I have a patch of mixed succulents next to the steps out front that has been there for three years now – this is the third winter it’s survived.
The first winter, most of it was killed off and I had to replace it.
The second winter, I took samples of each type of succulent and brought them inside, then replanted them in the spring. It took a large part of the growing season for them to fill the space.
This year, I was looking for a better solution and found one.
I’ve been thinking about building a greenhouse on the west side of the house, by the patio. I spent a little time last summer looking into options for the materials. I learned a little bit about them, but decided not to pursue it at the time, but I thought I might build a kind of greenhouse framework and place it over the patch.
I started by researching what it is about freezing weather that actually kills plants. There are a few things. Sometimes, when the temperature gets low enough, the water inside the plant cells freezes, expands and bursts the cell structures (not unlike a frozen pipe) creating wounds that kill the plant. Other times the low temperatures and lack of sunlight prevents water from evaporating and the plant roots stay too wet, causing the roots to rot and killing the plant. There were a few more, but if you’re interested, you can go look. I don’t want to get into all of that.
Later in the fall, I was looking to get new shower curtains for the bathroom. While shopping for the clear one, I kept coming across the material Ethylene Vinyl Acetate. Virtually all the transparent shower curtains are made of it.
It’s also used for greenhouses.
Instead of building an actual framework and placing it over the patch of succulents, I thought I’d try buying an extra $6 shower curtain and laying it across the patch. For additional heat, I added a solar powered walkway light in the middle of the patch.
I put it all in place and waited.
We had several days of freezing weather, and the succulents looked fine. We had about a week of snow, and the succulents continued to look fine.
Last week, we had 6 – 8 inches of snow cover, temperatures, at the low point, around -8 degrees in the middle solid stretch of 5 or 6 days when the temperature never got above freezing.
That’s all melted away and I’m pleased to report that the succulents look healthy.
A desert plant survived a pretty serious cold snap thanks to a $6 shower curtain and a light that I got in a pack of 4 for $12 at Walmart. It took less than five minutes to spread across the plants.
Here’s a picture of the patch and a couple of close ups of the living, healthy, plants.
They don’t even appear to have died back much. They’re going to look better this growing season than they ever have. It doesn’t even look like they’ve died back.
I did this back in November. I’m not sure plants that need to be watered more often would have survived this. I’m sure I’ll try it with some next winter.
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