Soon to be winter garden update

I was out Sunday afternoon to wrap up my broccoli in row cover. For the next 5 days the highest day time temp is supposed to be 2c(36f ) and the coldest night temp is supposed to be -9c(16f) with light snow most days. Thankfully the snow just sticks overnight and melts by the afternoon. This will not be the case soon, from the middle of December on we are usually under snow 90% of the time until the spring.

The broccoli heads are a little bigger then a golf ball right now. I am not holding much hope for them but who knows it could always warm up some time next week. Am I being overly optimistic?



The brussels sprouts are ready to start being harvested on the lower portion of the stem. They develop in succession up the stem. They have held up pretty well to the cold but I'm not sure if the higher sprouts will develop any larger.

Taken at 7am, this melted by 10am.

The largest sprouts

The beets are not going to produce, I planted them way to late. I have picked some of the greens though so it is not a total loss.

Also taken at 7am, they are not liking
the nightly snow covering.

The radishes also don't seem to like the snow. They are looking decidedly wilted. We have eaten a few of them but the slugs have been doing more grazing then I have.

The garlic I just planted about a month ago has almost all sprouted except for about 3. I am very surprised to see that they sprouted already in the cold. I read some more about growing garlic and it is not uncommon for them to sprout before spring and it should be fine. I'm glade I planted them deep because if the sprouts are damaged by the cold they should still be fine below the soil.


I came across this bat hanging on the foundation. It kind of freaked me out because I found it well I was putting the row cover on and was face to face with the beast. It was barely alive from the cold and I imagine was on the foundation because it is south facing. It did fly away because it was gone the next morning. We have loads of bats in the yard and I often watch them catching bugs at dusk. We have even had one in the house once, I'm not going to get into that story but lets just say I didn't handle it well.



Lastly, I finished the cold frame and will post about it near the need of the week once I get it all set up.