Winter Gardens - Photos

I posted winter photos of the SFG, BTE strip,containers, and compost bin on Dec 15.

My winter crop of icicles and snowflakes is doing very well.

It's. Still. Snowing.

trolleydriver wrote:My winter crop of icicles and snowflakes is doing very well.

DARN lucky I didn't have a mouthful of coffee when I read that - would have baptized my computer with it 

Our daughter lives in Missoula, Montana where it has been -10 of late.  I almost called her to complain of our cold weather (40 degrees) but she would probably have something "unpleasant" to say in return   

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:Our daughter lives in Missoula, Montana where it has been -10 of late.  I almost called her to complain of our cold weather (40 degrees) but she would probably have something "unpleasant" to say in return   

We got down to -26 Celsius (-15 F) last night. Someone on the radio said we had the same temps this morning as the North Pole and we were the coldest capital city in the world at that time.

That, is cold!

trolleydriver wrote:

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:Our daughter lives in Missoula, Montana where it has been -10 of late.  I almost called her to complain of our cold weather (40 degrees) but she would probably have something "unpleasant" to say in return   

We got down to -26 Celsius (-15 F) last night. Someone on the radio said we had the same temps this morning as the North Pole and we were the coldest capital city in the world at that time.

It was a high of 48*F here today.  But this morning when I uncovered some of my veggies, it was 30*F.  Way to cold for me.  I was freezing.  I don't know how you all can stand those temps.

Audrey and Yolo, We will have to complain to each other if we want any sympathy!

sanderson wrote:Audrey and Yolo,  We will have to complain to each other if we want any sympathy!

 Truth!  Lol!

80 today 50 tomorrow brrrrr a cold front I'd post pictures of my winter garden but it dont look like yalls!

In the distance, the SFG beds and compost bins under a fresh blanket of snow. More snow to come later today along with some freezing rain.






The Table Top sporting a hat of snow.

Looks like soft powdery snow, the kind that goes "crunch" when you walk on it??

sanderson wrote:Looks like soft powdery snow, the kind that goes "crunch" when you walk on it??

Yes ... Fluffy light snow that is easy to shovel.  But if we get freezing rain it will be a mess.

Quick! Shovel a path to the compost bins!

sanderson wrote:Quick!   Shovel a path to the compost bins!  

Got the snowblower out this morning and made paths to the compost bins, the garden shed and the side gate.

BTW the temp in New Bins 1 and 2 is +3C (37F) even after the brutally cold weather.

Ice here.  Wish it was snow.

Okay - last photo was 11/30, and this was taken New Year's Day - so about a month later. Things look pretty much the same. To be expected since there's so little light every day (but more now every day!) There have been some losses, but I think it's because of how late I transplanted and the age of the plants (radicchio too young, lettuce too old) rather than the cold. 

It's been, near as a I can reckon without a recording thermometer, below 10*F(-12*C) - but above 5*F(-15*C) -  twice during that time. I've had plastic on top of the AG30 fabric when it dropped to or below 15*F(-9*C), and then I took it back off for Christmas week because I was away and it was forecast to get above 40*F(4*C). And I put the plastic back up on Monday since it'll be below freezing for a week, with a current forecast of a low of 10*F.

Here's the happiest plant in the garden - one of my collards. I think that's a cabbage tumbling out on the right.


And here's a photo of claytonia with some snow. This has been completely unprotected. Extremely cold resistant, like mache.


The volunteer komatsuna has been really surprising me. It has wind-protection but I wouldn't say it has had thermal protection. I definitely plan to plant it on purpose next fall/winter.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:Okay - last photo was 11/30, and this was taken New Year's Day - so about a month later. Things look pretty much the same. To be expected since there's so little light every day (but more now every day!) There have been some losses, but I think it's because of how late I transplanted and the age of the plants (radicchio too young, lettuce too old) rather than the cold. 

