Little Snowflakes!

   Barely mention snow down here in the Deep South and you will stir up a whole flurry of excitement.  Most folks dream of a snowy day and will go so far as to "stock up" on every mentionable item in the store.  Me?  Not so much.  While I love looking at photographs of snow elsewhere, it is not one of those things that I wish upon the Bayou.  I adore a good cold winter (which has been sorely lacking for the past few years) but snow is just a nuisance.  But!  I do fully appreciate snowflakes!

  Summer Snowflakes are tiny white flowers that pop up wherever they please and bring a bit of brightness in the doing.  While other blooms are scarce, the little white and green blooms brighten the gardens, along the paths, in the woods or just about anywhere there is a nice place to grow.  Mom always said they heralded spring and that seems to hold true.

  

  Each tiny, cup-shaped blossom has six petals.  They are snow white with a small dot of green at the tip.  The leaves are thin and strappy.  The stalks can have four or five blossoms at graduated spaces.  The bulbs love to grow in clusters well hidden in nooks and crannies of the garden. The Summer Snowflakes (Leucojum) are often confused with Snowdrops (Galanthus).  There are two ways to distinguish between the two.  Snowflakes have six petals that are the same length and, of course, that dot of green, whereas, Snowdrops have six petals...three long and three short...and no dot of green!

   "Pretty, pretty little Snowflakes...where dost thou bloom?   Hidden in between the cabbages if there is room!"  Yes, one large cluster of the Summer Snowflakes somehow made its way into the vegetable garden and is happily blooming among the cabbages.  I love it!

Frosty Greens!

   Frost on plants is a funny thing.  If the plants are cold hardy at all, most will survive a frost even a heavy one.  Those short-lived cold snaps actually do garden plants good, in my view.  After being stunted by the weather, the plants will kick it in gear and have a growth spurt.  It is all about survival.  Let something threaten plants and they have that innate need to hurry things up a bit.  Plants sole goal in life is to reproduce so when that is in danger, they strive harder to flourish and make strong, health seeds.  Frost on the leaves is not a bad thing, in most cases.

  Lately, the greens in the garden have been frost-laden each morning.  This is due to the heavy fog overnight and the drop in temperatures.  By morning, the cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and mustard greens are wearing a thick coat of frost.  Then the sun rises, warms a bit and the frost starts to melt.  Each little droplet runs down the leaves to puddle until it is heavy enough to fall to the ground.  There, the dirt greedily soaks it up and the plants are watered.  It is all in nature's plan.  The way most leaves are shaped and the way they are set on the plants causes water to run down to where it is most needed.  Mother Nature is not stupid!  Make the most of what is there.

  Son and I enjoyed the first head of cabbage from the garden this week and been having mustard greens every other day.  The broccoli and cauliflower will soon be ready, as well.  Winter gardens are actually far easier to tend as weeds and plant-munching insects are not as likely to invade the garden plot.  Neither seem to appreciate the frost.  Happy gardening, folks.  Go plant some greens!

Go with the gut feelings....

  Pop always told me that cabbages were cold hardy enough to stand most of the chills we get this far south.  He said that most greens were the same.  Late yesterday afternoon, I had the crazy idea that I needed to cover the garden plants.  Everyone said that a "hard freeze" was in the works for the night and that preparations should be taken to protect "plants, pipes and people".  I fretted over my cabbages.  Son and I toted blankets out to the garden and covered the rows.  To my despair, we ran out of covers before we ran out of cabbages!  So be it!  I could only do so much!  The cabbages were on their own.  If the cold was going to get them, there was not much I could do.

  This morning, I eased into the garden while the thermometer was still registering below the freezing mark.  While it was no record breaking freeze, it was pretty darn cold out there. Surprisingly, the exposed cabbages did not look too bad!  In fact, when I peeled back the blankets, the exposed ones did not look any worse than those covered!  Cabbages are, indeed, cold hardy!

  The point of this whole post is that I should have known better than to fall into the "panic" that folks tend to express.  Being raised on a farm by the best gardener ever, you would have thought I knew better.  I did.  I still fell to the panic mongers that portray everything to be dire.  No more.  I learned a lesson.  All the covering of the garden did was to present me with 5 loads of laundry.  The blankets used were wet and dirty.  The washing machine ran almost constantly today.  I should have listened to that gut feeling instead of yammering mouths.  Pop was right.

Of Cabbages and Hurricanes!

   Mentally, it was important for me to take a few moments break from hurricane cleanup.  This is going to take several months with only Son and me doing the work.  Both mentally and physically, it is exhausting work.  Mark will be back working and won't be able to help.  Son and I will work as a team and do it but breaks now and again help us regain the gusto that will help us win.  Yesterday's break came in the form of clearing the small vegetable plot. Yes, it was still clearing hurricane debris but, at least, this had a different motive.  I wanted to check on my little plants.  Just days before Zeta hit our area, I planted broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages and mustard greens.  I was not even sure if the plants were still there or if the seeds had sprouted.  Limbs and debris totally filled the small garden.

  After removing the large limbs and some roofing from the greenhouse, I was ready to start searching for my little plants. Carefully raking between (what I thought were) the rows, I started finding plants!  Green, green plants had survived the onslaught!  It was almost overwhelming to find something living since we have been dealing with a lot of death lately in the form of dead plants and animals.  Now!  Green! 

  After my afternoon's work, I finally have the garden space somewhat cleared and I am overjoyed that only one cabbage plant was gone.  Life is good.