fuzzi's "Gardens and Chickens...and Goats? Oh My!" Journal and More Thread

[fuzzi]

Thanks! I got the cattle panel trellis idea from Gardener Scott on YT, and the plastic covering as well.

Here in eastern NC the collards don't care if it snows or ices, they laugh and stay green. However I don't think the cabbage can handle it that cold. I'm hoping to get cabbage heads to form with help from the clear plastic. If not, lesson learned, and the chickens will enjoy the remains.

I'm also going to cover the carrots, as they're too young to tough it out.

 

[Baymule]

I went over to TEG and found an old post of when it snowed in Livingston Texas, in January 2014. First picture is red cabbage. It was cupped with snow but suffered no harm. I think being up against the brick of the house helped.

This is a view from the street. My garden was between the sidewalk and the driveway. The tall plants are collards. They lived for 5 years! The snow didn’t hurt them at all. The plastic wrapped thing was my redneck green house. I had tomatoes and bell peppers in it.

 

[Baymule]

I kept looking and found the pictures of the carnage inside that green house! Temperatures plunged to 16 degrees and the space heater couldn’t keep it warm enough. The plants were burnt and they looked like this 2 weeks later.

I had bell pepper plants almost 4 years old!

I salvaged tomatoes.

All in all, that little greenhouse provided us with fresh tomatoes and bell peppers throughout the winters, but not in 2014!

 

[fuzzi]

I went over to TEG and found an old post of when it snowed in Livingston Texas, in January 2014. First picture is red cabbage. It was cupped with snow but suffered no harm. I think being up against the brick of the house helped.

View attachment 122504

This is a view from the street. My garden was between the sidewalk and the driveway. The tall plants are collards. They lived for 5 years! The snow didn’t hurt them at all. The plastic wrapped thing was my redneck green house. I had tomatoes and bell peppers in it.

View attachment 122505

If my cabbage were older I wouldn't be making all the effort to protect them. But August was a crazy month, with my SIL passing, my drive to Connecticut and back, then getting sick for a week with lingering weakness...at the time when I should have been planting my fall crops.

Thanks for taking the time to locate and share those photos.

 

[fuzzi]

It's been a steady, soaking rain, what we really need!

 

[farmerjan]

Congrats on the rain... we had some misty sprinkles for a few minutes... made it raw and chilly and damp today... hoping we might get some of what they say is coming Wed into Thursday.