If your tomatoes and peppers are still in the ground when a freeze is expected, try covering the plants to give them a few days to ripen after the cold passes. Or, harvest them all and let them ripen inside.
When a freeze is predicted, what happens to your fall vegetables? Perhaps nothing, depending on the length and depth of the freeze. If the weather brings just a frost, the flavor of greens actually improves. Hardy spinach, collards, and kale will take temperatures in the mid to low 20s. Only freezes in the teens lasting for hours will kill these plants.
You can protect lettuce, which is more easily injured, by throwing a blanket or row cover over the plants. In zones 8 and 9, where tomatoes and peppers bearing fruit may still be in the ground, plants are easily covered to protect the final harvest. Row covers are made of non-woven polyester; lengths of medium-weight interfacing from the fabric store are close to the same thing and may be easier to find. This insulating material traps the heat radiating from the ground and usually keeps the plants up to five degrees warmer. You don’t want to use plastic or any other covering that conducts heat. Also, be aware that cold air flows like water to lower areas, so gardens in low spots are sometimes the first to get frostbitten.
It is worth covering plants a time or two early in the season because these early freezes may be followed by many days of ideal growing weather. If a front blows through, be sure to weigh your cover down with bricks or other available weight as best you can to keep it from blowing around and exposing the plants.
If a freeze results in damage to your garden, don’t give up on it. Sometimes only the upper or outer parts of a plant are injured, and the plant will continue to grow for a while.
In colder areas, snow can protect plants from extreme cold so that they stay in the garden longer. Spinach, kale, leeks, onions, and other fall garden plants have spent days under the cover of snow only to emerge in perfect condition when the snow melts. Be thankful when a snow precedes a bitter cold. It could preserve your bounty.
And, in the meantime, enjoy the next few weeks of fall harvests! These can be some of the most pleasant gardening days of the year.
