Prairiemoon2 has great ideas for things to do in the garden at this time of year if you live in an area that has short winter days and cold temps - which I imagine would be true in Connecticut.

At this time of year I can not grow much of anything, certainly not anything from seed. Cold tolerant plants that are close to full size will survive but grow very little due to the low light levels. Some can be protected with a low tunnel or loosely covered with leaves/straw and harvested as needed - sorta like an in-place refrigerator. I often have radishes, parsnips, carrots, beets, leeks, and onions that I cover with 6-12 inches of fluffy straw mixed with leaves. If there is not too much snow, I can usually dig them till mid-December. After that the soil is usually frozen even under the protective leaf/straw covering. Some varieties of kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach, and lettuce do well covered with a low tunnel. They have to be planted early enough to be mostly grown by now. The low tunnel mostly protects them from drying winds and rapidly changing temps. They grow very little during November, December, and January. Google Persephone Days for more detail. This blog has good info about that and other winter related garden ideas:

http://www.motherofahubbard.com/persephone/

Sometimes you need to germinate plants for the fall/winter garden inside in late summer since it is so hot outside that some will not germinate. For example, spinach and lettuce will not sprout when soil temps are high.

Others do better for me as transplants. So if I want fall cabbage or broccoli it is best if I start them in mid to late summer in cell packs, either inside or in a protected place outside. Once they are good sized, they can be transplanted and pests are not as likely to destroy them.

Thank you Nature Girl, lots of good info there. I should have added that one of the reasons I don't do much growing this time of year, is that I live on a small lot with a lot of trees in the neighborhood. I have enough sun in summer to have a small garden but even tomatoes don't have enough sun except in my front garden. The back is fine for greens and broccoli, cabbage, etc., but in the fall, the angle of the sun really changes due to the trees and then I have very little sun in the back where I would need to grow fall crops. So I don't do a fall crop at all. Hence my lack of interest.

I have in past seasons gotten very interested in Winter Sowing starting as early as December. That is a lot of fun and very rewarding because you can get a ton of seedlings ready to go for the spring. That is something you can do for sowing seeds starting in December, but you then leave containers outside and they don't sprout until early spring.

My season is short enough in central NH that kale goes in in spring just like all other veggies. My garlic is planted some time in Octobe. Like PM2 I am still harvesting Kale and parsley but after several nights of hard frost most plants have died back, so mostly I am doing cleanup.

Right now I plant spinach seed, it overwinters a-ok under the worst of conditions, even down to zero F. By late Feb I clean it up (weed it, remove deadish leaves, and give it a fert boost) and we'll be picking fresh spinach by mid March for suppertime, That extends the harvest season and subtracts a whole month from the bolting equation.

I have planted fall spinach for overwintering and early spring harvest here, but in my zone it needs planting in August or early September in order to get reasonable growth before days get too cold and light levels too low. In northern New England, crops can be grown for winter harvest in a hoop house as long as much of the growth is done by midSeptember. Then the crop will hold for winter in the more moderate climate of the cold frame or unseated hoop house, but it won’t gain size until days get longer and sunlight is more direct.

Yeah Babs, it took me only 50 years to stumble into overwintering spinach. A few years ago my fall planted spinach (generally seeded by late Aug here) was destroyed by rabbits, deer, groundhog, and bad weather, probably my worst fall crop year ever. In haste I planted more spinach seed around Halloween and although it wasn't harvestable before winter set in it surprised me when surviving the single digits and greened up quickly during late winter warm spells. Latitude is a huge factor as you say and it makes my fall planting/timing a very short window for just about everything else.

I'm going to have to try that next year. I don't have an easy time getting spinach to germinate in the spring.

OH gosh, I just noticed the heading of this thread. I ordered garlic and I stuck the box in a corner out of the way to get it off the Dining Room table and I forgot to put it in! lol I guess I am going to have to do that today.

Still in the garden and being harvested are winter lettuce, kale, collards, and savoy cabbage. Plastic over hoops for the lettuce, row covers for the others. The savoy cabbage has gone through less than 10 degrees in past years.

Maybe too late for cover crops but if covered with agribon they might get going. Otherwise I've had luck with planting shallots at this time of year.

Concerning Persephone Days it doesn't apply as much here in Colorado. Probably due to the intense and persistent sunshine through most of the cold months. It seems to me that greens grown in the tunnels or cold frames only halt growing two weeks before and after the winter solstice.

Yes, the combo of latitude and altitude makes a huge difference to sun intensity. When my brother lived right in Denver, his little side street never got plowed because the snow would just disappear in the dry air and intense sunlight. That would never work here in NH.

vgkg, quick question please: Zone 7 in TN here and am finding our weather often mimics yours. When you plant your spinach for March harvest, do you cover it during the cold/freezing snaps?

We have a new garden this year, so some things are 'first time' for me and I'm very excited : ) Broccoli, brussel sprouts, and carrots seeds planted mid-September, and already getting pretty big. Pex hoops (had pex leftover from remodel so used that instead of pvc) over those and cover with plastic during freezing spells. Garlic (which is the only thing I've ever planted in the winter) is in (and finally have enough to last a while!), shallots (red, and french grey) also in. And I planted leek seeds mid-September. Late to come up, but they are popping up like baby grasses now. I'm not covering the garlic, leeks, or shallots during freezes.

I wish I'd thought of kale : ( But there is always next year! Do you all cover your kale during freezes?