Well, last night was supposed to be the coldest, and I seem to have gotten through it ok. I rigged a temporary greenhouse out of a couple of plastic drop clothes and an 'A' frame swing stand. You know, a swing set for a wooden bench swing. I took the swing down and put some poles across the 'A' support to hang the hanging baskets from, then put everything else that wouldn't fit in the cold frames on the ground. I put a lamp with a 200 watt incandescent bulb on the ground, too. I wrapped the 'A' frame in the plastic drop clothes and duck taped them as tightly as I could and put some bricks around the bottom. The wind was pretty wicked yesterday. Then I threw a king-sized bed comforter over the top to help hold the heat. I put a high/low thermometer in to track the temps, and, although it got down to 26 F (-3.33 C) last night, the low inside the "greenhouse" was only 41 F (5 C). Yay!
The cold frames are shorter, and so had less area to heat, and the comforters I covered them with came all the way to the ground, so I think they probably stayed warmer. I almost outsmarted myself there, I used those mechanic's lights that are in a little cage and you hang where you need light with 200 watt incandescent bulbs that I hung from the top supports of the cold frames. They're the portable ones that you can buy from Gardener's Supply, *gasp!* and I see that they're no longer available! Oh no! I love mine!
http://www.gardeners.com/Cold-Frame-Season-Extender/default/34-988.prd
Anyway, I don't usually use a 200 watt bulb, so this was a little hotter, and I, luckily, noticed that the plastic behind the metal shield of the light was getting awfully warm awfully fast. So, I got some wire and dropped the height of the light another 6 inches or so. Now that I see I couldn't replace them, I'm especially relieved I didn't burn a hole in the ones I have!
Ok, one more cold night to go, and I think we're going to be ok. The roses close to the house in the front yard didn't even freeze.
