Winter protection

ellie.macpherson

Looking for some advice about keeping my tomatoes and strawberry plants outside over winter. The winters here get bad and although there's a lot of shelter around my house, the wind can get very rough regardless of I put them. I will have a net firmly over the strawberries and know they're hardy plants and will probably be okay however I'm not so sure about the tomatoes. I have them tied to bamboo shoots currently but is there anything else to reinforce it? Also what about frost? 
Could anyone recommend a sturdy and substantial greenhouse that's not made entirely out of class too? That would be my preference but having gone through two greenhouses before and lost both to stormy winds I'd like something smaller and perhaps wooden?
Thanks in advance.

bookmonster

Tomatoes aren't frost Hardy. You could try fleecing them, or just take green tomatoes inside to ripen and ditch the plants

Helix

Is it worth it for tomatoes?  Below 10 degrees they won’t do anything, and will get weak and leggy so will be less useful next year.  

For things like strawberries I have the wooden boxes that you can pick up at veg markets, and in bad weather I pop them over them.   (Better than using more plastic...)

Fairygirl

Strawberries are hardy. I've never kept them protected here. Unless you live at serious height, you don't need to do anything with them. Where do you live @ellie.macpherson?
I'm not sure why anyone would bother keeping tomatoes. 

punkdoc

Agree, no point in trying to over winter Tomatoes.

Helix

Hexagon said:

Sometimes I wish the plastic brigade would go away. I already have the plastic! Wouldn’t it be better that I use it instead of throwing it in the bin?!

Well sure if you have it use it.  But I hope the “plastic brigade” don’t go away as we all need to thing seriously before buying anything more.  Greta Thunberg has it right.

Skandi

If you want to overwinter a tomato take a cutting and bring it into the house. Strawberries do not need any shelter