Freeze Warnings and Plants Don’t Mix

I’ve never really worried about it before. Our gardens and window boxes survived harsh temperatures in the Midwest and on our tiny patio garden on Capitol Hill. But since we moved to northern Virginia several months ago we have a balcony garden of sorts. What it is is three “window box” coco lined planters that are zip tied to the back of the seats. In summer, they were filled with petunias and faced out. Now in fall-winter the backs of the seats face toward us so we can see the planters from the living room. Ginkgo gardens helped us with the selections both times. We used to go there regularly when we lived on Capitol Hill and they provided the flowers curbside. The last bunch was pansies, English ivy and liriope. Everything seemed to be going well until freeze warnings were posted last week. It was just too early for a freeze! So I cut off a large piece of plastic from a roll that we had gotten to use on the floor in the foyer so we could “sanitize” every box and grocery bag these last several months. The plastic was wrapped around the containers with staples in place, and then I kept my fingers crossed overnight. The next day the plastic was removed and the plants seemed to look okay. I watered them a bit hoping to avoid root rot, and was happy to see that two new pansies bloomed just today. It was so nice to see that they survived the night. The next additions will be living greens for the holidays. That may be a trick to find this year.