Now that over a foot of snow has fallen, the temperature has dropped. With a daytime high of 24º and overnight lows just shy of single digit temperatures, the garden is being tested. The sun was out and I was able to dry my laundry on the clothesline, but make no mistake, it is way to cold for this Seattle area farmer.

The Sleeping Garden
The tall lumps on the right are Collard Greens. The Siberian Kale are the two rows of lumps beyond the collards.

Even though winter is weeks away, it is coming early to Maplewild. Just after noon today the snow is flying. This will be a good test for my “winter crops”

It has been getting colder outside, time to sit down, light the fire and thumb through the seed catalogs. This morning the rain outside looked funny and it wasn’t really rain. It wasn’t snow either and it wasn’t hail. Call it what you will, things were turning white.

Champion Collard Greens Turn White

They tell me collard greens like cold weather, so I guess they’re happy. Same is true for the Siberian Kale. These plants seem to thrive in this weather.

Siberian Kale On Ice

I have a lot of bare ground due to the land clearing. Some weeds have started to take hold, but for the most part, all is barren. Two weeks ago I picked up some winter rye seed to cover up the exposed ground. It amazes me how tough that stuff is. Wind, rain and frost have been the norm lately and the seed grows like there is noting wrong. I even have a patch of clay soil (not a large area) and the grass is growing in that, no problem. There really is something magical about seeds.

Winter Rye Sprouts at 2 weeks
Although it looks like the roots are not digging into the soil, they really are. I just threw the seeds on the ground, some of it rather compacted, and they grow like nobody’s business.