Garden greens for Christmas

As we approach a winter thaw, I went out to the garden to see how my experiment to keep greens going during the winter was fairing.

Even though temperatures have been below freezing for weeks, the greens are still there and I've learned a few more lessons.

Last year I just used floating row covers right on the plants, but the deep snow crushed some of the plants. This year I made hoop covers to keep the snow off the plants. I discovered that in areas where snow had covered the plants at the end of the hoop covers, the greens looked better. They were insulated by the snow and since the hoop cover was there it didn't let the plant get completely crushed.

The greens under cover all look OK, but the insulated greens were mainly what I picked.

So it's back to the drawing board to design something that will keep the snow from crushing the plants, but also allow it to act as an insulator.

I'm thinking of squaring the wires off, using a center support and keeping the hoop cover at about six inches.

Getting fresh arugula, teamed with a little sea salt, garlic and butter was a wonderful belated Christmas present.