Extending the season

17 years ago

This topic has been touched upon quite often but I don't think there's every been one mega thread on what we all do to extend the season in our northern gardens. So how about it - anybody, any plant, any method to extend the growing season. Photos are most welcome.

A couple or so years ago I started using floating row covers (Agribon and the like) in the spring. They work exceptionally well. On a cold windy day I've put my hand underneath the row cover and the soil and plants are warm. Last year I direct seeded sunflowers and used a floating row cover to keep the soil warm to germinate and had excellent results with that method. I also used the row cover over a raised bed quite early in the season to warm soil so that I could get my glads planted early. That, too, worked like a charm. And, of course, it has protected from frost and really does work since unprotected plants froze and protected ones survived. I actually have that row cover cut to fit my 8 raised beds, hold it down with bricks, plant out early and leave the row cover on day and night (early in the season I'll use another blanket at night).

Speaking of covering with blankets...the last time we moved, the movers left some of those moving blankets behind. They're thick and very light weight and make excellent frost blankets for the garden.

This year I bought some of that red plastic mulch that is supposed to get tomatoes to ripen earlier. We'll see how that works.

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Comments (6)

sierra_z2b
17 years ago
I use garden blankets and cozy coats. I also use hot caps. I use black plastic to warm the soil for cucs. I have tried the red plastic but not sure it did any more than the black plastic. And of course the greenhouse.

I don't bother in the fall, when the frost hits thats it. During the summer, if I remember to watch, we get a frost or 2, I usually use the garden blankets on the tenders like beans to get them through those couple of days.

Sierra
bdgardener
17 years ago
Hi, this year I'm going to use black landscape fabric (found it in the back of the shed) to warm up my raised beds earlier. I did use it for the bean bed a couple of years ago and it seem to have worked. Don't know why I forgot about it. I find it much easier to cover in the spring when the plants are small and my enthusiasm is high rather than in the fall. I also use frost blankets cut to size for the raised beds, I have a shaft of a hockey stick stapled to each end so that I can quickly unravel it while one end stays in place. It makes it very easy to roll it back up in the morning so I don't spend the day tripping over them and for the most part they don't blow away. We get frost at anytime during the summer, I'm right up against the foothills and the garden is at the bottom of a hill. But I vow to fight on because everything tastes so much better. Cheryl
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sprayman
17 years ago
Greenhouse,Greenhouse,Greenhouse!!! Its only 10x12 but I'm usually eating my first CoolBreeze cucumber by mid to late June & my first Oxheart tomato by end off July.
Here's my post from Fall Chores
Posted by sprayman Sask 2b (My Page) on Wed, Nov 5, 08 at 21:47

Cold weather is on the way -17c so i finished up picking the cherry tomatoes, oxheart tomatoes and green peppers. I got a beer flat box full of green and ripe ones off the two plants and 4 not bad size peppers + a bunch of 2" pepper balls. Then it took two 50 liter dirt bags to hold the plants.Now I just got to move about a cord and half of fire wood, then I'll be set for winter

Thanks to the late fall this was my 2nd crop from the peppers & oxhearts
Pudge 2b
Original Author
17 years ago
Sierra, when you say you used black plastic to warm to the soil for cucs, did you keep the plastic down for the season, or just for a while before you planted?

I've never used black plastic or landscape fabric for the entire growing season. If a person used black plastic on the ground and covered with floating row cover, could we be planting that much earlier? I guess it would depend on how severe those last few frosts are.

I've also got a small (8x12) greenhouse but I don't really grow anything in there for the whole season. I did try long english cucumbers and tomatoes a few years ago with good results.
savona
17 years ago
I have my tomatoes,peppers and cukes in the green house but do use sheets,tarps or black plastic to keep off either late spring frosts or early fall frosts. To be able to plant out tender plants like dahlias I am on the alert to use the garden hose early in the morning to stop the frost from ruining the plants.Jean
sierra_z2b
17 years ago
Yes the plastic is left all season. I put the black plastic down a couple weeks before planting. Then just cut the holes in it as I am planting. If you plant cuc seeds you can plant quite a bit earlier than if you set out plants. The garden blankets only give a few degrees of protection...the cozy coats give more. I use the cozy coats on top of the plastic for the most tender plants. I remove the cozy coats from the cucs, but leave them on the tomatoes all season. This year all the veggies will be in the greenhouse.

Sierra