Tips for extending the growing season

By PAM BAYTOS

OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteer

CANFIELD

There’s a chill in the air and your garden is slowing down. While fall is the time to cut back perennials and pull annual plants, it’s also time when you can take steps to extend your growing season.

If you’ve grown vegetables, annuals or herbs in containers it’s easy to move them to a protective spot when frost threatens.

When containers are placed against a south-facing wall, the heat is concentrated during the day and is released at night, which makes a slightly warmer microclimate to keep plants going. By grouping containers together and covering them you’re making a mini greenhouse.

For warm-season crops, covering them late in the day when frost is expected can add weeks to your harvest. Use a plastic bucket, old sheets, or burlap to protect your plants. If possible, provide a framework over the plants to prevent the covering from touching the plants foliage.

Remove the coverings in the morning once the air temperature reaches 60 degrees so the plants don’t get too warm. The exception is floating row covers, as they are permeable to light, water and air so you can leave them on during the day without the plants overheating. Some types of commercial fabrics can protect crops down to 20 degrees.

If you don’t have a greenhouse, then a cold frame is a great option. Essentially, a cold frame is a miniature greenhouse that protects plants from chilling winds and low temperatures.

Cold frames are simply frames or shallow boxes built of wood with no top or bottom, often sunk partially into the earth. The top is covered with a glass window or a sheet of clear fiberglass. A temporary one can be as easy as squaring bales of straw with a window on top, but be careful as too much sun can cause a fire.

As the sun passes through the clear or translucent covering, it warms the air and ground inside the cold frame. Some of this warmth is retained overnight when the outside temperature drops.

You can add to the heat storage capacity of your cold frame by placing dark-colored plastic jugs filled with water inside your cold frame. The sun warms the water in the jugs during the day and the heat radiates out at night to help keep plants warm.

Covering with an old blanket will give your frame extra protection on really cold nights.

With a watchful eye, and a little work, you can have lettuce and greens well past the first frost of the winter season. For more ideas, go to: http://go.osu.edu/extendingtheseason