In a word, no. My garlic is already up and I certainly wouldn't want to be trying to grow winter greens around it. Also, it's very, very late to be sowing anything and to expect it to get to usable size before spring. It's not the cold that does this, it's that the hours of sunlight are too few. Plant that you intend to harvest during winter need to be sown much earlier. Check out Eliot Coleman's books on winter harvest.

Thank you for the follow up post (laceyvail) but I don't feel like that answered my question. I know its late but gardening is about trial & error? Most of the "Greens" I am planning on planting can survive on less than 10 hours of daylight. In Mass, I still have 10 hours of daylight until mid November and then I never have less than 9 hours even up to the winter solstice so although I agree that my greens will not be their best I do believe they will grow, even getting them in this late. I could get lucky and not see a heavy prolonged freeze for some time. Its a roll of the dice I'm willing to try for a few seeds in trays. What I'm not willing to roll the dice on is ruining my 2015 Garlic crop.

So back to my original question:

Can I plant on top of my newly seeded garlic? or (to ask a different way), will the roots of leafy greens adversely affect my 2015 Garlic crop, which is planted at a depth of 6-8 inches?

Looking forward to hearing from the GW community.

Thanks again in advance.

A crop seeded now will not yield until early spring (February or more likely March). I would be concerned about the seeding damaging the emerging shoots of the garlic, which if you planted it ~3 weeks ago, should be coming up now. However, I think you can get away with a careful shallow seeding. Maybe dig around a bit to see how deep the emerging garlic shoots are. Lettuce is not very hardy compared to brassicas and spinach, so it may experience winterkill.

What have you covered the low tunnels with? If it's clear plastic, replace it with spunbonded row covers. On a cold winter night if there is snow on the ground, plants covered with only clear plastic will suffer more damage than those outside.

This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Tue, Oct 28, 14 at 16:16

My Garlic has not come up yet. I have 2 beds, the one with the Brassica Family is covered in Agribon, the other bed with the new Garlic is covered in 6mil poly with one end tied up presently because my area does not have any frosts predicted in the next week or two. As I mentioned in my original post tho, I soon will have a High Hoop House over both beds and at that point it will be covered in poly and then both low tunnels will get the Agribon on them.

Thanks for the info, I'm starting to see a pattern already. NO. I guess I might need to invest in some indoor grow lights and go that road this year and then start earlier next winter.

Thanks again,

I would not say "no". I think you can still seed winter greens and get a very early spring crop. They just won't produce a harvestable winter crop.

I would honestly think you could consider greens living mulch, and seed the surface, except that garlic and greens are both heavy feeders, so I am not sure it's a great idea to combine them.