As the long, hot, dog days of summer quickly become a distant memory for the outdoor gardener, with any luck there should still be two more relatively nice months to finish ripening the last of the tomatoes and bring to fruition the cantaloupe and other squash left in the garden.

Then will begin the fast and furious activity of canning and freezing the remaining produce, so that there will be homegrown vegetables and fruit to enjoy through the winter months.

However, if you happen to be lucky enough to have a greenhouse that is affordable to heat, now is the perfect time to begin planting for the next nine months of winter gardening.

The climbing bean seeds that I planted two months ago are reaching for the sky, in an attempt to out-grow each other, and the tomato plants that looked so small in June have picked up their growing pace and are beginning to fill with blossoms that will provide me with fresh, delicious-tasting tomatoes all winter long.

I will clear out spent plants - in much the same way as an outdoor gardener will clear their garden at the end of the season, but then, I will begin the process of re-seeding my favorites - carrots, Walla-Walla onions, scallions, organic garlic bulbs, lettuce and herbs as we seem to eat a lot of these.

And for this winter growing season, I've decided to plant some peas and beets, for now, and will add to the mix whatever strikes my fancy along the way.

Now is also a good time to re-seed plants that love a cooler environment, especially if you don't plan to heat your greenhouse as the temperature begins to drop in the evenings - but the warm soil temperature is necessary to assist in the germination of seeds if you don't have a heat mat.

I've had the pleasure of meeting growers around the area that have enjoyed cool-loving crops up until January, if the winter was mild enough. They used gallon milk jugs as solar collectors to help heat a small growing area at night.

So you don't necessarily have to provide an elaborate heat source to extend your growing season in order to eat spinach, kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, carrots, beets and peas, just to name a few.

I even know of growers that grew tomatoes, zucchini and carrots in a room in their house (during the winter months) that had a southern exposure. They simply added an affordable lighting system that not only supplied the necessary 10 hours of growing time, but also provided the correct spectrums to ripen the tomatoes.

I also know how fortunate I am, in that is my greenhouse is large enough to provide me with plenty of growing space, as well as room to over-winter some of my potted flowers. Thus, it adds some color in an otherwise very stark outdoor environment, but doesn't cost me a fortune to heat, either.

Paula M. Christensen is the manager of Grapevine Hobby Greenhouses in Rapid City. She has more than 30 years experience in agriculture. She has worked in commercial greenhouses and has been gardening in her own greenhouse for eight years. Send questions or comments to bill@grapevinehobby.com or call 342-1307.