It's been, near as a I can reckon without a recording thermometer, below 10*F(-12*C) - but above 5*F(-15*C) -  twice during that time. I've had plastic on top of the AG30 fabric when it dropped to or below 15*F(-9*C), and then I took it back off for Christmas week because I was away and it was forecast to get above 40*F(4*C). And I put the plastic back up on Monday since it'll be below freezing for a week, with a current forecast of a low of 10*F.

Here's the happiest plant in the garden - one of my collards. I think that's a cabbage tumbling out on the right.


And here's a photo of claytonia with some snow. This has been completely unprotected. Extremely cold resistant, like mache.


The volunteer komatsuna has been really surprising me. It has wind-protection but I wouldn't say it has had thermal protection. I definitely plan to plant it on purpose next fall/winter.

I planted Collards in early fall and harvested all I wanted then just left them unprotected to die out. Boy.... was I surprised. We started getting frost after frost and the Collards just kept hanging on.

It took a really hard freeze to finally bring them down. Those collards are TUFF. Next year, I'll plant them a little later in a hoop house. I'm thinking they should last up into the winter if their protected.

Your beds look almost new. Did you just put them together last spring?

MrBooker wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:Okay - last photo was 11/30, and this was taken New Year's Day - so about a month later. Things look pretty much the same. To be expected since there's so little light every day (but more now every day!) There have been some losses, but I think it's because of how late I transplanted and the age of the plants (radicchio too young, lettuce too old) rather than the cold. 

It's been, near as a I can reckon without a recording thermometer, below 10*F(-12*C) - but above 5*F(-15*C) -  twice during that time. I've had plastic on top of the AG30 fabric when it dropped to or below 15*F(-9*C), and then I took it back off for Christmas week because I was away and it was forecast to get above 40*F(4*C). And I put the plastic back up on Monday since it'll be below freezing for a week, with a current forecast of a low of 10*F.

Here's the happiest plant in the garden - one of my collards. I think that's a cabbage tumbling out on the right.


And here's a photo of claytonia with some snow. This has been completely unprotected. Extremely cold resistant, like mache.


The volunteer komatsuna has been really surprising me. It has wind-protection but I wouldn't say it has had thermal protection. I definitely plan to plant it on purpose next fall/winter.

I planted Collards in early fall and harvested all I wanted then just left them unprotected to die out. Boy.... was I surprised. We started getting frost after frost and the Collards just kept hanging on.

It took a really hard freeze to finally bring them down. Those collards are TUFF. Next year, I'll plant them a little later in a hoop house. I'm thinking they should last up into the winter if their protected.

Your beds look almost new. Did you just put them together last spring?

The bed the claytonia is in is from late spring 2015. The collard is in a short 2" 'bed' in my old-style SFG that I put in late spring 2016 (I think it looks so good because it's had a cover of one sort or another the whole time.) The low tunnel bed and the bed that you can see part of in front of the collards were both put up late fall 2016. The komatsuna (didn't get to the photo yet) is an as yet empty frame. It's been a little cold for filling it with MM - and I didn't want to bury it. And I just put out a 4x3 frame a few days ago...not sure when I'll be able to fill it. I've been converting more of my old style SFG to ANSFG.

 Nice!  I need to get into gear!

Well its been raining more often than not since new years eve.  This afternoon between showers we plan to cover the salad box and put a garbage bag over the pepper plants.  The root veggies brocoli and such should be fine.  It is expected to dip below 32F at night for the next 3 days.  Not bad just enough to make us worry about our salad on the hoof.  I have harvested 3 nice bunches of nanners so it was a good year.  I need to make a winter blog post and when I do I'll let ya know.  This is the first freeze we have had this year and we didn't have one last year just a couple frosts. a bed sheet will protect from a frost, but this time we gonna hafta break out the plastic tarps.

Rain!  Yes, you can get too much of that sometimes.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Rain!  Yes, you can get too much of that sometimes.

Yup, that's what we're staring at here in NorCal. 9 days of it, starting tonight.