Hey, now there’s an idea. We have had to dig a few holes in the winter here, and I don’t remember the ground being really tough in the garden, so maybe it didn’t freeze to deep. I never thought of the mulch, so I appreciate the mention. I’ll have to look into that. We were thinking of burying buckets, etc, and putting the potatoes in them, with mulch on top, but decided it was more work than we wanted to try. Maybe the method you described could work. Now if only I could get tomatoes year round! (We do pick them green before the frost, and let them ripen, so I get garden tomatoes into November, but this year the frost hit them early, and only about 1/4 of the ones we picked for winter ripened before they rotted. I was very sad.)
LOL.. you need a little hoop house..you can move.
Here’s a big example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLLUqpl0yKA
You could pull it over your tomatoes as late fall approaches..Could give you another month to 6 weeks of growing time.
potatoes in the snow
http://www.youtube.com/user/pinetar100?blend=1&ob=video-mustangbase#p/u/66/Qy5B5UehbCY