One method used to protect frost-tender ornamentals when overnight temperatures get lower than usual here is to string holiday lights on them. The small amount of heat from the tiny bulbs, especially if the whole plant is under row cover, is usually enough to save the plant. It works especially well for plants trellised on the wall of a house, where an electrical outlet is handy.
Cloud Cover is another product that's been used to protect plants, but I don't know if it's ok to use on edibles. It's an antitranspirant and the MSDS says it's ethylene glycol.
I'm a member of a tomato forum, where backyard growers talk about doing all kinds of creative things to protect their plants from cold snaps. Covering with whatever is at hand is the easiest thing to do, but you want to make sure that the cover is not touching the plant, because the layer of air between plant and cover provides some insulation. Do you have trellis material or fencing or wire cages you can prop up next to the plants as frames for a cover? The covering can be anything -- old blankets, cardboard boxes, sheets of plastic, etc. -- as an overnight cover, or something that transmits light if you need to cover them for several days and nights. (I use bubble wrap around my tomato cages until late May.) Some tomato growers cover their plants and burn candles inside to add some heat, but the structure needs to be fairly stable and not flammable!
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