Our house is new, and so many people have been to the house to paint, complete projects, and work on things. We have had to lock the kittens in the house so they don’t “help” the painters. The kittens, rescued last summer from the Calico garden and tamed by my three children into loving creatures who seek the attention of people, behave more like dogs than any cat I have ever known. They do seem to appreciate our rescue of them from the wild.
A couple of days ago, I worked in the garden putting down row cover preparing the plants for the upcoming cold weather. Ashes and Phoenix chased me into the woods, climbing trees and stalking each other among tree trunks, when I entered to rake some leaves to put on the new asparagus and garlic beds, and they attacked my ankles as they hid in the cover crops.
As I spread the row cover over the broccoli, spinach, and kale plants to protect them from the cold weather, as well as the rain and the wind, the cats wanted to “help” me. They are like helping children, in that their help is often a hindrance. Here is a video of them not helping at all, but having a great time playing in the new tunnels I created with the row cover.
I created the structure of the tunnels by cutting some 12 gauge wire, available at home centers in the chain link fencing section, into hoops about 40 inches long. If you cut them too long, they will flop over, and if they are too short, there will not be enough room for the mature height of the plants.
Then I draped the row cover over the hoops, and I secured it with clothes pins and with metal posts, stones, and whatever else I could find. I need to work on more efficient ways to weight down the row cover. You cannot cut the wire with ordinary wire cutters, although I have read that you can score them with a metal cutting tool and snap them. I purchased bolt cutters to make the job easier.
Row cover protects plants from freezing temperatures, and, depending on the weight of the fabric, may increase the air temperature around the plants by several degrees. The fabric keeps torrential rain off of the plants, and it also prevents the desiccating effects of winter winds. It almost gives your plants a mini-greenhouse environment similar to that of a cold frame, but the fabric allows enough heat to escape so you don’t have to worry about the odd sunny day roasting your plants the way you have to if they are covered in plastic.
Use some season extension techniques and harvest vegetables all year long!