I've gathered my tomato plants up onto the back porch, on the assumption that my house sheds enough heat to warm them a degree or two. I plan to take some into the house and put row cover over the rest.

I'm wondering if I leave my back porch light on, if the incandescent bulb will shed enough heat to have any effect?

The mini Christmas lights are only about 25 watts per 50-bulb strand. That means low-cost electric use but a bathroom heater would use the equivalent of 2,000 lights, plus (40 strands)! Still they could help if they are on the periphery. I seem to remember that the larger lights are 4 to 9 watts, each.

You may have an old quilt. If that went over the top of the plastic, it could really help. The soil temperature at the bottom of those raised beds could be above 50 degrees. The sunlight will soon warm the air under the plastic after the quilt is pulled off. And, if you can wait until the outdoor temps are to that level before uncovering - the entire bed will be that warm. (I'm thinking clear, Colorado skies. ;o)

Steve

Wow, I didn't realize the wattage was quite that low on the mini-lights. I haven't dug them out yet. It would take a LOT of lights in there! We do have a very small electric heater. Maybe I should put that out in the bed w/ the tomato, zuch & cuke and add some lights for gee whiz around the edges. All that's in the other bed I'm trying to keep is a couple of pepper plants. I can hang a regular light bulb near them (a hanging work light) , and that could work. I do have some blankets as well I'll put out.

I'm just not quite ready to give up the plants yet! The tomato is just starting to ripen the masses (it's a determinate plant), and there are a lot of "almost ready" zuchinni on the plants. I think the cooler temperatures are affecting the zuchs, they are growing VERY slowly.

You are right about the beds warming up fast with the plastic! I have to be sure to open them up in the mornings, as it starts getting pretty hot in there. I put a remote thermometer in each bed so I can check from the house, and one of them read 93 yesterday morning by about 9:30. I've been leaving the plastic on but open in the mornings to keep it warm, then I take it off for a few hours mid-day so the plants get some actual sunlight, and put it back in the afternoon to try and keep them warm. Kind of a pain, but I'm home right now anyway, so I can do it. I won't try to keep them for too much longer, I just think they (or I??) need a couple more weeks.

I'm watching a neighbor who has put out lots and lots of row covers, hoping that they will do the trick on their own. We are also supposed to have 45 mph wind gusts today, before the small hail and rain.

So, if you see any UFO's going by this afternoon, they might just be my neighbors row covers on their way to Kansas.

I put tarps on everything last night and am keeping them on for tonight. The winds already ripped the only plastic I dared to put out. Maybe I will see if I can find some old sheets for that bed. Not really a bed, but a pumkin? volunteer that has really taken off. It has three fruits on it that have just gone crazy. I hate to give them up, but it is what it is. Hope the tarps save the tomatoes and peppers. Have a bunch of fruits on them that are not even close to ripe. We are supposed to get to 32 tonight, we'll see, especially since we were supposed to warm up to 67, 47 was more like it. Weathermen, uggghhh!!!

Billie

I've given up on the zucchini. I have plenty in the house, and the bees have all gone to bed, so I doubt if they're getting fertilized. I cut one off yesterday and ate it. Mmm. Fresh, young zucchini!

I have five tomatoes in my plant room. Carrying large tomato pots upstairs was certainly good exercise. I stripped the Amish Paste of the bigger tomatoes and plucked a couple Roma as well, even though they're still green, then those two plus two others I've put up against the house on the back porch and covered them with row cover. I may leave the back porch light on for more warmth. It's right over the plants.

The potatoes are still green, but this week will probably finish them. I'm hoping the cold weather will kill off the aphids on the broccoli without killing the broccoli. I don't know if there's any hope for them, but they're still alive, so I won't pull them yet.

It's cold inside without a working furnace. I have a couple heaters going, but it's still cold in the places where the heaters aren't. I'm trying to think of something I need to bake in the oven. I've been using it instead of the microwave for reheating just as an excuse to have it on.

I finally set up my dehydrator, and I chopped some mint and basil to dry.

Good grief lilacs, what's the matter with your heater? Can't it be fixed?

Billie

My furnace cut out last March. It needs to be fixed or replaced, but that's moot since I can't afford either. I haven't worked in a year. I'm behind in my mortgage, and that comes before the furnace. I've been desperately searching for jobs that will pay the bills, but in almost 40 years of being in the job force, I've NEVER seen it this bad. Usually I can find something. I might be underpaid and underemployed, but this time -- NOTHING.

I've taken to sleeping during the day while it's warmer. I can't sleep in the cold. If I'm up and moving around it's not as bad.

Now I know what the Depression must have been like. I'm just glad that I have a freezer in the garage with a lot of food in it, plus a ton of peaches.

We ended up covering the beds with blankets under plastic. One bed has an old comforter over the section with the peppers, the sheer curtain over the rest, and the whole thing covered with plastic. The other bed (zuch, cuke, tom & watermelon) has some old wool blankets over the bulk of it (the melon has just the sheer) with plastic over the whole thing and a small heater set to a very low temp (I don't know a number, DH set it a little below where it kicked on the other night when did this, I think it was in the 40's?? My hands were really cold when I came in, that's all I remember...

