After five days of 20 degree temps...

bowlwoman 2/5/2011, 3:16 pm

...my plants survived!

We've had ice, snow, and lows in the teens for the past five days here in Austin. Tuesday afternoon my husband and I came home at lunch to cover the plants to get them through the cold snap. I had just planted my onion sets, broccoli, and new lettuce plants last Saturday, so I had no idea if they'd survive the freeze (along with my cabbage, herbs, and flowers that were still growing). We ran Christmas lights through my 2X2 boxes, covered them with a really heavy comforter, and crossed our fingers.

Today was the first day we got above freezing (after 1 1/2 inches of snow and ice yesterday), so we uncovered the boxes, not sure what we'd find. And the plants look great! I can't believe we got them through three days of lows hitting 17-18 degrees.

Here's a picture I took this morning:

After five days of 20 degree temps... Img_0310

After five days of 20 degree temps... Img_0310

**camprn** 2/5/2011, 4:20 pm

HOORAY!

**Furbalsmom** 2/5/2011, 4:27 pm

Your Momma done taught you good! Smile

Just kidding.

Great results cheers

taking an unusual condition (the extreme cold) and adapting what you had in order to take care of it. Those Christmas Lights and Comforter seem to have done the job well.

BackyardBirdGardner 2/5/2011, 4:55 pm

Ingenuity at it's finest. Or, as my dad would call it......Jerry-rig the sucker. Nicely done

(I've always wondered, though, who "Jerry" was?) study

**Furbalsmom** 2/5/2011, 5:09 pm

Jerry is my husband. We Jerry-rig lots!

quiltbea 2/5/2011, 9:13 pm

I'm glad your crops survived. Its amazing what a little covering with anything, blankets, sheets, and plastic, will do for a crop.
Good for you.

Ha-v-v 2/6/2011, 6:46 am

Awesome !! The plants look great.

FarmerValerie 2/6/2011, 9:29 am

I love the Christmas lights idea, thanks I'll put that in my "creative gardening" folder. We do a lot of that around here. My trellises are shelves my husband drug home when he repainted part of a local Dollar Store, they were going to toss them out.

bowlwoman 2/6/2011, 11:20 pm

Thanks for all the encouragement. I was totally surprised that the plants survived, and the lettuce even grew!

Mom read about the Christmas lights idea somewhere online, and I figured that it couldn't hurt. Next time this happens, I'd like to try and get a temp reading from inside the plant "cocoon" to see how warm it stays in there.

LaFee 2/7/2011, 1:35 am

I used to string Christmas lights on my orange trees all the time in Florida when it got cold. We'd put a blanket or sheet over anything that was cold-sensitive, and if it was supposed to rain, we'd layer garbage bags or tarps over that. Sure looks funny from the street...but all the neighbors' yards look the same, so it's not such a big deal.

The lights won't keep them warm by any shot...but it buys you a few degrees, and that sometimes is all it takes to keep stuff from freezing.

ander217 2/7/2011, 7:52 am

bowlwoman wrote:
Mom read about the Christmas lights idea somewhere online, and I figured that it couldn't hurt. Next time this happens, I'd like to try and get a temp reading from inside the plant "cocoon" to see how warm it stays in there.

Yes, I got the idea online from a site called, - now let me see, what was it again? I think it was called The Square Foot Gardening forum, or something like that. You can probably google and find it. sfg smile

Love you, Sweetie. Glad your plants made it through the cold.

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