The Winter Garden is Going

It has gotten cold by Memphis standards, and by the end of this week, it will get cold by every one else's standards (low of 4 degrees).  With the cold obviously all the usual plants have gone dormant for the winter.

Because of the expected cold weather I will need to harvest the broccoli and cauliflower. Both can survive down to about 26 degrees or so, but this will be much colder. I wish they could stay in the ground longer and develop a little more. I will harvest the head and leave the rest of the plant in case it survives.

Also the regrowth of the lettuce has lasted much longer than I expected. The cold weather will kill it too, so I will be harvesting it.

The kale is about ready for its first serious harvest. This is a video we shot about a month ago with Extension Agent Celeste Scott where she talks about some cold weather vegetables. I ate the leaf she picked in the video and it was good, but it had only barely frozen by that point. I am excited to try out some several-times-frozen kale. It should be even better.

The garlic came up and we had 100% germination. It is about 6" high. From my experience it will not do much through the winter, but in the spring it will grow larger and be ready in about June.