I am gardening in Auburn, AL, border of zones 7b and 8a.I raise most of my
fall/winter veggies as transplants.On a couple of my growing beds, when the
summer veggies are essentially finished IN SEPTEMBER, I pull out the old
plants, wiggle a fork thru the soil to remove roots, add an inch of compost
and maybe other amendments, lay down the drip irrigation tubing, COVER THE
BED WITH A MULCH (newspaper/chopped leaves/grass clippings).Then I set up
a"tunnel" over the bed. The beds are 10-12 ft. long,3-4 ft. wide.I pound in
rebar (4 along each side) and bend over 4 8-10ft plastic PVC pipes. I cover
the tunnel thus made with Remay. I set out the transplants as they grow
large enough (pullng back the mulch in the space where the transplant is to
go, then replacing it immediately after transplanting ).

When the weather turns colder I cover the remay with 6 mil,plastic, and on
nights where it goes below freezing I cover that with blankets and possibly
another layer of plastic. In this way I am able to keep the veggies still
growing for a long time--there is only a short period of time during the
coldest days of winter when they are in "stasis". Under my set up, the temp
under the tunnels can stay up to 15F warmer than ambient temp during the
night. They've never gone below freezing,even when it was in the low teens
(which is extremely rare here).

My question concerns the mulch.Am I supposed to remove that Sept. mulch at
some point, and then reapply it after first frost/freeze? Somewhere I read
that as frosts approach one removes the mulch in order to warm the soil
more, and then to reapply it after first frost. But I don't know if this
applies to my particular situation where I have the bed protected as
described above.

Thanks for any help you may offer!
Peg

Dr. Peg Daniels
drpeg@charter.net