It’s been a whole five hours since I heard this morning’s news, and I still can remember that frost will be in the air for Worcester County and western Massachusetts this evening. Thanks to being a heat island with all our brick and pavement and such, Boston proper will make it only down into the low 40s. Whew.

If your ears have perked up with the sounding of the frost alarm, in all likelihood you’ll have just a light frost, one that will damage only the most sensitive summer veggies in your garden. If you’re so inclined, try these techniques to help them survive a little bit longer:

Cover sensitive plants overnight

While the sun is still out, break out that old set of sheets you never use anymore and cover the most sensitive plants. The sheets will act like a light coat and keep the temps slightly elevated underneath as the soil gives off heat. Remove those covers the next day. It could really heat up under there. Plus, your neighbors will start talking about you.

Water plants the night before Frost

Don’t have extra sheets or plant covers?

As evening sets in before frost, turn a hose on and water down the summer-loving veggies—the leaves, stems, fruit, etc.—and also the soil around the plants. The water around the foliage will freeze first or give up its heat first (it’s physics). Same with the moist soil.

After this one chilly night, our weekend weather is predicted to reach up into the 80’s. As I noted back in September, I eased up on my fall-harvest plantings this year, and a few summer stragglers are still hanging on. This is what will and won’t survive temperatures in the low 40s.

Rhubarb: Now that I have two plants, it’s interesting to observe them both. The large one started to give up the ghost four or five weeks back, with withering leaves and a general “time to go to bed now” demeanor. The smaller plant is still perky. Wonder why.

Zucchini and squash: Not a good year for them. Zucchini and squash also are not beefy enough to deal with temps too much colder than the low 50s. Still, the powdery mildew has been checked by the cooler weather. I had zucchini up until November last year. Maybe a quick one-night of 40s will be overcome.

Tomatoes: I have just two plants left and neither look great. It’s just cruel of me to keep them hanging on. But I do it to see how far they can go. Probably not much past frost.

Carrots: Carrots will be just fine for a long time yet, thanks to that insulating layer of soil.

Basil: Ahhh!!!!! I better go harvest that ASAP. It definitely won’t survive.

Leeks: I have a good batch of leeks going this year. Very excited about them. They’ll hang on for a good long time yet. I won’t have to worry about the leeks until November or so. At that time I will try to mount them with as much soil as possible. I could be lucky enough to harvest leeks in January if I work it right.

Broccoli: It’s loving this time of year.

Chard: Back in mid August I pulled up all of my chard. Or so I thought. On a few of the smaller plants I pulled the biggest leaves off, leaving the small runts behind. And on one plant, I kind of pulled it up by the root but not all the way, harvesting all but the tiniest leaves. Well, wouldn’t you know it, I have a batch of chard ready to go. And that halfway exposed root? It has sprouted individual plants from each area of exposed root. Kinda crazy I’d say.

Beets: Happy as clams in this weather. And I have a lot of them. Ill be harvesting them two by two for the rest of the month. I still have a whole jar of pickled beets in the fridge. Maybe I need to make another.