A hard freeze (22 degrees at 3 AM) got the tomatoes. The straw and buckets weren’t enough.
But I have back ups and put SOME of those in. Tonight is supposed to be just a frost, but I decided to try those cheap styrofoam coolers placed upside down over the plants.
Man, I hate finding more reasons to justify keeping junk.
I live in La. We usually have had our air conditioners running danged near non stop for over a month by now. I’ve probably had them on only a couple of times during the day this year. I woke up about 4:00 this morning and reached over by hubby and grabbed my share of our heavy comforter, (I was covering the bed with a light Chenille this time last year) and mumbled, ‘global warming my ass” as I tucked it up under my chin. It woke him up and he laughed.
cheap styrofoam coolers placed upside down over the plants.<<<
But my hobby has always been finding a use for junk, there was a time, back in the 1960’s when my family swore they were afraid to stand still, as they were in danger of being spray painted with gold paint and called an art object.
LOL, then we went to black for the wrought iron effect.
What I did not spray paint, I covered in paper mache or cloth mache...........which is simple and lasts longer.
Strips of cloth, dipped in a mixture of about half Elmer’s white glue, half water and smoothed down with a regular sponge.
LOL, now with that formula, you can cover anything.
On your picnic coolers........why not save the milk and large soda bottles, fill them with hot water and put them under the cooler with the plants......
It would not be a total waste, as the water gets dumped on the ground and irrigates and you refill again.
I kept them in my garden area, to warm in the sunlight and give off heat at night..........
Those fancy “Wall of Water”, things that they make to protect plants, are nothing more than a bottle of water, that sit in a circle around the plant, heat in the sun and give off the heat as they cool.
The fancy name would be ‘passive solar heating’.
If you circle the plants with bottles of water and covered them with plastic, you would have the same thing for free.
These tomatoes will grow...