Garden season extenders allow northern gardeners to grow crops of warm-weather plants like tomatoes and peppers longer in the fall, grow cool-weather crops through the winter and start our spring gardens earlier.
Garden season extenders, in the form of row covers, cloches, or cold frames, have become an integral part of my garden in the spring and fall. When I read Steve Solomon’s Growing Vegetables West of The Cascades years ago it inspired me to try and lengthen the typical harvest window for our area (PNW zone 8).
I even, briefly, flirted with the idea of year-around gardening. But only briefly, as I learned this important fact about myself:
I don’t want to be out in the garden when it’s 35 degrees and raining.
As much as I wish I could enjoy cold-weather gardening, I’d much rather be knitting in front of a fire (though if I could have a huge greenhouse attached to my house so I never had to walk outside like Elliot Coleman, then I definitely would have a winter garden).
So I use season extenders mainly in the fall and throughout the spring in the following ways:
- Plant cool-weather crops like spinach, lettuce, onions, and peas in the ground as early as possible, covering with floating row covers or plastic tunnels to protect from both heavy rain and light frosts.
- Use a cold frame to help harden off my seedlings in spring.
- Place floating row covers on brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, etc.) and tomatoes to protect from weather and pests.
- Cover warm-loving peppers with a DIY hoop house.
- Experiment with fall and overwintered crops, covering with row covers (overwintering is when you plant a variety in the fall that grows slowly all winter and starts producing in early spring- the two I’ve had the most success with are cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli).
Below you’ll find different tools to use to extend your harvests, how to use them, and how they’ve worked for me. Affiliate links are included for your convenience.
Using Season Extenders in the Garden
1. Wall-O-Waters come in both a green and a red version (the red is supposed to help the fruit ripen faster). Use these to protect tomatoes and peppers in early spring in order to have ripe fruit sooner and a longer harvest season.

I found these to be a great option in my first, smaller garden for the six tomatoes I planted in the 3’x6′ beds. There was a lot more early growth using these than my neighbors who didn’t use them. In fact, the year I got closest to the “4th of July Ripe Tomato” goal (I think it was the 10th) was the result of planting in mid-April in Wall-O-Waters. (Note: to be clear, there are a LOT of people in my area who plant tomatoes out in mid-April without any protection but they don’t like it and don’t grow very well. However, they don’t die, so people keep doing it…)
The drawback? It takes A LOT of time to fill all those water chambers. When I planted 18 tomatoes the first year in a larger garden, I started covering the tomatoes like usual but had to call it quits after two hours, frozen hands, and only 10 plants covered.
2. Floating Row Covers are wonderful for not only extending the harvest, but also to:
- keep cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, & cabbage) from being infested with aphids and cabbage loopers and to give them a healthier start.
- cover tomatoes in the early spring (this replaced the individual Wall-o-Waters in my garden).
- protect early sowings of lettuce and spinach and to keep the rain from ruining the late lettuce.
- and even to protect newly planted seed beds from cats and birds.
They are simple and adaptable to use: you can rest the row covers directly on top of crops or use small metal or pvc hoops to hold it over planted rows or raised beds, as seen in the lower photo above. Secure the edges with rocks or garden staples and it will keep the bugs out, too, until the plants outgrow it.
3. Cold Frames: Adding cold frames to your garden, whether permanent like the wooden box pictured on the left or portable like the reasonably-priced fabric option on the right, are really good for a couple things:
- to help harden-off seedlings
- to be able to start lettuce and greens earlier (in less soggy soil)
- to keep harvesting greens and smaller items well into the fall and maybe even winter.
If you are up for making them yourselves, this article links to a number of different ways to make diy cold frames. A word of caution, though, about making frames with old windows (like we did…) – they do not last more than a season before the glazing disintegrates and the glass falls out, shattering on it’s way down.
4. Bell Jar and Rectangular Cloches: For smaller gardens or herb gardens, cloches may be a good way to protect a few plants and look good doing it. In addition to the standard jar shape, they come in a rectangular version with individual air vents to help regulate the temperature, so in some gardens, these may be the way to go. The plastic is heavy enough that they could be used over and over again.
Do you use cloches, covers, or cold frames or have any plans to?
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links and by clicking on them you help support AOC at no extra cost to you – thanks so much! Plus you can trust I’ll only share what I love. (You can always read our entire disclosure page here.)
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I just got my new Territorial Seed Co. catalog in the mail ~ eXciting! It feels too cold here to plant yet (frost on the grass this morning), but the tips of the crocus are beginning to appear, so it won’t be long now… ThanX for the great tips. I love those cute cloche covers and am thinking recycled liter bottles might prove a fun eXperiment.
I love these ideas!
Donna- Welcome, I’m glad you found us! I will definitely visit and see what your system is for indoor lettuce!
Athena- I remember seeing your hoops on post last spring- I think it was an inspiration for my pepper hoop house! But I’m like you- I wait for a pretty day to go see what’s growing. 🙂
Prudent- WOW. I’m going to try that!! Doesn’t seem too much trouble just to get a few started early, either- great idea.
Heather- the thinking is where it all starts!:-)
Laura- if you try it, share with us how it turns out!
Anon- I’ve seen people use the liter bottles before- nice way to reuse something, too, and it comes complete with a vent. 🙂
Dixymiss- keep us updated- we love to see how it’s going….
Last yer I used cut off plastic liter bottles recycled instead of buying cloches. It got me an extra 3 weeks in the growing season. The plants did not seem significantly larger than the plants started later, but they had better root systems and produced more 🙂
I just saw Bell Jar Cloches for the first time a few month ago – a great idea I’ll have to try 🙂
I am SO tired of having something eating my lettuce after it comes up (the next day, even!) It’s not like I can just go buy lettuce; if it doesn’t grow, I have to do without!
So, I experimented–and it’s working! I am using cloches. The cloches I am using are . . . wait for it . . . empty canning jars. I’m using 4 oz. and half-pint sizes, and even the 40 mph winds we had today (normal around here) didn’t knock them down. I didn’t use it on all of my lettuce, but the ones that are covered were twice as big within a week!
Our last frost date is a week from today, and the cloches did protect the lettuce from a light frost we had last week.
We have a very short spring; lettuce can bolt quickly here.
I’ve not tried putting jars on my tomatoes but I think I might try it this year!
Hi Jami, I haven’t planted a thing, but I am thinking about it… does that count? Thanks for all your great tips!
I use narrow PVC plumbing pipe for hoops and then I just put clear plastic over it and hold it down with rocks or bricks at the corners. It works pretty well as a covering for early lettuces. I have wintered over salad greens, but have to say the lettuce pretty much bit the dust back in December when it got really cold. Tough stuff, like mustard greens, arugula and baby-sized swiss chard, with a little mizuna and bok choy, survived under plastic. I am pretty lazy about it, and spend no time fooling around with it except to go out when it’s sunny and see what’s growing!
well, I have yet to have my own garden. However, if I had a garden…and it was 35 degrees outside. Yes, I’d defnitely prefer knitting in front of the fire, too 🙂 🙂 I’m going to try growing something in a container this spring. Love and hugs from Oregon, Heather 🙂
just finding your post ..so sorry mine is up and sadly not linked…I planted lettuces inside and will harvest soon…I love my row covers for early spring gardening..I don’t take them off until sometime in June..
if you want to read about the lettuces go to http://gardenseyeview.com/2011/02/07/joy/
I will book mark this site and try to return and link sometimes…