My Idea For Covering Plants

In the past, I used to see on Craig's List free bales of used Tyvek from car importers/dealers.

A bale of used Tyvek is much more material than a home gardener could use, but maybe somebody has a connection to get just a few sections.

Since the material will have been shaped to cover a car, it will take some work to reconfigure it for use as a garden cover.

It should be fairly sturdy and resistant to harsh weather, but no idea about insulation properties.

 

Thanks for the detailed response. I've done drip irrigation for my container plants where I just hook up the hose and turn the spigot on for a couple of minutes and the emitters do their thing and just turn them off. I wanted to use the timer on the spigot but heard after a while the weather (sun/rain, etc) causes issues with the timers and one day you may come home to water running all over the place for hours because the timer broke or the connection broke because they're not made to take continuous pressure. Heck if I know, but for my purposed just going back there and turning the spigot on for a couple of minutes isn't much of a problem. Maybe the B-Hyves are better than the standard Orbit stuff. I almost bought the B-Hyve irrigation controller for my lawn but went with Rachio. They're both pretty good from what I understand.

I really only grow peppers and I had a rabbit problem (didn't grow anything the last couple of years) and still do where they poop and pee and kill grass on my front lawn. But you know, there's nothing more satisfying than seeing bits of spit out scorpion and tepin peppers in my containers from where they tried to eat the plants. Gotcha back, Bugs! Muhahaha!

 

I would Start with Stairway to Heaven and end with whole lotta love.

 

Finished up this morning, only got poked once. I wanted to drape patio string lights to add heat, but LEDs don't give off enough. Going to cover them with some drop cloth and hope for the best.

 

Nice job, definitely agree on LEDs. You should keep/get some incandescent bulbs in the future for this. I used a few old Christmas lights in the past in Austin when it was colder than this and it was amazing for preventing my outside faucets/spigots from freezing. This was a few years ago but the stupid covers/wrap did nothing with how poor the insulation was done on the outside walls and by 2nd day I went ahead and defrosted it early/used the Xmas lights well worth it. I also tossed a small set in the meter box.

I realize everything before the meter is the water cos problem but the ground where the meter was, was at like 8... With the lights and a cover over it I got the temp into the 70s. It actually started defrosting my yard early! Well worth it vs what my neighbors dealt with.

Anyway great job on both of these, one day I might plant something... Lately I have just been worried about my oaks.

 

I wonder if some of those cheap emergency blankets you get at places like REI and Walmart might be useful. Maybe with another layer over top??? Or maybe those cheapie rolls of clear plastic some painters use???

 

I didn't see this thread until now, but another thing that you can do to add extra heat is putting a few candles under the covering. The religious candles work well.