What Do I Do About Freezing Temperatures?

As I pointed out in my last post, we've been getting below-freezing overnight temperatures. In my microclimate, I got three straight nights of below freezing temperatures. So, what do I do about my plants?

Some plants are definitely warm-loving, cold-hating plants. Those are mostly the veggies of summer like squash, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, ... Wait! Tomatoes!

Yeah, tomatoes like it hot. They are native to the sub-tropics. After several nights of near-freezing and a couple of nights of freezing temperatures, my beefsteak tomato is looking quite sad.

(Since he wasn't producing, I left him uncovered as a "control.")  On the other side of that bed, I threw a couple of sheets over the cherry tomato plant. It wasn't pretty...

but it seems to have done some good.

The outer leaves were they were touching the sheet were a little sad, but the rest is still doing fine. And, yes, I have had cherry tomato plants continue producing into February in a stupendously cold winter here in the valley. Of course, the plant was up against the house, under an eave, on a west-facing wall that got sun from noon.  But no other protection was offered.

I was a little worried about the lettuce, so I threw a sheet over them, too. Again, not at all pretty.

But after the freeze they were quite giggly and festive.

On other fronts, cabbage is a known cold-season crop. Cabbage can survive under a blanket of snow.

The white on the leaves is frost, like the kind you had to scrape off your windshield.  In this close-up, that droplet of water is actually a droplet of ice.

So, despite freezing temperatures and some less-than-lovely sheets hastily thrown over some plants, I still have plenty to harvest here in mid-December.

The basket has four or five kinds of lettuce, some beet greens, and baby bok choi. Tastes like summer! Yummy!