Put it in there and don’t worry about killing plants. When I was growing up on the farm, my dad used to put canvas or plastic sheets over our citrus trees and leave a bucket of coals and ashes from the stoves when freezing temps were expected. We never lost a single tree.
Thank you for your reply - I remember growing up in Florida and they used smudge pots to keep the orange trees warm - the sky would be black with smoke but the fruit survived.