Best tips for starting the garden early?

[puglogic]

I am gathering peoples' best tips for extending their normal growing season - starting earlier and finishing later. Care to share?

The ones I use:
--I buy seeds for plants that I know will grow well in our short season, and grow from seed as much as I can (I can't remember the last time I bought a packet of seeds from the Home Despot, for example)
--I start everything inside that I can, especially tomatoes, which I like to grow up to sizeable transplants before they go out in May
--I have lights, but would like some more!
--When I put out my seedlings early, I mulch them, put hot caps over them, then put a floating row cover over the whole thing for extra protection.
--I use thermal mass (usually jugs filled with water) to add warmth to beds

What are your tricks, oh-gardeners-who-can't-wait? Or who can't stand to put the garden to bed sometimes?
:)

[Amaranth]

Southern Exposure has a number of plants that do well down to to 6F degrees.
http://www.southernexposure.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=even%27+star

This Asian greens mix has survived some hours at 12F and several days in the 20sF.
http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/0200/Lettuce-Mesclun-Asian-Salad-Greens-Seed/srch:Lettuce%20Mesclun%20Asian%20Salad%20Greens%20 Seed

All of the Sassy Salad Mix did well down to 25F and much of it did ok in the 12/20 mentioned above
http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/7304/Lettuce-Mesclun-Sassy-Salad-Seed/srch:sassy%20salad

Quite a few varieties of the bok choy are still ok in the 12/20. On some the outside stems of some plants froze but the next layer in is ok.

Mache usually gets off to a fast start.

Cooks Garden has lettuces and salad mix for each season
http://www.cooksgarden.com/vegetables/lettuce/
http://www.cooksgarden.com/vegetables/mesclun/

I and some of the other gardeners have a lettuce mix that survived the 12/20 though it's sitting at about 2" and is not growing at the moment. It was a gift and I don't speak the languages of the gardeners that gave it to me, so don't know the variety. Hope to get a translator and find out. Will try to save seed from it too.

Usually I can get Kale, Collards, and Mustard through the winter even under 5 feet of snow. It is very flat when the snow melts :-) . In better years I can get lots of greens and asian greens through the winter by growing them to full size before frost and then just using the garden as a living refrigerator through the winter. In best years I can do the same with root crops. Some varieties of these tend to be more hardy than others.

[puglogic]

Amaranth, what zone are you in?

[Amaranth]

Technically we are Zone 7a but occasionally years ranging anywhere from 6a to 8b. Usually not more than a couple of inches of snow on the ground at a time. The year with 5+ feet that just kept piling up and not melting was very unusual.

[herbgeek]

Well you already read about my low tunnels on another thread. I try to get seed flats outside as early as possible because the light quality is just so much better and stronger than with fluorescent lights. I do have an unheated greenhouse they go in, but I bring the flats in at night until late April. I also use those low tunnels as a place to hold the flats during the day.

Last year I started microgreens in a southern window in my living room, and was putting them in sandwiches from mid February on.

[uji]

I'm in the Valley of Virginia -- not to far from Polyface Farm, as a matter of fact. I'm about to get my peas (we grow only snow peas) in the ground as soon as we get a week of dry weather. I'm gonna try putting my onion seed in the ground at the same time as an experiment.

[herbgeek]

I threw some seeds under low tunnels yesterday, about 3 months earlier than experts in my area would recommend. The soil in the low tunnels is not frozen (unlike the surrounding soil), I put a thermometer in today and at about 3" of depth, the temperature is 45 degrees. So I started some tatsoi and a lettuce mix. I expect there to be uneven germination at this time of year, and I'm prepared for it to be a failure, so no biggie. I understand it will also grow slow, due to both cold as well as reduced day length than if I planted them in May. But I'm waiting for spring anyways, so why not?