We haven't yet had a flake of snow this winter. It's been coldish on some recent days, but we've had very few days with frosty mornings — yesterday was the rare exception. However, this morning it's 6ºC (at least 10ºF) warmer than it was yesterday morning at the same time.
The other day (Tuesday, Jan. 15), when I took these pictures of the vegetable garden, it was downright warm outside, considering we're in mid-January. It felt more like early April. Today, I thought I'd do a report on how my winter greens are growing.
First, let me say that the collard greens were a disaster again this year. Maybe I planted them too late (end of September). They were immediately attacked by pests that ate all the leaves. So no pictures of those — I wonder if I'll ever be able to harvest beautiful collard plants like the ones I harvested in February 2015. Today I'll focus on the kale instead.
By mid-October, the kale plants — called lacinato, dinosaur, or black Tuscan kale — had already grown pretty tall. Look at this post from back then. Pests, probably snails and slugs mostly, chewed all the leaves off the collard seedlings, but the kale was too tough for them. I had hoped for some cold weather to kill caterpillars and make the gastropods go into hibernation, but no luck with that.
The Swiss chard, also attacked by pests, hasn't fared very well either. But I'm optimistic that the plants will bounce back and grow tall and bushy as the days get longer. A year or two ago, I had some really beautiful chard plants in March and April.
One other green plant, while not one you can eat but you can enjoy cooking with, is bay laurel. I dug up a volunteer plant last summer and planted it in a pot. I meant to get it planted in the ground by November, but rainy weather prevented me from doing it. It's doing fine in its pot, which I set out on the tarps in the garden plot to help keep the tarps from blowing away. If we have a really hard freeze, I can always bring it into the greenhouse.
Oh, they look so fresh and green and good for you :)
ReplyDeleteFunny, I was reading quickly, and saw that it was 10°F... and had to blink my eyes and re-read... ahhhh 10°F warmer. Ha! Big difference!
ReplyDeleteI hope for you this year won't be a repeat of the winter of 1956!
The month of January was rather mild and, suddenly, on the 1st of February a cold wave hit France and Europe over night. It was so cold that olive trees froze in Southern France!
I found this on the net :
Il y a plus de 60 ans, l'Europe et la France, en particulier, plongeaient brusquement dans une vague de froid intense et historique. Dans la nuit du 31 janvier au 1er février, après des mois de décembre 1955 et janvier 1956 très doux, un froid glacial s'abattait sur l'Hexagone, pour plusieurs semaines.
Cet épisode mémorable a fait de février 1956 le mois le plus froid jamais enregistré sur la France depuis 1900.
Ne parlons pas de malheur !
DeleteDid I tell you that small bay laurel plant you gave me several years ago, and that I planted in my little yard in Paris, survived complete neglect and finally thrived beautifully? Now, I can cook here in NoVa with my home grown bay laurel! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIl est très résistant, le laurier sauce. Tant mieux.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to look for a bay laurel to plant here in Alabama if our climate will suit it. I hope you can get your collards going again.
ReplyDeleteI hope the bay laurel will like your climate. But it might be like my collards — pests longing for their flavor ravish the collard greens before I can get any.
DeleteI like that second picture, of the kale plants all in a chorus line. They look as if they're dancing.
ReplyDeleteAdding bay laurel to my shopping list.
Can you do the can-can? My kale can.
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