Oh No! Hard Freeze!

Oh No! A hard freeze has hit and I didn't protect my plants!

Well, join the club. As you can see from the above picture, I tried to cover the plants with plastic only to find out the next morning that it was sorely insufficient.  Since I water "from the bottom" the pots were all stuck in ice blocks.

Not only that but being the "dumb-dumb" that I am, I left my seedlings (lettuce) outside and I'm almost certain I've lost them. 

And speaking of lettuce...  These three grown from seed (I now grow just about everything from seed) might manage to bounce back if I'm not too late. 

The Gamble

So the pride and joy of my garden are the many aloe vera plants I've cultivated through the years - all grown from one "momma" plant.  A couple of years ago, we had another hard freeze and I tried using a tent to shield my babies from the chill. This also failed miserably, so you'd think that I would have learned my lesson. 

But, alas! By being lazy (which almost never works when trying to save money), and partially because I was coming down with the flu, I only chose "momma" plant and two others to come inside and replace the Christmas tree. 

The Solution

So while all of us were nice and toasty inside, you can just imagine how my poor babies were suffering in spite of makeshift greenhouses (more on that in future posts).

So what am I doing to fix the situation?  Well, as you can see from the above picture, as soon as I got up this morning and assessed the gravity of the situation, I immediately brought in my lettuce and lettuce seedlings inside.  Next time, with all the ample time my weatherman gives about pending hard freezes, I will make more (much more!) of an effort to save my plants.  True it might be a hassle to bring everything in only to bring everything out again, but the alternative of losing most if not all of my prized "babies" is much MUCH worse.

UPDATE:

 Well, for the last 8 hours my lettuce has been inside enjoying toasty 77 degrees next to the sunny windows and seem to be responding well.  The iceberg which was their watering pots have thawed evenly and they look no worse for wear.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the poor, poor seedlings which had already started out leggy due to insufficient light at their birth.  I'll check back tomorrow and see how they've improved (ha!) or otherwise.