Q: Just when we started to feel the cold night, my tomatoes finally grew very well. Can you give me some suggestions for extending the growing season of the vegetable garden?

A: This is a problem we often encounter in the fall, especially when the heirloom tomato varieties grown by gardeners are uncertain-which means that they only bear fruit when the growing conditions are favorable.

There are a few simple ways to extend the growing season of your garden:

Wrap tomato plants in old sheets, or use traps on cold nights. Make sure the sheets reach the ground and remove them during the day.

On cold nights, wrap or drape on your bed with a floating sleeve. It can even protect plants from freezing. If you put it on a frame, so that it will not touch the plants, the effect will be better. The cover does not need to be removed during the day, because light can pass through the cloth, but it should be removed if it is full. You can buy line covers at most nurseries or order them online.

If you are really ambitious, you can build a cold frame on your garden bed. The cold frame is usually a wooden box with a lid, such as a discarded window or a sliding glass door. You can open it during the day and close it at night. However, the cold frame can be made of various recycled materials and can also be used as a hot box for growing vegetables throughout the winter.

The hot box is a cold frame that is heated from the bottom with compost material or heating pads.

Search the Internet to find instructions and various ideas about building a cold frame or hot bed.

In order to further extend the garden season, build a greenhouse: either leaning against the building or independent.

Make sure it has adequate ventilation during the day.

Bimetal fans may be the most effective way of ventilation. It opens as the greenhouse heats up, and closes when it cools down.

When the night starts to get cold enough to form frost on the plant, you can hang the whole tomato plant upside down in a cool/dark area, and the green fruits are still attached. This will allow the green tomatoes to continue to mature slowly.

To further extend the gardening season, consider planting a winter garden after the summer vegetables are used up. Most cool weather crops, such as kale, beets, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, onions and sweet peas, can spend the winter here and be harvested in early spring. If you grow cool-weather vegetables in a bell-shaped flower rack, cold rack, or greenhouse, they will only grow faster than on open ground.

More: These succulents grow best in North State’s cold winters and hot summers

To make a simple bell for smaller plants, try wrapping visquine (a translucent plastic) around the tomato cage and placing it on the plant, or use a gallon milk jug with the bottom cut off. These can also be used to protect newly planted summer vegetables in spring.

You can contact the Shasta Master Gardeners Program by calling 2422-2219 or emailing mastergardener@shastacollege.edu. The Gardener’s Office is composed of volunteers trained by the University of California, who use scientific research-based information to answer gardeners’ questions.