There are many things that will dissolve latex paint & not an oil based type varnish. I am guessing that you might have a knotty pine tongue & groove paneling. Whatever you have if you try to dissolve the paint then its gonna get into all of the cracks & crevices & then be practically impossible to remove. If I were in your shoes looking to accomplish the same thing here is what I would do......bite the bullet & find a tool that effectively scrapes the paint off the flat areas. This might be a well worn putty knife or 5-1 tool or a carbide paint scraper. Buy a contour tool with multiple blades to scrape out the crevices. Use "Goof Off", lacquer thinner or whatever solvent is working for you, put it on a rag & rub on the missed areas. Use a permanent brown sharpie or whatever is close & color the areas where the paint can't be removed, sand down all of the varnished pine & apply 2 coats of poly or varnish for the best results.

Ok now I'm really getting confused. There are no indications of frost damage whatsoever in the photos. The plants are clearly anemic. But given the mixed info given there is no sure way to tell why. First, why in zone 5 are these tiny young plants already buried in deep mulch. Far too early as the ground hasn't sufficiently warmed up yet, especially for squash, and cool soil temps can cause nutrient uptake problems. Plus you need to pull the mulch back to a 4-6" circle around the plants until they are well established. All that high carbon mulch is further leaching nitrogen from the plants not to mention encouraging pests. Second, "garden soil enriched with well rotted compost, pure alfalfa pellets, dried chicken feathers and a little lime to counteract our alkaline soil" could easily be NOT "rich" soil since there are minimal if any nutrients in it for the plants. Decomposition takes time - lots of time - and is wholly dependent on soil bacteria activity and soil temps. Third, one should never play around with either lime or sulfa (BIG difference between the two) without absolute knowledge of their soil pH. Doing so only creates further nutrient problems. Fourth, define "well-watered" please. Unfortunately to many new gardeners that often means daily. Which is usually drowning them. IMO your plants need to be UN-mulched for a couple of weeks and fed some form of readily available nutrients and your soil needs to be professionally tested so you know what you are actually working with. Dave

Are you commenting about my reply? I'm sorry if it wasn't clear. The second part is to say that somebody might recognize your plants, no matter what condition they are in now. Knowing what plant(s) you have would enable others to provide specific feedback about that plant. There are many succulents that don't mind freezing temps, some that can survive from the roots but the existing growth will turn to mush in a hard frost, and some that would just be killed. I hope your plants end up OK. :)

I'm no expert, just an amateur who grows several kinds of these South African plants. Your appears to be either Aloe ferox or Aloe merlothii. In my garden here in the Sonoran Desert that straddles the US/Mexican border, my several aloes are planted in the ground, so I don't have the option of moving them indoors when temperatures drop below freezing. (Yes, we do get frosts several times each winter; and routine June days of 110). If winter dawn temperatures drop below 29 F (about -1.6 C), I cover my aloes with cloths raised on stakes so the fabric doesn't touch the leaves. As with all succulents, if the plant is too plumped with water when frost comes, the plant is more vulnerable to damage as cells freeze and rupture. I water mine with a frequency based on temperatures, viz.: 90+ weekly; 80s alternate weeks; 70s every three weeks; 60 or below monthly or less. These tidy and easy-to-remember Farenheit numbers translate to Celcius at about 32.2+ weekly; 26.6+ alternate weeks; 21+ every three weeks; 15.5 monthly or less. If in doubt -- as when temperatures are variable, or there has been a lot of rain -- skip watering for a week. Getting to your question: I think the small grey ovoid thumb-print-sized spots are likely frost damage, which may turn blackish as they rot. Be very restrained with watering, to minimize expansion of rot spots. The bands of irregular green will probably even out. The tannish band across the base of that one leaf looks like it is preparing to die. Let it become brittle and rigid enough to snap off. From time to time, bend it gently; if it does not snap, leave it alone. If it will not snap off, do not cut if off, as that would expose living interior flesh to bacteria that will promote rot. Keep an eye on the spots; if they stay the same size, even if they blacken, the rest of the leaf should be okay. Eventually the leaf will age out as new ones grow out from the center, and when the old leaf becomes russet and brittle you can snap it off. In your photo, the soil looks both heavy and wet, and the pot plastic. If you can find a sack of cactus soil, re-pot the aloe in an unglazed terracotta pot, and raise the pot on clay feet or a bed of pebbles. Raising the pot allows the soil to drain rapidly when you water it, and the terracotta pot allows the soil to breath. These two types of aloe grow in the African wild in open grasslands, which is to say they can take as much sun as you can give them (other aloes prefer bright dappled shade). As another writer has suggested, you can always start with a new plant. If you pursue that, wait till weather warms a bit, and start out with the right soil and pot and watering schedule. Good luck with this, as everyone benefits from a bit of green in their lives. And happy New Year.