Rain can be at once a gardener’s best friend and a powerful enemy. Aside from watering the ground (a good thing, k?), it can wash away your soil, beat up and break young seedlings, spread plant disease by splashing dirt on leaves, and wash out recently planted seed. Not to mention making washing vegetables a pain. It seems odd, doesn’t it, that the same thing a garden can’t do without is responsible for some of my worst gardening losses. Mother Nature can be quite a sadistic lady.

    Keeping the negative effects of rainwater off of plants is one of the ideas behind High Tunnel growing. Of course, these growers have to irrigate exclusively. It seems a shame to me to not use all that free water.

    Row Covers are probably one of the coolest things ever (you can quote me on this). The thin-ish (depending on what you get) material that’s stretched over wire hoops performs many useful tasks-

• Protection from many insects (flea beetles and other flying pests most notably)
• Frost protection
• Protection from rain (while still letting rain through)

    This is good, yes?

    For now lets focus on the third benefit.

    One of the main reasons people wait to move young transplants out to the garden is because their small sizemakes them vulnerable. If you grow your own transplants, you may find yourself transplanting one or two times into larger containers before planting them in the garden. Exposed to the elements, a two inch seedling can get destroyed rather quickly. With row cover in place, these transplants can be moved safely out at much earlier stages with (much) fear. This is especially cool if you use cell trays, like I do, where the seedlings become rootbound very quickly.

    Or, if you’re planting lettuce, spinach, mustard, or any other low growing crop, a good rainstorm can be a great way to get your future salad absolutely filthy. Covering the row before harvest is a good way for cleaner veggies.

Using the stuff

    Row covers can be purchased at several gardening outlets, often locally, and it’s relatively inexpensive at that. I just bought a 180″ by 200′ roll for around 40 dollars. The rolls come in much smaller or much larger sizes depending on your needs. For my garden, I know this roll will last me for a loooooong time.
It comes it two main thicknesses- a thin sheet for mainly insect control and a heavier one that’s better for cold protection, but also pricier. What I do is buy the thin row cover, and double it when frost protection is a concern, but use just a single sheet for most of the season.

    The “hoop loops” upon which to secure the row cover is also sold at several sourcess, although if you need a lot of them, you’d be best of buying a roll of smooth #9 fencing wire and cutting them yourself. Any heavy wire that will stand up in a loop with both ends stuck in the ground will do.

    Along one side of the hoops (after they are set up) I dig a little furrow in the soil, pulling the soil back. I stick one end of the row cover in this trench and then spread the dirt over it to hold it in the ground. I use clothes-pins on the other side to attach the row cover to the wire. Wha-lah! I usually have drip-tape running underneath, but if I don’t, I’ll lift up one side to water and feed, or just water through the row cover and let it drip down to the plants.

    While row cover does a good job protecting plants from rain, it’s not perfect, and a heavy rainstorm is still a heavy rainstorm. However, I doubt you’ll be unhappy with it once you start using it, especially with it’s other benefits!