The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the buds are budding and hopping up and down with impatience at the idea of sowing and planting the first summer vegetables in your vegetable garden, right? Beware of frosts! In April and May, the great frosts have passed but no one is protected from a late frost. Here are our advices to protect your vegetable garden when winter is endless.
Spring frosts, a gardener’s challenge
In spring, weather instability is conventional: it is not rare to alternate between periods of mildness and cold spells. Spring frosts generally happen in April and May. They are often short and less cold than winter frosts, but they can be enough to seriously damage new spring sprouts and affect – if not destroy - upcoming harvests. Wine-growers and arborists particularly dread them.
Comment préserver son potager du froid ?
1) By being patient
You probably have heard of the “Ice Saints”, celebrate each year on May 11, 12 and 13. In the old days, it was Saints Mamert, Pancrace and Servais, replaced in our current calendar by Estelle, Achille and Rolande. However, according to popular sayings, we must let the ice saints pass before pricking out seedlings in open ground, especially those of “sunshine” vegetables particularly skittish: tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, courgettes... Sometimes, it is even recommended to wait for Saint Urban on May 25: “Mamert, Pancrace, Servais are the three Ice Saints but Saint-Urban is holding them by the hand” thus explains an old saying.
In short, in the vegetable garden, caution is the word until mid-May if not the end of the month in the mountains and Northern regions. Beware of fresh nights!
2) By protecting delicate plants
If in spite of it you tried your luck by sowing at the beginning of spring, be mindful of the weather: if the night is announced cold, better protect skittish plants using a veil of protection, a bell or tunnel, if not brining indoors those that can be moved. Likewise, water in the morning and not at the end of the day.