Dallas (1080 KRLD)- As North Texas prepares for an unusually late freeze this week, Texas Plant Guy Daniel Cunningham spoke to Chris Sommer on KRLD to discuss preparations any concerned gardeners should take in the coming days.
With summer annuals, recently cut shrubs and anything that has been recently planted potentially at risk, Cunningham suggests covering up what you can.
"We're probably going to want to get the frost cloth back out, if you don't have any frost cloth then sheets and towels will work too. Also, a good layer of mulch around some of our tender plants, I like to use straw or pine straw in the garden."
But for those of you who prefer using pots for your outdoor spaces, Cunningham suggests covering both the tender plants as well as the pots themselves as "pots are more susceptible to freeze damage."
Wherever possible, bring your more tender potted plants such as sago palms or bougainvillea indoors.
Meanwhile, for those of you in the northern metroplex, if you cannot bring your citrus plants or blooming trees indoors watch out for potential damage to said blooms if they are open as the freeze could affect the fruit harvest and/or the ornamental flowers.
For those of you who tend to vegetables you may also wish to cover them just to be safe, however, this isn't a necessity.
Cunningham said: "In the vegetable garden tomatoes or peppers, while they're typically cold hardy down to 38, 35 degrees or so, we don't want them to get too cold cause that can slow new growth for the spring so go ahead and cover those up as well as herbs like basil."
Thankfully, not everything will be at risk. Cunningham says that: "Any other plants that have already come back from our February freeze, most of our native and adapted plants are going to do just fine with this weather system. Also, any other stuff in the vegetable garden that we naturally eat the root, the stem or the leaf on that are cool-season veggies are going to be just fine as well."
