KSAT meteorologists are forecasting that we will have a light freeze for a few hours early Monday morning, so I wanted to give you a breakdown of what this means for your plants.
Here’s what you need to bring inside or cover:
- Potted plants
- Especially succulents or topicals like bougainvillea
- Citrus trees
Tomatoes, peppers, and fall produce should be harvested. Cut flowers like zinnias for boques or vases to get a final use out of them.
If you have produce that isn’t quite ready, cover them with a frost cloth, sheet or cardboard box.
As for your native blooming perennials like lantana, milkweeds, mist flowers, aster, salvias etc... that’s up to you if you want to cover them.
I probably won’t cover my pollinator gardens since they are so large, and just see what survives.
Even if they do die back from this light freeze, doesn’t mean they are dead. They will pop back up this spring.
Things you don’t need to worry about for this light freeze:
- Roses
- Winter veggies...like greens, onions, garlic, carrots and winter herbs.
- Most perennial shrubs
- Trees
If your plants die back, don’t toss them. If the bark is still green when you break it, it’s just gone dormant and will come back in the spring.
Find more content like this on KSAT’s gardening page.