You should be fine, garlic can take temps down to 10F with no protection (but you can ale=ways put a row cover over each bed). everything else will be fine with row cover and/or a hoophouse. You can put gallon jugs of water in the houses and under the covers this morning so they have a chance to heat up all day and those jugs will act as heat sinks and should add enough heat so nothing gets injured

I had strawberries in full bloom back in 2007, a similar late winter/early spring with very warm temps in late march followed by 17F and high winds. They were in a simple, single layer, unheated hoophouse with row cover and they came through in perfect shape.

I'm on the line between a frost warning and a freeze warning. I'm taking the eggplant and peppers inside the house and have covered everything else in the hoophouse with row covers 2-3 layers. Hopefully this is only for a couple of nights. I don't want to add heat, not set up for that yet. My row covers inside the hoop protected my plants when it was 25 outside and 34 under the covers.

Marla

You should be fine. The moisture levels in the plants are not likely excessive, so cellular damage due to freezing won't be extensive. If anything, be careful about the plastic-covered plants, because a sunny day will raise those temperatures substantially, and the plants underneath will absorb more water, then if temps do dip substantially, they will be more vulnerable to damage. Remember that plants are able to adapt to NORMAL daily variations in temperature, but plants under plastic are subject to abnormal heating on sunny days, and only minimal cold protection from a single layer on cold nights. It is not so much the heat or cold that does damage, but the large changes that plants can't accommodate. This is why fabrics are often more effective than plastics.

Well we "dodged the bullet" here in CT
Thankfully the weather folks have kept their poor forcasting record intact as usual. After getting everyone all worked up about how cold it was going to get.
The 6:oo pm weather forcast yesterday was calling for temps. in the low 20's and maybe the teen's in the normally colder parts of the state.
It only got down to around 30 here.
I spent a good part of the day installing row cover that i didn't need. Better safe than sorry I guess.

I'm not sure exactly how cold it got here last night (Upstate NY) but it was a dry cold, there was no frost this morning, it was windy last night, so I guess the wind evaporated the dew. So is this good? Does the frost do the most damage? or is it just the cold?

We got down to 38, forecasted for 33. Tonight back in low 50s, tomorrow night and thursday another round of 30s. North of me was to get colder and had a freeze warning, I'm at the dividing line between frost advisory and freeze warning.

I covered just to be safe, and will keep those covers close for the next few weeks.

Marla, Zone 5b, Indiana

Where are you, rims? I'm on the edge of Hartford/Litchfield counties, it was 24 this morning and that's without the windchill.

I was tempted to plant my peas, lettuce, etc. this weekend - glad I didn't. Of course it will be (not quite as) cold again tonight, then raining the next 2 days so don't know when I'll get them started.

I hope the blueberry bushes are OK - not many berries the past 2 years (freeze 2010, rain 2011), I really need them this year! And DH had to uncover the strawberries last week (had pine boughs on them), don't know how those will do.

But the tomatoes and peppers I started in the house 2 weeks ago are looking good!

It was -6 the night before last and -8 last night. It should hover around 0 for next few days. I covered the large lettuce up two nights ago with plastic and will leave it on for the next week until it is consistently over freezing.

I am hoping all the other stuff I seeded will be fine because they hadn't come up yet.

It got colder than I thought.
I need to get a better thermometer.
One of my friends cross town woke up to a temp. of 22 at his house. I sustained some damage to the lettuce and hakurie turnip's that I had under plastic tunnels. The beets under row cover took a hit as well. What a crazy year we are having so far. It is so dry here that I am having to irrigate on a regular basis. To keep all of the newly planted seedlings going. BTW I am in SE CT aismama.
The buds on our blueberrys have swelled but have not yet opened so I think they are OK. Good luck with your strawberry's. I talked to someone from the CT DPT. OF AG last week he told me some growers in state had Strawberry's with flowers on them. I can.t imagine that they fared well with the temp. dipping into the low 20's

Wow, I figure if you're in SE CT you're in warmer zone than we are (we used to live in Salem/Niantic/Norwich 20yrs ago, didn't garden then). Sounds like we had about the same temps. Been dry here too - hope we get some rain today (well, I don't need it yet, but hope you get some).

Hope your beets and turnips had minor damage to the leaves and recover. Lettuce is easy to replant.

Our blueberries are budding like crazy, but looked OK (as far as I could tell) yesterday. Some of the stawberries don't look so good, but that's from all winter, not just this week. They're wild/alpine so we'll see how they fare. No flowers on those yet here thank goodness.

Those are cold temperatures in the low 20's,the row covers can't protect for that unless you double what you have or put heavy black plastic on top of the row covers.It's a hassle to do it but it's better then frost damage on your plants.We had a similar freeze in the low 20,s in Jan, and my veggies barely survived some got damaged, though from now on I double my protection.

Because of the dry conditions, you would do well to add mulch right after the rains. This will help to keep the moisture in the top of the bed, where it will do the most good, and cut down on your water use. With the limited snow cover we got in New England this year, it's worth thinking about ground water levels now.

Thats a great Idea bil 1me.
I want to mulch my early spring transplants as soon as possible. We did get some rain today but it only soaked in about an inch or so. I have planted a fair amount of onion and leek starts, some bok choi, chinese cabbage, kale,and collards in the last few weeks. I have had to water them on a regular basis.If I didn't water them several times I am sure I would have lost them. This is causing me to worry about what the normally dryer parts of the season will bring.

I'm allowing 3-5 degrees per layer with what row cover that I have. Sometimes have 3 layers. We have 3 nites of 38 coming up. I'll be ready to start taking things out of the hoop house, I'm running out of room.

Marla

Snow tomorrow! Low of 29 forecast for here, some of the blueberries are getting flower buds, I hope they'll be OK!

First blueberry blossom today, lots of buds (except for the ones deep in the woods), hope they don't freeze tomorrow night (supposed to be 27)!

We found a strawberry blossom or two, about a month early.

Marla

My strawberries are in full flower and making berries. I will have to drag out the Agripro 30 weight covers and cover them tonight so we don't lose fruit (not the end of the world as these are day neutral and will produce more flowers over and over again). This is the earliest we have ever gotten berries without using a hoophouse by about 8 weeks.

Set out some lettuce and pea seedlings today under row cover with plastic over top. Temps forecast around 20 tonight -we'll see if they survive. If you push the limits, I guess you have to be willing to take some losses.