It's not too late to start a couple of things like radishes and perhaps spinach. Get some agricultural fleece and some #9 wire to make hoop houses to cover your vegs when the temps start dropping. And start some lettuce! They do great under the fleece. Get the book by Eliot Coleman FOUR SEASON HARVEST, it'll open up so much to you. He goes into the ag fleece. Neat pictures and inspiring writing. It changed my garden life. I have coldframes, too. The greenhouse is next. I'm growing broc, kales, collards, spinach, lettuces, and struggle with radishes. I started the brassicas about 3 weeks ago and have them under a heavy duty seedstarter that I custom built, the Mega-Watt 9000. They leap out of the soil mix in the flats! I have solarized my plots somewhat and hope it will cut down on my weeds. I'm learning to SHELTER, PROVIDE, START what and when my plants need. Timing is important. Find out your frost dates and work back from them. I've ruined many a plant. But when you reach down and pick huge, succulent, drop-dead-green spinach leaves at the end of November and eat 'em, you'll be a devotee. Read, read, read. Get Johnny's Selected seed catalog and Territorial Seeds winter catalog, I've learned more from these than most books!!!!!!

Deth:
Thanks for an inspiring post!

This will be my first year growing some crops under protection to try to get them through the winter. I used to garden four-season on the west coast, where it's easy. After sitting through my first winter here, dreaming about gardening and thinking that the weather wasn't so severe as all that (winter here is like spring with an occasional ice storm) I discovered Coleman's book and as you say, my gardening life changed.

I know that the first time around, not everything will work, but at least I don't have to sit and dream all winter this time.
-O