Monday, December 15, 2008

Harvest Day - colder snap, chard reborn

Photobucket
Swiss Chard in double wrapped coldframe.

Two weeks now of -20 and lower have meant that the coldframe has gone into deep freeze. The florence fennel is definitely frozen from the bulb up but I have hopes for the taproot. The rabe is toast, the broccoli is shivering, the tatsoi is popping back to life and I think the slugs have made off with the mustard seedlings. My kale is covered in at least a foot and a half of snow (the ones in the coldframe were slug food. )The beautiful calendula that was in bloom has collapsed but it taught me the value of flowers in the coldframe if just to lift the spirit and I think I"ll add some pansies or violas next year. Onions looking bleek but I know they are far from dead and the minutina and corn salad are hanging in there. Radicchio is still alive by the looks of it, cilantro?, and the parsley is a polar bear, ie. bring on the cold! As for the chard and its friend bietina, they died back but the crowns are sprouting again as you can see in the above picture.

3 comments:

Bishops Homegrown said...

And thus mother nature moves us once again into the new year, every day a step closer to spring when we get to start all over again! If not for the new "Wyrm" project at the moment I'd be going crazy looking for something to do friend.

Michelle said...

That's really amazing. I would have thought the chard was a lost cause. And those darn slugs, does nothing do them in?

Dan said...

That is a familiar looking sight as that is what my veggies currently look like. Some times I wish winter would just go away.