Spring harvest & Frost protection for Food Forest

Before the frosty nights, I was sure to pick some garden greens and radishes. There was a lot of arugula so the salad was spicy eith the radishes.

During this pandemic, I am delivering some free garden food to the elders in my life as well.

As you may know, I'm here in zone 6-7 where it continues to have nights of frost up until May. I used towels, throw blankets, thin quilts and bedsheets, potato grow bags, tent covers, and tree covers, and tobacco canvas. You name it, I used it! I wanted to protect the many fruiting trees and bushes in the food forest. Besides the trees, I covered the 2 grapes, 10 blueberry bushes, 3 goji berries, 2 raspberries.

Grapes

 In the photo below, you can spot my dog rolling on her back and kicking the air.

Alberta peaches

Nectarines 

pear minimally covered

Pear

Plum and cherries 

Figs, cherry, and plum

Blueberries, goji, raspberries 

With this frost, I worry about the fruit trees and their fruits. I covered the majority of the fruiting bushes but barely covered the large fruit trees. I didnt cover the Tulip garden and I saw this morning that the petals have fallen, so they didn't make it. I ran out of covers for them plus anything weighing the tulips down would probably break them.

There's 3 figs, 3 peaches, 1 mulberry, 2 nectarines, 2 cherries, 2 plums, 2 pears, that are loaded with tiny fruits. I hope they survived the 28 degree night. I woke up this morning and there is frost blanketing the landscape. 

Pear fruits

Cherry fruits

Flowering aronia, which I ran out of covers to protect

Dogwood flowering

Cold April sunset

Early spring: how I'm covering the flower garden & Fruit trees

Many of the flowers this Spring are blooming three weeks ahead compared to previous years. The fruit trees such as Pears, Nectarines, and Peaches are blooming in the garden as well. With the fruit trees I covered almost all of them with Agfabric with a drawstring that you see in the picture below. 

For the trees that were blooming, I double wrapped them with an additional garden cloth or blanket. With the biggest pear tree that had blooms and the nectarine with blooms, I covered them with two cloth fabric sheets and a plastic sheet. With the fig trees, I covered them with plastic and the fabric cloth on the outside. For the flowers like Hyacinths and Tulips that are blooming early, I have covered them with plastic sheeting and plastic cloches to retain moisture and heat throughout the night. This week it will be below 20 degrees amid some risk of snow/early frost warnings, so I am keeping the fruit trees and flower and garden covered as well as the polytunnel garden as you can see in the last photo. 

Plastic sheet covering Tulip/hyacinth/crocus/flower seed mix bed

Tulips protected with recycled dog cone

Hyacinths covered in small plastic tub with foam sheet over top & refrigerator glass shelves

Plastic over cabbage plants

There are 2 holes in the 'reservoir' center to slowly drip rain water

Over wintering protection for Chicago hardy & Brown turkey fig trees (VIDEO)

I am in zone 6, on the north eastern side of the United States, so there needs to be some light protection of the fig trees. You can look back on the video where I show you how I protected the fig trees last year here.


I have mentioned before that some people bury their fig trees before a fall frost, and dig them up in the spring. But I do not bury the fig trees here, and so in the video below, I show you my process for protecting/over wintering the Chicago hardy fig trees and the Brown turkey fig tree.

Over wintering Fig Trees in Zone 6

In this video I show you what I used to protect the Fig Trees over winter. Fig trees are typically grown in warmer climates, but the variety Chicago Hardy Fig allows me to grow them in USDA Zone 6.

The following pictures are the Fig Trees I have mulched 4 feet high supported with wire cages and tobacco sticks. Something I do not mention in the video above, is that I will also be putting tarp over top of the cages to protect both Fig trees from snow and colder temperatures.