Winter Garden Update

I haven't posted anything in a while, and I apologize that I don't have any pictures (I forgot the camera in the house) but I do have an update. We had three types of vegetables in the two cold frames alive and well before winter struck. Swiss Chard, Spinach and Parsnips. I am happy to report the spinach is alive and well, even the sprouts that didn't have time to turn into full sized plants are still green. The chard looks dead. And the parsnips still have green growing crowns (the rest of the leaves look dead).

The winter temperatures thus far have dipped as low as -35 degrees F. While the spinach and parsnips aren't growing, the important thing is they are still alive and with any luck they will start to break dormancy near the end of February.

I have made a couple of observations this year on the subject of cold frame gardening.

1. Keep your cold frames close to your house. Mine are really hard to get to without going through large snow drifts.

2. In my case, the cold frames are in a pour spot in regards to sun exposure. They face south but the low winter sun gets blocked by the trees in our yard. In town, this might be unavoidable.