Essential Tips to Protect Your Plants from Heavy Storms

On the 22nd of November; all the way through the 23, we have had what the news people are calling a ‘Bomb cyclone’ Basically we are experiencing heavy winds and rain, and because of where we are at in California, almost every direction has snow. Mount Shasta was even in for an Avalanche warning!

So typically, I never have my garden full year around, so I never had to worry about protecting my plants. No I had to figure out what to do.

Protecting against Frost

At first I wasn’t honestly protecting against the storm, I was protecting against the frost we had a day or so earlier that week. We knew about the storm coming so the closer it got the more I tried to think of a way to use my resources to make sure my plants come out of it all alive.

Protecting against Wind Damage

The Bomb cyclone also gave us heavy winds at times. I remember having a similar storm back when I was a child, before they even gave it the name bomb cyclone. The heavy winds would knock over my moms potted plants. So being that I’ve seen it happen, I opted to use a tent to protect my plants and shield them from some of the heavy wind.

I am a firm believe of trying to use what you have instead of buying new all the time. We had a tarp laying around, and we had a crap ton of miscellaneous sized bungie cords that I’d be able to use too. And I’d never protected my plants before so I had NO IDEA what I was doing.

Moving the Plants

First your going to need to centralize all your plants. I chose to move them all to where my in ground plants are and just have them all together. Once that was done I could then cover them. Just beside my in ground plants, my husband has his shed. So depending on which way the wind was blowing, the shed might protect some of the plants a bit. I just enough room to fit all my plants nicely.

Once I moved the plants, it was time to start putting up the tarp. It was tricky doing it by myself, but if you start at the corner that’s furthest away, it will save you. Overall, it was actually pretty easy to do, much easier than I Was expecting it to be.

Final Results

My plants survived Northern California bomb cyclone I’m still hesitant about weather or not I should move my plants back to their normal spot. As we roll into December, there’s a good chance that we’re gonna see many more frosty mornings. And I’m glad I now have a good way of protecting them against, wind, rain and frost.