Hail is more common in some parts of the country than in others, and one location that experiences hail during the summer is Denver, CO. But one way to ruin your garden of plants that have been growing since the spring is with hail stones, and one writer on Examiner.com gives a suggestion about covering your garden with a tarp, among other methods to protect your plants. Tarps can protect many other objects, from RVs to motorcycles, with their surface, so why not spread it out over a garden?
Spreading a tarp out over a garden is only part of the solution, and, as seen earlier in posts about mesh tarps and garden tarps, the tarp needs to be elevated above the plants to protect fully, be it from sun for lowlight plants or from hail. In the case of this article, cement blocks should be set at the corners of the garden before the tarp is put down. The tarp is then draped over the cement blocks and secured. To keep the tarp down additional, stakes should be hammered into the tarp – through the grommets. In the case that a hail storm watch is in effect, the tarp and the stakes should already be prepared before the storm hits.
Protecting your plants from damage is important, and tarps, as versatile as they are, can be used for this. However, as the tarp is suspended above the plants by cement blocks, the plants protected by hail from this method should be vining plants, like cucumber or tomato plants, or floral plants that are closer to the ground. Using a tarp with taller plants may damage or bend the plants, so, in the case that your garden consists mostly of taller, non-vining plants, such as small bushes or tall floral plants like bleeding hearts, tarps won’t be a sufficient covering and one of the other methods in the Examiner article, such as trash cans, would give better protection.
