AUSTIN, Texas — The cooler temperatures are here in Central Texas and expected to go below the freezing mark later in the week.
Assistant manager Kelley Carter of The Great Outdoors Nursery in Austin said there are some ways to protect your outdoor plants. One of the ways is putting on a frost cloth.
"If you will notice I have sticks here to keep the frost cloth from the touching the leaves, because if the leaves touch the frost cloth directly, they will freeze," said Carter.
Carter said a person should cover the plants completely to the ground.
"All the way to the ground here," Carter said. "What it is doing is taking that heat from the ground and channeling it up here, so really getting as much ground coverage, as few gaps as you can. You may need more rocks than I have. All the way around, that's going to make a little trapped air bubble and that air is the warm air coming up from the ground that will keep your plants protected."
Carter said if you don't have a frost cloth, you can also use an old blanket or sheet. Carter said it's also important to put mulch around your plants.
"It's like a little insulated layer of air pockets and things that holds in the ground heat around the roots of the plants, which are the main thing you want to protect," she said.
As for plants on your patio, you're better to bring them inside if possible.
"Anything you bought as a house plant or as a patio plant, if you're not sure it's cold-hearty, bring it inside. The things that are in pots are a lot more susceptible to cold. They don't have the benefit of ground heat radiating back at them."
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