Friday, January 29, 2010

Signs of Life

fertilizer Friday
A couple days of rain have melted the snow and I was delighted to find signs of life in my garden. I am amazed because we had night time lows of negative 10 degrees and I did little if anything to protect the plants.
January 2010 012
I truly expected my strawberries to die. They have survived previous winters, but this year an early storm caught me off guard and I did not have enough straw to completely cover them. I ran around the yard looking for anything to throw over the plants and found some dead leaves. Even still the coverage was incomplete. I consoled myself by saying that once the first snow melted, I would go in and put more straw down. But the snow never melted and we kept getting more and then the temperatures dropped so incredibly low that I gave up all hope. Yes, I did a happy dance when I found that my berries were not just living, but thriving – thank goodness for tall fences!
January 2010 013
Amazingly my arugula, patience dock, Swiss chard, and parsley all survived the winds, snow, and extreme lows. Some of the older leaves look less than desirable, but there were enough tender young greens to make a “garden” salad in January. In the Sierra Nevada Foothills!

What is growing in your garden? Has the odd weather we’ve had this winter had an impact on your garden?

4 comments:

Troy said...

After reading all about everyone elses warm sunny gardens, it did me good to read that someone else has been experiencing cold weather. I was afraid that we were the only ones who were having winter.

It seems that snow makes a pretty good insulation against the cold and the wind, saving the plants underneath.

Who would thunk it?

walk2write said...

I've enjoyed reading some of your earlier posts and watching the progress of your garden. It looks like you have wonderful soil. In answer to your question about green rhubarb, yes! It may require a little more sugar, but the flavor is still delicious. Unfortunately, I can't grow it here in Florida. We used to be southern Illinoisans, and the rhubarb plants were some of my favorites. A few strawberries mixed in with the green rhubarb will substitute for the lack of red.

Darla said...

You ain't kiddin' it's been weird weather and yep it's made a big difference in my gardens.

Tootsie said...

I am so looking forward to seeing some signs of life in my garden...my greenhouse keeps me going over the long snowy winters!
thanks for posting to FF this week. I added the entries for the draw for you...and I hope you join me again