We just used plastic for a couple days and watched the temps in the beds. The blankets make a huge difference! With just the plastic, it was only a degree or so above outside, and the difference between the 2 got smaller every hour. With the blankets, it's a much bigger difference. Right now, it's 29.3 on the back porch (that thermometer was reading a little warmer than the ones in the garden the other day - so lilacsofmay, I think you're right about the house throwing off heat). It's 38.5 where my peppers are (I have 3). I don't have a thermometer for the rest of the bed. I guess I'll see when the bean plants freeze. It's 39.6 in the other bed (with the little heater). I think the heater must have kicked on, since that one has been reading a little cooler than the pepper for days.

I have been uncovering the gardens when it's sunny and warm-ish, so they can get some straight sunlight. Mid-afternoon, I try to recover them while the sun is still out to let it all heat up a little better. Today was not very warm, so this morning I pulled the blankets out around 10 and left the plastic closed. About noon, I checked temps and they were mid-80's, so I opened the end of each bed. This afternoon around 3 or 3:30 I recovered them. Should've probably done it a little earlier though. I would have liked them to start out warmer for tonight.

This is partially an learning experiment for me/us, and partially because I'm just not ready to quit yet. It looked today like the zuchinni that were just too small to pick the other day, have grown. Maybe this is going to work! I'm looking forward to an early start next spring. This is giving me a good idea of what I might be able to expect. I'll only use the heater for a couple days. I'm not trying to keep this stuff alive all winter by any means.

I hope this doesn't sound like I think I've made some great discovery, I know otherwise...it's just that from some things I've read, I didn't expect as much of a temp difference as I'm seeing, so I'm pretty happy about it.

lilacs - I know what you mean about jobs and all. I was laid off in November and have not been able to find anything either. I hope your luck changes soon. You might try the Salvation Army and the local churcher, they might be able to help with the heater and the morgage.

greenbean - sounds like you made a great discovery. If I would have thought about it, I would have pulled the old sheets from the other house and put them down before the tarps, next week. I want the stuff that is still on the plants to ripen... well maybe I want to see how long I can keep them alive too, just I am not running heaters anywhere outside ever again. My DH ran one in the well pit and forgot about it. 4 months of $400 + electric bills (the norm in winter is $200 - $250) before I figured out what was happening, killed the savings.
So if your zucs are growing, maybe my last few yellows will be biggger too, yeah.

Billie

lilacs, you may be able to find someone who is selling a used unvented gas heater for less than $100. They are fairly easy to install and would save you a lot compared to running electric heaters over the winter. And they're not stinky like kerosene heaters.

Billie,
At least I can't really forget that this heater is plugged in, it's on an extension cord that's plugged in next to the front door. I have to step over the bright orange cord whenever I use the front door. Plus, that's the door I use 90% of the time to get to the garden. Plus, I nearly tripped over it yesterday. I'm thinking I'll unplug it tomorrow, since I think it's supposed to get warmer.

I didn't uncover anything today. Didn't even pull out the blankets. There was no sunshine out there today! The pepper area did get to 65 at one point today. Not really sure how...

Much of CO is the envy of the greenhouse people, elsewhere. Winter sunlight data can be awesome . . . especially if you are looking at it from a location where sunrise and sunset occur just over 8 hours apart on December 21st & Pacific Ocean overcast creeps 100's of miles inland during Winter months. Bah!

I say, "harness that solar power!"

Regarding cozying up our own homes: I once lived in a one & one-half story home with "modern" electric heating. The living room had a lovely fireplace.

When my feet swung out of bed and hit those downstairs floorboards on a Winter morning, they darn near froze in place!

Heat from downstairs migrated up an open stairway to a "toasty" second story. Firing up the fireplace turned the upstairs into an oven . . . and had little effect at ground floor level.

I went off to the used building supply store and found 2 doors to close off the stairwell. Went off to the sheetmetal shop and paid them (I think $20 then) to make a metal wall with an opening for a flue to close the fireplace. Went off to a hardware store and bought the cutest, little cast-iron stove.

Instead of throwing prime tamarack firewood into the gargantuan maw of the fireplace, I placed nearly kindling sized sticks into the little stove. This stove was small enuf I could carry out of the living room after the weather warmed.

By closing off the stairwell and placing a small stove on the fireplace hearth, I turned a very bad situation into a cozy one.

digitS'

Greenbean, I didn't really make an attempt to extend my season this year. I have several containers of lettuce that I intended to put in the garden once I pulled out some of the warm season veggies. They are still alive, and sitting on the porch. There are a few carrots left in the ground, but other than that I harvested everything a day before our first frost.

Digit, I have the opposite problem with the heat. Our thermostat is in the same room where the gas fireplace is located, so when we run it, the heat won't kick on to heat the rest of the house, so upstairs turns into an icebox. It's not been a problem yet, as we haven't turned on the heat or the fireplace yet. I have turned the space heater on in my youngest child's room the past few nights though, since her bedroom is the coldest spot in the house. I guess I'm fortunate to be on a mesa with no mature trees at this time of year, because as soon as the sun comes up, the house warms up nicely. Now when the winds start up in the spring, being up on the ridge isn't so much fun!

