Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the garden, this happens:
The eight inches of snow we got last night came as a surprise, not just to me, but to the tender buds just starting to peek out of the soil in our garden.
Fortunately, I’ve been following the Farmer’s Almanac frost calendar and NOAA’s Freeze Data, so I hadn’t put any veggie plants into the garden yet. I do, however, have bulbs in one of my beds, so the hyacinth and crocuses are already up, and the tulips are on their way. So as the snow was just starting to fall last night, I pulled the cold frames off of one of my veggie garden beds, and covered the tender flowers.
I’m glad I did, because it looks like they’re gonna make it.
Interestingly, when I pulled the cold frames off the veggie bed, I discovered that a few tiny spinach leaves had made it through the winter! I had thought we picked the last of our spinach in January, and I was pretty pleased with how late into the season it had lasted. So it was a great surprise to see those tiny little green leaves still there in March. What troopers!
This is a great testament to cold frames – they’re inexpensive and easy to use, and they can help your greens survive even the snowiest of winters.
So what’s happening now in my garden? Not much. I was going to work on building raised beds this week, but that’s now been tabled. Hopefully this is the last snow of the season – we’re itching to get out there!