A couple of weeks ago I wrote about harvesting all my winter vegetables, broccoli, cabbage, and collards, because we were about to have a week of single-digit temps.
That week came and went, and while it was brutal for me, it didn’t faze the above mentioned broccoli, cabbage, and collards (the test subjects I left in the garden).
The cabbage seen in the pics here looks especially fabulous, in fact. I just had to take a picture with the morning sun lighting up the shimmering droplets of dew on the purple-blushed leaf tips.
So I’m encouraged and educated about the endurance of winter vegetables and won’t be as quick to harvest early next year. You winter veterans, any input? What do you overwinter and how low can it go?
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I have some green onions on the deck I planted last Spring- I harvested them a few times, cutting them to about 1″ from the dirt. I left them out there…and the week after Christmas they started growing! They’re about 7″ high now. (We’re in the Seattle area, so we’ve had a pretty mild winter, but we did have a few weeks of super cold weather in December, in the lows in the 10-20 range.) I’m interested to see what everyone says- I really want to have a winter garden this year!
I don’t have any broccoli, cabbage, etc. growing outdoors right now, but my garlic is still chugging along at the Mr. Yogato Garden. It was seriously cold for quite a span here–the turnips, arugula, spinach, and such died only after that big snow storm in December. But the autumn-blooming crocuses are shooting out leaves, and the tulips are starting to pop up. Most of the mint is still green and growing, if but slowly, and the verbena and strawberries are still hanging on, too, even sending out new leaves.
Other than that, everything’s dead. I can’t wait until spring!
Your winter cabbage is a beauty…I have only ever grown spring cabbage but I think I will definitely be giving this one a go next year…I grow broad beans, broccoli, brussels and garlic for the winter…that’s all so far but I am pretty new to this allotment lark!!
Although I don’t have a winter garden this year due to house building, in the past I have over wintered, kale, collards, cabbage, brussel sprouts, garlic, carrots and onions. All do well down to 28 but then I start to cover with garden a cover- a spun poly fabric -all except the garlic. Some years the sage makes it and this year it made it down to 24 and still growing. The daffys, crocus, wild tulips and grape hyacinths are coming up right now. The Knock Out roses haven’t stopped growing yet, gotta love them.