Is Frost Headed Your Way?

If frost is headed your way, there are some tasks you'll need to complete in your kitchen garden to prepare it for the coming cool season. Your main tasks will be removing plants that can't handle even a light frost (when temps are just around 34°F) and protecting frost-tolerant plants with frost cloth.

Let's begin by looking at which plants to remove before your first frost of fall arrives.

Flowers That Can't Handle Frost

Here are a few of our favorite annual flowers whose time in your garden will come to a close with the arrival of wintry weather:

Zinnias

These flowers bring me so much joy and attract pollinators to my garden for months, so I'm sad to say they will not survive even a little bit of frost. A couple weeks before it's time to remove them, you can let some blooms dry out on the plants and save zinnia seeds for next season.

Nasturtiums

Even though nasturtiums love cool weather, they hate frost. One good frost is usually enough to kill these plants.

Marigolds

Say "So long for now" to your cheerful orange and yellow blooms. One good freeze is usually enough to do these easy-going flowers in. (Before that happens, save marigold seeds from your favorite plants.)

Fruiting Plants with Zero Frost Tolerance

The majority of the plants we grow for their delicious fruits are extremely sensitive to frost. You'll need to hurry outside and harvest as much as you possibly can from your fruiting plants before the temperatures drop too low. Then, you'll cut these plants at their base to remove them. (Cutting them instead of yanking them up, roots and all, is preferable to avoid disturbing the plants that can stay in your kitchen garden through late fall and perhaps even into winter.)

Here are fruiting plants to remove before your first cold spell:

Bush Beans & Pole Beans

Beans won't make it through the cold, so harvest as many beans as you can and take the plant out of the garden before frost comes.

Cucumbers, Squash, & Zucchini

Members of the Cucurbit family—which includes cucumbers, squash, and zucchini—are sensitive to frost. My plants are usually slowing down their production long before our first cold spells, but I've found it's better to harvest any small fruits I can find and remove the plants from the garden before frost turns them wet and brown.

Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplants

Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants come from the Solanaceae family, also known as the Nightshade family, and they are not cut out for cold weather. Harvest as many fruits as you can.

If you still have tomatoes in your garden, pull the vines down and remove these plants from your garden before frost hits. You can be sure they wouldn't survive the frost anyway, and they're easier to remove now before they turn into brown, soggy messes. If you end up with a lot of green tomatoes, you can make a green salsa or set them in a window to slowly ripen.

Because pepper plants are more compact than tomatoes, you can dig them up, put them in a pot, and overwinter them indoors (though I have to admit, I'm not great at keeping plants alive indoors... I generally rely on nature to help me.)

Some eggplant varieties are more cold-hardy than others, but these plants typically don't survive moderate frost. I find it's best to pull your plants from the garden.

Frost-Hardy Leafy Greens

These cold-hardier plants can typically hold up throughout the winter, especially with some frost protection for your plants. Before a freeze, water your raised garden beds well. Wet soil holds heat better than dry soil, so your roots should be better protected.

Kale

Kale does fine with frost. In fact, a little frost actually makes the leaves taste sweeter. (That's true for all these frost-tolerant greens.)

Swiss Chard

With proper care, Swiss chard can survive the winter in your garden and thrive for seasons to come. Kale and Swiss chard are both biennial plants, which means they're highly motivated to survive in your garden until their second year so that they can produce seeds.

Cabbage

Most varieties of cabbage will survive a freeze, though you may not get the perfect head you're wanting. Savoy cabbages (those with more crinkled leaves) tend to have a higher frost tolerance.

Bulbs That Will Overwinter in Your Garden

Even though most flower bulbs need to be dug up and kept somewhere warm all winter, edible bulbs can stay. Fall-planted garlic will use the winter months to settle into their new digs; come spring, they'll be ready to push up new growth and turn those little cloves into nice, plump bulbs. Onions can similarly go dormant over winter and then mature once the weather warms up.

Make sure to keep your chives plants, as well. Chives will die back during the winter, pop up from their roots in the spring, and then produce even more beautiful blossoms in the spring for having survived the cold weather.

Perennial Flowers That Will Return in the Spring

When you're removing annual flowers, make sure to skip past perennial flowers. These flowers will die back in the winter and then return from their roots in the spring (unless, of course, you winters are just way too harsh for them). Some perennials like to be pruned and others do not, so it's a good idea to do a little research on the perennial flowers you're growing.

Here are some of our favorite perennials:

Coneflowers

Wait until early spring to cut back your coneflower plants; this will stimulate new growth. Echinacea and other types of coneflowers typically produce even more blooms during their second year in the garden.

Yarrow

This plant is down for drought, hot weather, and brutal winters.

Coreopsis

These frost-resistant flowers will pop back up in spring.

Frost-Tolerant Herbs and Veggies

Using frost cloth (or even just some sheets and towels at night) can extend your growing season a bit to give you more time to enjoy some of your vegetable garden favorites.

Herbs

With the exception of basil, most of your herbs, particularly oregano and lemon balm, can hang on through a couple of frosts. You can keep them in your garden until you're expecting a heavy snow. Parsley will handle the cold weather just fine and might survive your winter.

Celery

Celery can typically survive a bit of frost, though it might suffer some damage. I like to harvest from my celery before frost hits, just in case.

Carrots

Carrots don't mind a bit of frost. In fact, they get a bit sweeter with frost.

Spinach

These leafy greens can survive temperatures as low as 20°F.

Lettuce

Most of your lettuce plants can tolerate light and even moderate frosts. They will likely slow down their growth though.

Broccoli & Cauliflower

If your broccoli or cauliflower hasn't quite formed a full head yet, don't worry. Your plant can withstand a frost or two to give it more time to fully mature.

Frost Tolerant Fruiting Plants and Flowers

While the majority of our fruiting plants have zero chill when it comes to chilly weather, there is one notable exception:

Peas

Pea plants can handle temperatures in the 20s and sometimes even lower. If you have flowers or little pods forming on the plant when frost hits, however, those parts of the plant might be damaged and need to be pruned.

Here are a couple of our favorite frost-tolerant annual flowers:

Dianthus

These are tender perennials often grown as cool-season annuals in colder climates. Your dianthus should be able to hang in there for your first couple freezes.

Pansies and violas

Pansies and violas are pretty tough ol' gals. They can survive even a hard freeze for a couple days if left uncovered. Even if they die back during single-digit temps, they might bounce back from their roots in the spring.

Snapdragons

These gorgeous little flowers can also withstand temps below freezing.

Calendula

These flowers can survive temperatures down to about 25°F. Calendula plants are perennial in warmer climates.

Frost Does Not Mean an End to Your Gardening Season

Instead of feeling down about removing plants that remind me of summer or that gave me lots of production, I remind myself that when one door closes, another door opens—in the garden and in life. Removing plants that can't survive frost makes room for new plants to take their place and push on into the spring.

If you don't have your kitchen garden set up yet, don't feel like it's too late, even if frost is headed your way. There are still many plants you can grow throughout the winter, especially if you're in a milder climate. If you wait to set up your garden in the spring, you'll have missed an entire growing season, plus some of the best parts of early spring gardening. By setting up your garden now before deep winter arrives, you'll be primed and ready to grow before your final frost in the spring.

Here's to surviving frost and cold coming our way by gardening more, not less!

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