Keep your plants from freezing with a homemade smudge pot

Tulips doing their best to be happy

Well, the spring flowers are doing their best to bloom, but it still feels like winter down our dirt road! It can be hard for a garden enthusiast to live in the foothills of the mountains, but my love of this place and my love of growing things keeps me trying every year.  I've been busy planting flowers and plants all over my yard.  Some are doing well- the peonies are coming up!  Some not so well- I am death on strawberries.  I am trying several bulb-type flowers this year, such as gladiolus, anemone, dahlia and ranunculus.  That last one is just so fun to say.  We'll see how they get along with me.

Onion starts in the snow

Outside the yard in the garden, I have been planting the cold tolerant vegetables, although I don't think the onions appreciate the snow much.  So far the kale, orach and salad greens seem to not mind the crazy weather.  I have learned that I have to be prepared for cold weather and since it's easier to cover small plants, I'm always trying to stretch my growing season to be earlier in the spring.  I'm always trying to figure out ways to protect my plants, since the weather can make things difficult.  I rely on floating row covers, which make the garden less pretty, but make such a difference to my plants.  I also use wall o waters, which are great protection to tender plants, as long as they don't fall over.  They can be a pain to get set up and keep up in our conditions, but the result is worth it.  The squash seedlings needed to go out before the weather was ready for them, so I set up a row of wall o waters and the squash are doing great. 

Keeping warm: row cover, wall o water and smudge pots

This year, I added a hoop house to my garden.  I saw it offered on a classified ad and thought it looked like a great deal.  Unfortunately, when I got it all set up with the cover on, I discovered that the frame is a bit too big for the cover.  Once the door was unzipped, there was no getting it closed again.  Also, I knew that the little grommets in the cover would never outlast our springtime winds, so I invested in some tough stakes and rope to cinch everything down.  I rigged a door of sorts with leftover painters plastic, and I was ready to experiment with my new garden toy. 

In my search for ways to keep my garden from freezing, I looked into smudge pots.  People with orchards used to use smudge pots to keep tender blossoms from freezing on the trees when a cold front comes through.  I wanted to find one to use for my garden.  Unfortunately, they are not plentiful where I live and I haven't had luck finding one on the cheap.  Then I found this blog by the Redneck Hippie on how to make small, easy smudge pots to keep your plants alive.  All it takes is a candle and a terra cotta pot.  I wanted to try it, but I haven't had the chance until now. 

Looking at the forecast, I knew that a week long freeze was expected.  I wanted to try out the smudge pot idea, but I didn't want to lose all of my tomatoes if it didn't work.  I decided to plant some sacrificial tomato plants.  The ones that the seed companies send when they know they have an addicted gardener in their hands.  I can't resist planting seeds that are sent to me, even if I wasn't planning on them and probably have no room for them.  I purposely planted them near the doorway, figuring it would be the coldest spot if all went wrong- as it did.  I covered them with row cover and placed four smudge pots around the hoop house.

Safe tomato plants, looking out at the snow

When the bad weather came, it really gave us a test.  Usually, the wind blows from the west and I situated the hoop house accordingly, with the door facing east.  I thought I was all prepared for either strong winds, or intense cold.  Instead, we got extreme east winds and snow with the cold temperatures.  I looked out to the hoop house and saw my door flapping in the wind.  The hoop house was wide open to the wind, and it was howling.  I wasn't sure my stakes would hold, but they did.  I rushed out to fix the door and check on things, thinking that surely those poor tomato plants were dead.  Not only were they okay, the candles in my smudge pots were still burning!

I fought with the wind and the door all day and went to bed at night with the wind still gusting.  I just hoped the hoop house would still be standing in the morning.  The wind blew all night and when I got up in the morning, we had snow.  The row cover had been blown off of the tomatoes and one of the plants had been snapped off at the ground, but the rest of the plants were looking great.  The candles were still burning and I left them burning all day since it was so cold. 

Candle under the pot

All things considered, I'm a big fan of the homemade smudge pot.  I'm ready to transplant the rest of my tomatoes, no matter what weather comes at us.  (I just need a better door)  Making the smudge pots is really easy and affordable. Just dig a little hole to put the candle in and place the pot over it.  The Redneck Hippie uses the pot bases to extinguish the candles, but I just blow them out.
The homemade smudge pot has earned a spot in my garden.