Experts Offer Advice To Protect Your Garden In Cooler Temperatures

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The garden is a place of hopes and promises in the spring, but it's a delicate balance when Mother Nature decides to deliver a late wintry punch.

"Anything that's already up, perennials that come back year after year, they're going to be unfazed by temperature, like a shrub like or a hosta plant, that's nothing to worry about," says Pittsburgh Tribune Review and KDKA's organic gardener Doug Oster.

Oster says your concern needs to be for those other things you stuck in the ground, perhaps over the Mother's Day weekend.

"There's a chance if it gets cold enough that they could be wiped out," Oster said.

He's talking about impatiens and those other colorful plants you buy by the flat load and painstakingly put in the ground - include your tomato plants, peppers and the other light leafy veggies in the sensitive category.

"Every year the nurseries of our area see the results of a weekend like the one we have coming up. They see it in their customers coming back in for a replacement," said Oster.

"It's very common because people get anxious and they jump the gun a bit, but the average frost date in Pittsburgh is May 15," says Diana Knapp, of Hahn's Nursery.

So if you don't want to end up re-buying your plants, they need to be covered. A blanket will crush them; so instead, use a light-weight sheet or a frost protector like Harvest-Guard.

Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter

Should you choose to take your chances and not cover them, there's always the hose.

"If you wake up and see frost on your windshield, run out in your PJs and spray them off, and they should be okay," says Oster.

Of course, potted and hanging plants you can just bring inside. And keep in mind, this cat and mouse game with frost could be around for a couple more weeks.

"That's part of spring; it really is," Oster says.