Winter SUCKS! This winter especially!! My raised beds have had it rough. :-( As a warmer day today, I just had to go out!! I was very curious as to who survived, what I needed to do better, etc. There were some serious surprises, which makes me even more enthusiastic about growing and the mysteries and resilience of plants!! Sometimes, some plants scare the living crap out of me!!
This guy!! This guy is my rogue cilantro in Bed #1!! This guy has been under maybe 5 to 8 inches of snow up until yesterday. If you recall, I didn't replant these seeds. They just started growing in Sept.-ish. Just showed up! So I didn't bother to use extenders or anything since I was planning to rest the bed and just grow a cover crop (vetch). I thought for sure the cilantro would die from freezing, snow, and wind, but NOPE!! A true survivor. This is guy wins the award this year!
This is Bed #2:
This was supposed to be my cole crop bed. Collards, napa cabbages, bok choi, lacinato kale.... all apparently cool weather plants. They are all basically dead! Succumbed to the winter even under plastic. The hay mulch, which I had vowed not to do this year because of slugs, I unfortunately realized I had to since the leaf mulch was breaking down. Next year, I'm raking leaves earlier and dumping a lot of it into the beds the beginning of fall!
Look who else survived! Lettuce! That white thing, is a row cover. As soon as the temps started to drop, I covered these guys, my spinach and turnips. Funny thing, the row covers did the trick and things that hadn't been covered ( lettuces, turnips I had missed) died.
Bed #3:
Carrots!! Carrots always seem to survive. And look....
Even after mulching way late. I got carrots! And the itty bitty carrot seedlings are still alive. I did throw a row cover onto the seedlings in a panic so I'm sure that helped a lot.
My scallions are re-sprouting new green tops. I thought they were surely goners. They didn't look too good in January. :-(
This is Swiss chard....well, was. It just turned to brown, icky mush.
Surprisingly, the Korean mustard survived and is actually developing new growth. The Komatsuna did not.
This is the thyme seedlings that showed up at the end of summer and I replanted. My thyme is immortal I tell you!! Nothing can kill it!!
And of course, tried and true lettuces. Not all survived, but the ones I covered really well with hay did!
I can't wait for spring. I have a renewed enthusiasm at this point!! Happy February!
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