Bonnie

When I was very little, we lived in a duplex that was heated by a coal-fired furnace. In winter, we'd jump out of bed and run into the furnace room to get dressed there, shivering the whole time.

Now I have to heat a 3-bedroom house with two heaters and a stove. The circuits won't take any more than that. Reminds me of old times.

As I recall, back then I used a cat-heated bed as well. But I've upgraded since then. Now I have five cats, three of them long-haired.

I really do have to get a bigger bed. With five cats sprawled across it, there's not a lot of room for the human.

Steve, it only took me one full Alaska winter, and the start of a second, to really appreciate that Colorado sunshine.

Aahh, cat heaters. They're pretty good! One of my 2 is an incredible heater. She plops her fat little belly onto your lap, and you're warm...She is also a huge fan of the Colorado sunshine. She does miss her Alaska woodstove though I think.

I wake up in the morning usually with a 90 lb dog at or on my feet (he just doesn't get that the 2nd fluffy bed-like thing on the floor is for him - my cat sleeps on the dog bed more than that dog), the other 85 lb dog on DH's pillow (she climbs in sometime after he gets out. He has to cover his pillow with an extra throw blanket because of her) and at least one of the 2 cats. This week the little fat one's been trying to sleep on my head. The big one is waiting for me to move so he can yell at me for his breakfast. He's not a reliable heater, he likes to sleep close to me during the summer more than the winter. Go figure.
I do understand needing a bigger bed... :)

Using lights to help fight off a frost has a couple rules: Use the most inefficient lights you can--incandescent is much "better" on this count than florescent. Power consumption=heat. Tiny lights use very little power and produce very little heat. The bigger the light, the more heat it releases. Finally, use an enclosure to prevent air exchange/movement. Heat rises, you have to hold it down where your plants are.

Turning on the yardlight on your porch really won't warm the porch unless it is enclosed to hold the heat in, and then it must have a small enough volume for the heat from the light to offset the losses. Covers such as plastic to prevent air movement and insulating blankets to prevent conduction work best, then strings of power consuming lights or small heaters to offset the colder nights.

I always found that for an overnight frost, covering with a tarp to the ground all the way around the plants will protect down to about 28 degrees. But if it hits freezing at dark and stays below all night or goes below 28, even that won't save the plants without heat. When that is in the forecast, I just pick everything and quit covering.

Looks like we'll be doing a "just in case" picking next week. They're forecasting 24 for Wed night I think. I'm not going to use the heater. It's supposed to be high 70's tomorrow, and the plants will have a few days to grow. Then we'll pick and still cover, but I'm not heating (or using lights). At least that's my plan...I might cave and try to save them again...

I picked a zucchini tonight... the tomatoes aren't doing much. I have some cukes growing. Even the beans are still trying. I picked just enough to put (raw) on our spinach salads tonight. I cut them back a while ago to try and get another harvest. They're only about 4 inches tall, but they're starting more beans. I should have done it earlier I think.

My parents used to use a 150 watt lightbulb to keep the pipe from the water heater, which was in a little shed attached to the outside of the house, to the (underinsulated) kitchen from freezing in the Vermont winter. That was a hot light bulb. They have a much better set-up now... an on-demand heater, INSIDE the house, plus some added insulation in general.

Well, one bed is dead. The zucchini, tomato and cucumber froze Wednesday night. The outside temp was down to 18. It got cold early, about 10:30 pm or so, and stayed that way for several hours.

At midnight, it was 19 outside, 31 in the pepper area and 28 in the cukes & zuchs. I'm going to keep covering the peppers, just to see what happens, too see how long they can survive.

The pepper is still fine. It was covered with an old comforter under the plastic. It has it's own little area, about 2'x 4' under the blanket, and they aren't very tall, so there's a smaller space to protect than the other bed had.

Of course, I watched the weather forecast tonight, and I almost wish I had put the heater back in. The next week doesn't look too bad... Oh well. We did get about 2 dozen more baby zuchs and a couple normal sized ones before it froze.

I stripped what tomatoes I could from the plants outside, but very few have turned red. The plants indoors are producing some ripe ones. The Viva Italia all decided to ripen at once. I'm still waiting on the Roma, Sausage, and cherry.

I actually saw a bee outside today. I think she's a little confused.

When I get under the covers, my little girl cat likes to snuggle in with me for a while and purr and lick my hand. Then she runs off. The others curl up on top of the covers. Usually they're wherever I am in the house, but anymore the lazy sots are all sacked out on the bed in front of the heater.

Snuggly cats are awesome.

I dug up all of my potatoes several days ago. The Kennebec did well. The Purple Majesty was a disappointment. Unfortunately, I put the potatoes on my counter to dry, and a lot of them are turning green. That means I have to peel them before I use them, and I usually like to leave the peels on.