How To Keep Outdoor Plants Alive in Winter

How To Keep Outdoor Plants Alive in Winter

How To Keep Outdoor Plants Alive in Winter

how to keep plants alive in winter

Fresh harvests outside of the main growing season are so very precious, so why not do all we can to enjoy them?

! Hi I'm Ben and in this video we're going to look at some very thrifty (but pretty nifty) ways to protect plants from the cold this winter. Let's start with the very cheapest options of all, which is simply raiding your recycling bin!

 And there's lots of options here. Probably the simplest thing to use is just a two liter bottle (or upwards in size) but be sure to remove any caps to allow for ventilation. 

Use clear plastic if you can because that allows the full spectrum of light (and that's obviously what plants need to grow healthily).

 You can stop them blowing away by just inserting a bamboo cane through here and into the ground to keep it in place. Another option are these simple fruit trays here. 

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These are great - a little flimsier though. Most come with drainage holes already in the bottom and that's great for allowing air exchange and so it doesn't get too hot when it's a really sunny day.

 If they don't have them then just drill some holes in the bottom. And the same for the bottoms of plastic bottles that you use. 

Now, you might be able to find some clear glass jars- things like that- and they're really great because they hold onto the heat for even longer. 

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Now, you can use these simple plastic protection on their own outdoors or use them in combination with a greenhouse or tunnel to add an extra layer of insulation on really really cold nights. 

But what if you want to protect an entire bed, such as this bed of winter salads here? Well, a homemade hoop house is super cheap and super easy to make.

 There's a few points to bear in mind so let's quickly make one now. To make the hoops I'm going to use this blue alcathene water pipe.

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 It's really flexible, it's pretty cheap and if you buy it in roll like a roll like this you can actually make quite a few hoops, so it's very economical if you want to do lots of different beds or borders. 

You'll need some sort of uprights to push it onto. I'm using a combination here of about foot-length rebar- really really strong. 

That's not going anywhere! But if you haven't got that, just use upright lengths of bamboo. As long as it's not rotten, it's nice and firm. 

That does just as well. So I'll be using one of those too. And for our cover I'm going to use some clear plastic. That holds onto the heat for a bit longer.

 It's super cheap, super flexible and you can get this just about everywhere. You could use row cover or horticultural fleece as well but make sure it's quite a thick gauge to keep in the heat. 

First job is popping in our uprights. I'm just using four here: one for each corner, because this is quite a small bed. 

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I want to make sure there's plenty of height here so the salads aren't too restrained. 

These might grow to up to a foot (or 30 centimetres) tall so I'm going to aim for a top of the arch height of about 2 feet (or 60 centimetres). I've got the first arch done, so I'm going to use it as a guide to cut to length the second arch. 

And you could use it for obviously any subsequent arches for each tunnel that you're doing. Right, here's our two arches. 

How To Keep Outdoor Plants Alive in Winter

Let's pop them on and get that cover on! Right! Now all I'm doing is securing the cover - the sides. 

And for this I'm just using a board which I'm going to pin against the board of the raised bed, here, just to pin the cover in place. 

Hammer time! That'll do! It's firm enough and I can easily take it away to access the crops when I need to harvest. 

how to keep plants warm in winter outside

To secure the ends of the cover I'm just using bricks. You could use rocks- anything that's heavy. You can cut the cover to size or just fold it back a bit so it fits neatly under the bricks. 

And to secure the cover to the hoops I've used washing pegs here. You could use bulldog clips. That's it! It's all secure; that's not going anywhere! And that gives a nice little winter home for these winter salads. 

Great! This design is very easily extended: you can have multiple hoops and make a small poly tunnel essentially.

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 And if you're going to do that, you want a ridge pole that gives it a little bit of extra rigidity. 

So it's more sturdy against the gales. You could use a wooden batten for that, screwed down into position, or just a long bamboo cane secured in place (lashed into place) using cable ties. 

And use reusable ones if you can! Another reason to make a hoop house is to keep cats out, which is a big problem in some neighborhoods! I've got this wee dog here, Rosie, who has a habit of rolling around! 

how to keep outdoor potted plants alive during winter

And she's actually eaten all my leeks for winter! So this will keep her out of the winter salads. Hey Mischief! Cold frames are an excellent alternative to a traditional greenhouse. 

They're simply a wooden box that sits on the ground with a glazed window that's usually sloping facing the sun so it warms up nicely. 

This one was bought as a ready-to-assemble kit and I've got a video on doing that. I'll pop a link to that down below. But what if you want to make your own, using salvaged or very cheap materials? 

How To Keep Outdoor Plants Alive in Winter

So when you're making a cold frame, the best thing to start with is your window. These I got for free so I'm very pleased about that! They're a good size. 

Ideally you'd want some tempered glass such as a shower door. That means it's stronger and far less likely to shatter so it's a little bit safer. 

Now, you can prop your window up on anything; bricks, cinder or breeze blocks are great and you don't have to mortar them. You can just plonk them together and put your window on top! 

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Another great alternative is straw bales, which also offer excellent insulation; brilliant in the winter! I like to keep it simple and for that I'm just going to use some wooden planks held in place, held upright.

 So let's get on and do that now. So you obviously want the wood planks to match the dimensions of your window frame. So I'm starting with the shorter ends, here. 

These have already been cut to size and I know that the short end matches the narrow width of the window there. 

And to hold them upright I'm just using little wooden dowels. These are just bamboo canes cut to size and I'm putting two at each end to kind of pinch the plank upright and hold it in place. 

And then I know that my longer panels fit flush against the short panels, like that. So I'll get those in there. And there we have the box frame in place! 

how to keep outdoor potted plants warm in winter

It's all the right dimensions so I know that all I have to do now is carefully lower the window into position. And there we have it! Now, this is great for growing things like the winter salads that I've got under the tunnel behind me.

 Another use for this is to get the weeds to germinate earlier on in spring, and then you can just hoe them off. 

And then you've got a nice clean seed bed to sew into. 

A little hack for you there! You can see in these clips here that I'm dismantling it and you can really see the difference from the weeds that have germinated in a great flush inside the box to none outside. 

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So it's a great way to get a clean start on the spring. Not everyone has access to a greenhouse and these budget-friendly ideas make cold protection available to everyone! 

Have you used any of them before and if you have, how do you rate them? Join in the conversation below. 

Please do give this video a thumbs up if you have found it handy! Now, next week we'll be planting rhubarb- a real cracker of a plant in any garden!

 If you fancy that, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss out! I'll catch you next time.