Hi Lisa,

Have you considered making a cheap hoop house. Take several wooden bender boards and arch them over into a semi circle of sort. And nail bender boards together to form a semi rigid frame.

Make several of these semi-circles and screw/nail the semi-circle/hoop onto stakes in the ground. It doesn't have to be that big. only 4' - 5' wide on the ground.

Next take a clear painters plastic sheet (drop cloth) 10'x20' and stape 2"x2"x10' wooden pole along the edge. 10' width of the plastic gets stapled along the length of the pole.

Drape the plastic over the hoop then staple another 2"x2"x10' pole along the bottom edge of the plastic. The 2"x2" wooden pole on both sides helps to keep the plastic firmly in place without blowing around.

Cut off excess plastic. Use the excess to cover up the both ends of the opening.

In the winter time, I read that you can make a hot bed by burying thick layer of horse manure to compost (18 inch layer). cover it with 6" of sand/soil and let it cook. When the soil temperature drops back down to 90F place your potted plants and flats on the sand. it will keep it warm for weeks. Paraphrasing from "The Backyard Homestead", Carleen Madigan ed. copyright 2009. I also like this book. detailed description is on page 34. And if you place the cheap hoop with plastic drop "cloth" over the hot bed, I expect that you could be growing herbs in dead of winter.

Hoops can be reused for several season I imagine. And the $8.00 plastic, well I think it'll be good for only one winter.

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suggested plants for winter growing according to winter harvest handbook. SPINACH. I also read that spinach will produce sugar to help protect itself against the cold so the spinach grown in colder climate will be much sweeter and more tender. Other suggestions I read are lettuce and carrots. Kale and the like will stop producing new leaves when it gets cold so not so good.

BTW, our spinach was wiped out so we are trying a new batch freshly picked baby spinach is soo soo good. yummo.