Yes..........definitely do not plant Nettles and Comfrey. If you do you will be sorry for the rest of your life. Comfrey tea is very good. If you have a large property go out on the back forty and plant Comfrey in a fence row. Investigate to find a leaf supply. Use them for so called free mulch. My supply is three city blocks away at the Township yard waste collection place. They are all free. Tomatoes are heavy feeders. If you can put a gallon of compost in each planting hole you may have enough. I would consider purchasing a bag of organic fertilizer with low numbers like 4-2-4. One handful when planting and a top dressing of a handful when the first bloom is set. It sounds to me like you are planting a whole lot of tomatoes. If you are heavy eaters figure just two plants to each member of your family. Twice that will give you between ten and twenty pints to freeze. These are minimal estimates. I would hate to see you needing to hire help just to pick them all. You are definitely thinking the right direction. Without some kind of cover crop or cover mulch you may be thinking to big. I have never used a cover crop while growing. Any cover mulch will work but the supply of material should be close by at the time you need it. My personal experience is that if I do not have huge pile of material waiting it just does not get done. That is when the trouble begins. Hope this gives you some things to consider. I like the original question. Your care to tell us where you are in process helped me to think I know where you are heading. I hope you get several other responses from which you may consider and choose some advise.

You're welcome. Now all you have to do is hope the hail doesn't hit them because is seems like hail is determine to 'get' all our gardens this spring. But, before I cause a hail panic, I have had large plants with golfball-size to tennis ball-size fruit that was just beaten to a pulp by quarter-sie to half dollar-size hailstones...and I pruned off the damage, sprayed them with Daconil to help prevent diseases from infiltrating their many 'wounds' on the stems and remaining foliage and still had a great (but late) harvest. Clearly hail damage is not the end of the world, but it can force you to prune more than you otherwise would in our hot climate. Seedmama's observation about tomatoes' origin and the need to not prune/prune based on closeness to that origin is a great one.

Heartzlink,welcome. I tried wintersowing for the first time last year. Before that I barely knew how to get a plant from the store and transplant it. Since then I became obsessed and read every book, every site, every piece of advice I could get my hands on. I had spent a few years trying to amend my soil. Decided last year that it was now or never. (still on my first cup of coffee. Bear with me) The wintersowing is basically foolproof. I use milk jugs, two liters, 20oz. bottles, anything that will hold dirt. Can't believe my homeowners association didn't complain last winter.I had 1/2 of my tiny plot of land covered with jugs which probably looked like trash to them. But come spring, I had the prettiest garden in the neighborhood. As for seeds swaps you might want to look into meetup.com. They have people from your area ( well, all area's but it goes by city) that that sign up for things that they are interested in and gardening is usually an option. I joined one here that was organized by "spencersmom" who sometimes posts here. Transportation is an issue for me so I haven't been able to go as much as I would have liked but the one I did go to was so much fun. A ton of great people. I just got back from the Richmond area a few days ago. Henirco County.Not sure if I spelled that right. We found a beautiful house for sale with 3/4 of an acre, which is huge compared to what I have now. And I mean HUGE! We are in the process of getting it and if all goes well, we will be moving there by next year. If all doesn't go well we will be looking into the Highland Springs area. That's where my mom is and she is getting older and I would like to be close. But the economy is in such a state that moving right now is not an option. Don't want to give up hubbie's job and our health insurance til I know we have something lined up and more in our savings. So, in closing, wintersowing is great, meetup.com to find people that enjoy gardening in your area and most importantly, spring will be here soon!

Hi Bart, A week is about the mininum recommended as the tomatoes have to go through some physiological changes before they are tough enough to handle being in the great outdoors. Bets Here is a link that might be useful: Hardening Off and Physiological Changes