultural fleece, or garden fleece. With it, you can provide a blanket for your plants, a special one that will help your plants be buffered from temperature and lighting extremes. It’s a material that breathes and through which water can percolate.
Alternatives like clear plastic covers will kill your plants if you don’t ventilate. These covers create enclosed, unventilated spaces and get as hot as a car parked in the sunshine with the windows rolled up. Plants under that kind of cover will cook (aka die).
A short growing season
We can lengthen our growing season by creating a microclimate that keeps our plants from frost/freezes. With the horticultural blanket, you can set it and forget it because it is a breathable fabric, thereby providing some ventilation. Its white color diffuses and reflects the burning heat of the day while under its cover its slightly puffed fabric retains and reflects heat from the earth to keep your plants warm and cozy (well, at least above freezing). In this way, it very effectively extends your growing season by moving up your last frost date in the Spring and extending out your first frost date in the Fall. By providing our plants with blankets, we can extend our growing season. The moderated climate under cover keeps the plants from going into shock with the cold, creating an environment where they can thrive. Staying warm under the blanket enables plants to grow and produce here that could not otherwise.
Poor seed germination
Soil temperature, air temperature, and humidity have to be ‘just right’ for seeds to feel safe to come out of their shells. If you want to raise the soil temperature so you can get better germination, place the blanket over your growing bed for about a week prior to planting. Keep the ground moist so the ground and the water get charged with heat. Then place your seeds or your seedlings in the covered space. The temperature inside (under the cover) should be 4 to 8°F warmer than the outside air (according to the manufacturer of the best blanket I have found. Certainly it depends on the temperature and humidity of the soil. But as a general rule we can expect to benefit from the use of this blanket.
By diffusing the light and covering the moist earth, our seeds will find a more warm and moist environment in which to germinate than they would in the open, sunburned, quickly desiccated soil.
Harmful bugs
The horticultural blanket will prevent some hungry or diseased enemy insects from gaining access to your prized plantings. It acts like a deflector shield.
Side-Effect of Using a Horticultural Blanket
Not being able to see your plants through the white cover is inconvenient. Seeing your plants is a joy, but the blanket hides them from your view. Also, seeing a healthy plant tells you all is well, while seeing a wilting plant tells you something else – it’s getting too much water or too little, or perhaps it has suffered from a light frost or freeze.
To avoid this downside, as a daily routine, you should view and water your undercover plants. If you have one, placing a min/max air temperature gauge inside a covered structure would give you excellent knowledge of what is happening behind the screen.
Horticultural blankets are relatively inexpensive and easy to use. You can lay it loosely on the ground, or raise it an inch or two by stretching it across a border frame, or lay it over the top of a hoop house. In all cases you must pin it down securely using rocks, bricks, or landscape fabric pins to keep it from blowing away. I like using smooth river rock. It doesn’t snag or tear the blanket, so I get many uses from each blanket due to less wear and tear.
Are You Committed To Grow Your Own Food and Flowers?
I hope you are. The benefits are nearly incalculable. I’ll be revealing more and more of them to my subscribers as we accompany one another through the year. I will also show you how to fight and win against the numerous challenges that face gardeners in semi-arid regions like Colorado.
Are You A Subscriber to GrowMyOwnFood.org?
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The best way to enjoy the wonderful lifestyle, incomparable food, and multitude of benefits from growing your own food is to join with other gardeners throughout the region who are doing the same and can help one another experience the great joys found in the every day. If you aren’t already receiving email from us, be sure to subscribe, so you can receive timely information for your gardening success.