Dealing with frost

[Laura Hillier]

Hi Everyone,

In the GYO office we have been discussing how we deal with frost on our plots. One of the key areas of debate is whether to cover open ground, or to leave it open so the frost can penetrate the soil.

What do you do, and what do you find to be the benefits of this?

Laura

[Margit]

Hi, I'm a newcomer here.

I usually plant cover crops so my soil will not be unprotected and wash away during the rainy and snowy months. I have covered my soil with leaves if I didn't get a chance to grow cover crops.

Margit

[Plot10]

Bit of both, as crops come out I either dig over and leave for a couple of weeks before covering or, if I don't have time to dig immediately, cover for a while to kill the weeds and uncover to dig then leave for the frost to get at it. Once beds have been dug and exposed to frost for a while I cover then with either cardboard, black plastic or rugs (not carpet - rugs with bound edges and woven backing which are ideal to cover small sections). The covers then stay in place until Spring when I uncover them as required.

[Penellype]

I tend to harvest my crops then lightly hoe the top to get rid of weeds, mulch with the old compost from tubs, potato bags etc and leave over winter if I am not filling the gap with something like broccoli. This year I experimented with planting some onion sets in February then covering with clear plastic, and I also planted some that i didn't cover. The covered ones grew much faster and were ready to harvest about 2 weeks earlier than the uncovered ones planted at the same time.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Frost is one of the most useful and powerful natural tools available to the allotment gardener. If the ground is turned over even really roughly, come springtime after a few frosty nights during the winter period, with the minimum of effort, it can be transformed to a friable state ready for seed sowing and planting.

[Bren In Pots]

I don't like having bare soil so it either gets green manure or mulched with home made compost.

[Plot28 A&B]

Some of our beds we top dress with about 3inches of compost depending on our rotation, the rest we rough dig and let the frost do its stuff.

[Wapwap79]

I dig over as crops come out and then deep dig leaving big clumps of earth. Frosts and winter weather seem to really assist in breaking it down ... Whether it does any good I don't know :-)

[bearded bloke]

As I am now totally raised beds & "no dig",beds are all given a deep topping of either compost or manure (depending on intended forthcoming crop) & a scattering of ash from the wood burner,then left for the weather & worms to do the work for me

[VirginVegGrower]

Mine have had spent crops removed and are either mulched with homemade compost, mucked or have green manure that were growing and will regrow again come the warmer weather.