If you’re an avid gardening, you’re probably counting down the days until you can get started gardening again. And, if you’ve started your seeds indoors, you’ll need to make sure your soil is warm and thawed out by the time your seedlings are ready to be transplanted, as you will have a small window of time in which you’ll need to get them in the ground fast.
Obviously, you can’t control the weather, and you may find yourself in a position where you’ve started seeds indoors, counting on the weather to warm up enough to thaw the ground out in time for you to plant, but low and behold, once your seedlings are outgrowing their pots, the ground is still frozen and not ready for planting.
Fortunately, there is a quick and easy way to thaw out the ground in time for planting. You’ll still need a little bit of foresight for this to work for you, as it will take about 3-5 days, so try to think ahead.
What you need
All you need for this is some black (this is important, it will need to absorb the heat of the sun) plastic sheeting, some bricks or cinder blocks, both available at your local hardware or garden supply store, and again, a little bit of foresight. About a week before you definitely need to plant, you’ll want to get your thawing operation started.
What to do
1. Take your plastic sheeting and spread it out over your beds.
2. Weigh down at each end and in the middle if needed with the bricks or cinder blocks. You’re going to need the plastic sheeting to stay firmly in place for up to five days. This is why a heavy, thick black plastic is ideal.
3. Now you wait. The idea is that the sun will beat down on the black plastic and it will absorb the heat and thaw out the ground. Check daily to see how it’s progressing. When you can dig down easily into the dirt and don’t find any more frozen ground, you’re good to go!
Happy planting!
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