Ultimate Guide To Winter Protection

Wind, rain and freezing temperatures can be tough on some plants, but there are steps you can take to ensure they survive the season, says Graham Rice.

- Graham Rice

WHO’D have thought that old bedsheets would prove useful in the garden? We have a stack of them bundled up at the back of the garage, and whenever an early frost threatens, out they come.

Stretched over borders and containers at dusk when frost is forecast, they make the difference between blackened mush and another week or two of flowers from our cosmos and dahlias, petunias and fuchsias – and without the expense of bundles of fleece. But bedsheets - and even fleece - will only give a few degrees of early frost protection, so to protect tender plants right through the winter we need other approaches.