Saving the plants from the snow!

The last snow storm I was worried about my potato plants freezing so I drug in my one pot. By pot I mean my 10 gallon rubber bin I turned into a pot.  Unfortunately the dog decided the compost in the planted smelled really good and dug it up... all over my living room. Now that it is snowing... again... I am not going to be bringing in the plants that I just replanted for the dog to have another fun day.

Here comes more snow. 

 After talking to my Mom (a long time gardener), we came up with a 4 step plan. 1. Cover the planter in at least an inch of compost. 2. Cover the compost with another few inches of "mulch."  3. Keep the pot next to my door, and 4. cover the whole thing with cloth.

1. The rotting compost produces some heat. Placing thick layer of it on top of the just sprouting potato and onions plants should help with frost.  I am mostly worried about the delicate sprouts freezing.

2. I put the word mulch in parentheses because I don't have any mulch in the traditionally sense of the word. I couldn't justify getting a whole bale of hay for maybe 10 pots, nor could i see myself buying more bags of mulch that any unused will just take up space.  So I am using shredded newspaper   I don't know how effective it will be, but I am hoping for the best.

3.  My apartment doors leak a lot of heat.  While it stinks for my heating bill, my plants should love it.

4.  Covering the plants should hopefully help the plants sticking out from the mulch and compost.

You can see the onion sticking straight out. 

Overall I feel like this plan should save the potatoes, however I am a little worried about the onions.  I already have one that is sticking out several inches.  I am not too worried about losing it though.  I mostly planted the onions to try and keep pests away from the potato plants, so I can always plant more.

Anybody have any good tip, or tricks for dealing with spring snow storms?

Shared at the home acre hop