January's Garden, A Second Look (2017)

January 13, 2017 

How could five days make such a big difference?  We went from a blizzard to summer in only a few days.  As the saying goes, if you don't like the weather in Tennessee, wait twenty minutes.  Today's high was 55 degrees and tomorrow it will be up to 61 degrees.  No, that was not a typo.  It will be up to 61 tomorrow.  If this is global warming, I am all for it.

Since it is so warm, I decided to remove the coverings on the hoop houses so the sunlight could pour in, except that there has been no sunlight - only gray clouds and rain.

You could almost hear the plants sigh to get the covers off and breath again.  Many of the plants have already been harvested so there is much more empty space.

Buttercrunch lettuce is quite happy under the hoop house;  any planted outside has disappeared.

This was a surprise, some summer radishes surviving under the hoop house.  It was a mix of different varieties of radish seeds.  I did not realize they would live into the winter since this was the first time I have ever planted them late.

This is a green Chinese Luobo winter radish which I have grown during previous winters.  They usually don't make it any later than January so I wanted to go ahead and harvest it.  The hoop house did not make much of a difference for them since the other ones are not surviving.  I suppose the covering has extended their harvest for about two weeks.  Not very impressive.

Today's radish harvest.

These turnips are out in the open and have taken a hard hit by the cold weather.  The roots are still fine and you can see that they are still alive.  The ones with smaller roots are not going to make it.  They were planted late because of the drought.

This turnip was under the hoop house and is in great condition so the covering made a big difference.

Turnip harvest today.

Something with big teeth (rabbit) has begun chewing on my sugar beets.  I put a netting over them to protect them, which worked until it was blown off by this past storm.  To keep from losing them all, I went ahead and harvested most of them.  I left two, under a net, to see if they will go to seed. 

Update: They never went to seed.

Today's sugar beet harvest.  You Can't Beat a Bowl of Beautiful Boiled Beets

This is how the onions looked five days ago during the snow storm.

This is how they look today.  Not very impressive.  The roots are still alive and I expect them to pull through.  Next year I am putting them under the hoop house between the other plants since I love cutting off the tops and putting them in salads.

UPDATE:  Puting them under the hoop houses was a success.  It was easy to stick them in the empty spots between the other plants.

These are my favorite greens, collards.  They took a hard hit by the cold weather since they were planted late also, due to the drought.  Plus, this was an area hard hit by the armadillos so they have already had to overcome that damage.  They just aren't as strong as they have been in the past years.

Five days ago this was the winter peas, something new I have planted this year.  I have been watching them closely since they are supposed to be able to handle cold weather.

They did great with the snow but all the other plants are gone, only the ones under wires or netting have lived. I think rabbits have eaten them all also. 

In addition to everything I showed above, I harvested different types of greens.  Not everything got harvested or pictured today because of the weather.  The forecast is to be in the lower 60's and rain, rain, rain for the next 7 days. What crazy weather!!!  I am not complaining except that everywhere I stepped in the garden, my feet sunk in the mud.

January's Garden (2017)

Winter Garden, Sunlight Hours (2017)

December's Garden, A Giant Cover Up (2016)