Naked people in the snow?
They are not allowed on this blog, so go elsewhere if that’s what you came for….
We got plenty of snow this time so now all of north Georgia is shut down for 2 days.
The hoop tunnels bent but didn’t break – everything underneath was just fine.
Warm and cozy, all aglow:
More snow:
Find the cabbage in this bed lol:
January Jalapeno Harvest in Georgia?
The Jalapeno plant I potted up and brought inside has been quietly filling out those peppers on the back porch. (I never thought I would be harvesting peppers in January.)
We ate half of these in the form of “poppers” tonight; they seemed quite a bit hotter than the summer and fall harvested ones did.
Update:
I snapped a picture of the greens in the larger hoop covered bed- everything continues to survive and make progress.
Snow. (Yawn)
The storm that just dumped 2 feet of snow on NYC cut its teeth in Georgia on Christmas day.
At least 11.29 million pictures of the storm have been posted on Facebook in the last 48 hours, but I know you all have been desperately waiting for snow behind cohutt’s fence.
(And yes, tonight we did have a delicious fresh salad picked from under the plastic cover. You really should try this winter gardening thing.)
It snowed some more but we lost interest and didn’t take any more pictures. Sorry, this is all I could come up with after the weekend.
(Hurry up spring)
Life after 12?
Is there life after 12 degrees?
The first cold wave has come and gone now so I peeled the plastic covers back and did a damage survey.
The good news is that there wasn’t any, or more accurately there was very little cold damage. The lettuces all survived BUT some leaves on the plants towards the end of the mini-tunnel suffered some freeze damage. This didn’t surprise me since the air flow is minimal underneath and the more modest heat source (a 100 watt incandescent) was much closer to the other end.
Lettuce: Excellent condition
Spinach :
Chard
Kai-lan (Chinese kale):
The cauliflower did just fine and I harvested this modest one tonight (couldn’t wait any longer):
Brussel sprouts are nubbing up:
And a bowl of winter garden goodness:
12 Degrees
Forecast low tomorrow night: 12 degrees
The “pods” have done a great job protecting the remaining plants as temperatures dropped into the low 20s last week.
Granted, most of what remains is fairly hardy, but who knows what would be left otherwise…..
The next 72 hours are going to be chilly by almost anyone’s standards- lows two nights in the low teens and nights two days not expected to get above freezing.
I took advantage of a mild Saturday and uncovered the beds to inspect/harvest before the big freeze.
Most of the lettuce & arugula still looked pretty good:
Broccoli was plump:
The brussel sprouts were finally showing some buds
The very late cauliflower was even forming pretty decent heads:
One head of broccoli was a little too far along (but edible just the same; no yellow flowers yet):
I went ahead and harvested the majority of the remaining broccoli heads then blanched and froze 20 servings (and held out 2 heads for dinner):
OK, so now the big freeze test is looming.
Today in preparation I bundled up and tucked the beds in as snugly as I could and added more bricks, rocks, boards, and any other available items of any weight to keep the coming north wind out from under the coverings. I left the “heat” lights on underneath all day and they will stay on through at least Wednesday afternoon.
I also dug out another old blue tarp and have now more effectively “double covered” the big lettuce bed. I noticed that the old drop cloth I had draped over it last week made a big difference overnight vs just the single layer of plastic (the condensation on the inside of the double layered bed wasn’t frozen after a 24 degree night.)
I’m concerned that the freeze will be too much for my lettuce and arugula. The broccoli and cabbage are probably going to be ok and the cauliflower and brussel sprouts might pull through but I’m not that confident. Therefore I took most of these pictures to serve as the “before”shots; I’ll take the “after” shots this Saturday and post the results good or bad.
A cohutt Christmas tip
What’s going on inside the pods
I couldn’t help it this evening and had to see what it looked like under the cover of one of the hoop tunnels.
It wasn’t very exciting really, although the young lettuce, spinach and chard all looked like things were going well.
I’d also say the gallon jug of water was catching a little of the light/heat too…..
More spam filter classics
A while back I posted some amusing excerpts from the spam filter .
Apparently my work is still cherished. Some good ones from December’s spam filter:
generika cialis says:
Greetings, this is a genuinely absorbing Internet weblog and I’ve cherished studying quite a few of your content and posts contained on the Internet website, keep up the outstanding get the job done and want to read a good deal far more stimulating articles or blog posts within the long term.
Per dai dai hua:
I don’t ordinarily reply to posts but I will on this case.
my God, i believed you were going to chip in with some decisive insght on the end there, not depart it
with ‘we leave it to you to decide’.
generika potenzmitt adds:
Fantastic blog! I genuinely enjoy the way it? s simple on my eyes as well as the Information are nicely written. I’m wondering how i could be notified every time a new publish has been created. I’ve subscribed to your rss feed which need to complete the trick! Have a nice day!
Indeed…..
December peppers?
Back before Halloween I posted that I was bringing some pepper plants in for the winter. It has been 5 weeks now, so an update would be in order.
The verdict: So far so good
The big bell pepper plant is over 5 ft tall in the pot; it is the only one that seems to have had a little transplant shock. The flowers that were on the plant at the time of the transplant set some peppers but they are not doing well and will be plucked off. Some of the peppers that were set have grown a little and stayed firm while slowly ripening into a beautiful red, although they are much smaller than the peppers of September off the same plant.
The next largest plant is the sole jalapeno of the garden; it is quite tall as well but it didn’t seem to suffer in the transplant. It has several peppers on it that have continued to slowly grow although I didn’t take any pictures of them (green jalapenos are invisible in the leaves of an indoor plant.)
I also brought in one of the sheepnose pimento plants; it has done ok as well and the smaller plant size seems to be more suited for transplant than the tall bell and jalapeno. It has the largest pimento specimen of the whole season on it now- about the size of a tennis ball and as beautiful a red nature can provide:
Finally, the small habanero plant that didn’t set any peppers until September is loaded with tiny orange lanterns of fire that will be the base for my pest control pepper spray next year:
The goal wasn’t to harvest peppers all winter although I’m pleased I’ll get a few along the way. The goal was to have these 4 plants survive in a semi dormant state so that they can be moved back outside in May when the nightly lows are in the 50s & above again. Starting with a large, mature plant in May ideally should significantly increase the production over the course of the summer vs with a 6″ transplant. As the shortest day of the year approaches I am encouraged.
Behind cohutt's fence 