Here’s some summer gardening advice I didn’t expect to see in a video: Snow fleece.
It’s probably not on your summer gardening bingo card, but if you’re looking Shade without moving your plantsIt’s worth a look Ish Kamran’s (@gardening.with.ish) latest Instagram reel. Horticultural fleece actually has a lot of benefits for your plants in hot weather – and it won’t smother them like you might expect.
Here’s why Ish recommends Frost Fleece as a garden cooling technique (and two great ways to use it this summer!).
What you will need
Gardengloss
Gardengloss Garden Fleece
1.5mx 10m pack of lightweight horticultural fleece.
Extra thick (30gsm) fleece plant jacket
Pack of three plant fleece jackets with drawstring closing cord.
Grow Garden Products
Frost Protection Garden Fleece (18gsm)
This roll of horticultural fleece is long and wide, 2m x 20m.
Whether you’re looking for Protect your potted plants in hot weather Or protect your border plants from the blazing sun, snow fleece has long been overlooked as a cooling solution. I considered pulling mine out of the shed until I saw Ish’s video.
‘The most unlikely thing you can ever imagine is actually the most protective thing for your plants during a heatwave, and that’s frost heaving,’ says Ish in his latest video.
‘It’s nice and light, airy and translucent, so some light can still get through, but, like greenhouse shading, it reflects some of those UV rays and heat, so it actually keeps the plants slightly cooler underneath.’
Frost Fleece, then, is amazing How to heatproof your garden – Especially if you have white fleece (like this Gardengloss Fleece from Amazon), which Ish says reflects the sun’s rays and therefore cannot absorb much of the sun’s heat.
(Image credit: Getty Images/Tumsasedgers)
You can use frost fleece to protect plants from the sun in two different ways, and one of them is basic mulching technique
‘You can get a good amount of it and pop it directly on top of the soil to create a little reflective mulch,’ says Ish. ‘When you water it the water can pass through, but the sunlight will reflect, so it’s just perfect.’
Or, for a larger shrub, you can use it the same way you would Cover outdoor plants in winter.
‘If you have a big plant like an acer, you can actually wrap it directly, and because it will reflect some of the sun’s heat, it will stay nice and cool inside,’ says Ish.
‘So, it just goes to show that sometimes, when you’re trying to protect your plants, the most unusual thing is usually the best.’
Who would have thought that frost fleece was the dark horse of summer gardening?
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