
I live in Northern Texas, the lows here in the winter are typically around 30 at night and every once in awhile we get some snow with an actual freeze, but for the most part the weather is mild in the winter and somewhat unpredictable with some days getting up to 70. So I was thinking that if I did some raised plant beds in a row I could cover them over the winter. I'm not sure if just covering each bed individually and trying to convince my boyfriend to have a little plant room in the house (and my cats not to eat them) would be best.
My other idea was to have the raised plant beds all covered by a single roof. So I could take poles over the beds and put plastic on top over the winter essentially creating a green house that would be taken down once the weather warmed up. In the aisles (of course if I made them big enough) I could bring in my container plants that would in the plan above have come inside (which would probably make my boyfriend much happier if they stayed out of the house). I have also been reading on here about heating greenhouses with drums of water. I could also place those in the aisles heating the greenhouse over winter for no cost (if that sounds reasonable?).
Now I should mention that I am on a budget and the row covers/green house would be used next winter, not this one. This winter I would like to plan for my garden and then start planting in the spring. I want to make sure before I start planting though that I don't really need to change everything around because I failed to plan for next winter.
Thanks in advance for the advice.
