2016 Garden - Starting Early

I don't know yet if the winter tomato idea will work. We haven't had freezing temps yet.
My original idea was to over winter a couple dozen tomato cuttings so I could have a head start next year.
Some tomatoes started coming up in the raised beds from the compost, so I am letting several of those grow.
I also cut back some of my favorite tomatoes at the end of the season and put them in pots.
They are 1 to 2 foot tall stumps that are having new growth with blossoms and newly set fruit.

 

It sounds like you will at least have green tomatoes. Not a bad thing at all. I understand that they will stop fruiting at about 40 deg temps. And lower will just stop them from growing.
I read somewhere that planting too early (and causing them to stop growing) is actually less productive than planting at the right time.
I like to try and get a head start too. The heirlooms are the ones I grow for the most part and just start them indoors in Feb, getting them into larger and larger pots until they can go outdoors.
But it's always fun to experiment. You might have a mild enough winter to get lucky!

From what I read we are going to get very cold, so I might try something like your tent and see what I can get away with through winter. Probably lettuce, but I hope to at least get my soil in shape for spring.

 

Ha! Clearly I just looked at the photos. I was thinking "yummm baby potatoes.". I was unaware you could plant whole garlic cloves. I have zero exp. with garlic.

 

Anyone ever tried the potatoes growing in a 5 gal bucket? Check it out on Youtube. I might give that a shot come spring. Easy digging.

 

I put a low tunnel over the raised bed where I planted my winter potatoes and garlic.

 

The high tunnel is already running out of space.

In the low tunnel the garlic and potatoes are already coming up.

 

When the weather started getting too cold and the tomato plants were starting to die back I dug up the stumps of a few of my favorites. I am hoping I will be able to keep them alive over the winter. Left to right they are Persimmon, Berkley Tie Dye and Black Krim.

I also rooted cuttings from some of the others. The roma ones probably wont survive the winter but maybe some of the others will.

The garlic is about 4 or 5 inches tall

and the white fingerling potatoes have come up.

 

So it still gets cold in that thing huh?