Lucky for us, here in Davidson County we tend to have fairly mild winters, so most fall crops we grow such as cabbage can overwinter outside. If we really want things to grow during the winter, we should probably look into how to prolong our seasons. The way we do that is through season extenders. There are several ways to do this I will discuss two in this post.
The first way would be to use what is known a floating row cover.
These row covers give your garden between 2 and 10 degrees of frost protection. Floating row covers are simply a spun bonded fabric that is draped over the crops. They trap heat during the day and hold it over night.
The second option you have is to build a high tunnel or a hoop house. What is a high tunnel? It's just what it sounds like. A tunnel that has a high roof. These are generally made out of PVC or electrical conduit and 6mil plastic covering. A high tunnel can really change your gardening life by allowing you to plant as much as a month or
two earlier than normal and extend your growing season by the same. A hoop house is generally the same thing but on a much smaller scale.If you decide you are tired of gardening for the season then you really need to think about putting the garden to bed. You should soil test your garden and get the ph in proper range first and then you should till or plow your garden to bury all diseases and insects that may be hanging around. Lastly you should plant a cover crop of winter rye. Winter rye helps the garden by preventing erosion, capturing nutrients from the subsoil and provides lots of organic matter to the soil when it is turned into the ground in the spring. Remember, winter rye is a grain like wheat and not rye grass!!!! If you only do one thing for your garden it should be to plant a cover crop every winter.
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