Thanks for this post. I am glad to find it for reference. I had planted some cucumbers 🥒 and zucchini in early August this year (way later than normal!. Now, it’s October 2. The cucumber plants haven’t grown too much still, but the zucchini's now have large plants with the orange “lilies” (blooms) on them, which turn into squash soon.. It’s in the 40s tonight, here in mid-Ohio, and I was worried. , i need to go shopping for a tarp or buckets to protect them for the next few nights. I’d feel sad if they got this close to developing squash, and then were frosted out! Thanks for the advice!

Don't worry about privet. It's almost indestructible. I remember planting what seemed like thousands of mail-order plants around our property in St. Louis around Easter. Jim dug a trench and I put them in. And I thought we'd never finish! But it was a fabulous hedge. I mulched the row with leaves and grass clippings and never had to water. Just remember when you trim it to make it slightly narrower at the top. That way the bottom won't get scraggly. Good luck! Sunny

Oh you'll be surprised how cold things can get and still survive. I've seen 26 degrees in my home made simple greenhouse and my super tropicals came through without a scratch and some of my supposed-to-be hardy plants died. It all depends on what kind of cold it is - is it humid? is the air moving around inside the greenhouse? how long did it stay cold? Portable electric heaters usually top out at 1500 watts and all pretty much give you the same amount of heat. You can't run anything stronger on a normal power cord. I use one under a tent of thin plastic sheeting set up inside the greenhouse. Sort of a greenhouse inside the greenhouse. You'd be surprised how warm it keeps things (you have to keep it small, I use it mainly for orchids). I use a regular kerosene heater for back up when things get really cold (I'm in zone 7b, Raleigh NC). A standard room heater cost around $135 at any hardware store. The killer is that you HAVE to buy the super expensive fuel - 5 gallons for $45. It will be clear and usually low odor. The cheaper red-dyed stuff will clog your wick in a couple of months and wicks are impossibly hard to change. Though stinky and messy they give off a huge amount of heat. Keep in mind that some plants are very sensitive to Ethylene gas which is odorless and given off my burning kerosene. My current greenhouse is large and I can just move anyone having a problem 10 feet away and the problem goes away. I now have an old massive wood burning stove as my primary heat source and love it. Wood is next to free for me and the blower unit on the stove moves a lot of air. I can normally get a 20 degree gain with just the wood fire and an extra 10-15 if I run the kero heater at the same time. Last night was 24 around here and the greenhouse stayed above 50. The downside (besides being very messy) is that the fire has to be managed all night long. Sometimes I can damper things down and get 3 hours of sleep between fire tending but other times everything burns up in an hour - it all depends on the wood and the humidity. You always want to have a small fan blowing the air around no matter how small your greenhouse is. I find the cheap plastic floor fans with the largest blades move the most air. A lot of "tropical" plants can handle a light frost without damage, even orchids and bromeliads. They just can't handle it every night. Once or twice is about all.

All of my garden plants that were budding or in bloom fared just fine in the high 30's, even the toms and peppers seem unphased. But then I actually raised them in similar temperatures in the greenhouse to promote stockier plants even though they grow slower under those conditions. It worked like a charm, they are the healthiest, biggest, bushiest young plants I've ever set out. Whether it adversely affects their mature height or production at all remains to be seen, this was something I tried based on reading info from the greenhouse growers forum. But so far so good.