A Break in the 'Deep Freeze'

This is the time of year that I like to call the 'deep-freeze'.. It's been so cold with some days reaching a low of -28 C, with the windchill. Brr!! And of course, it's not just a random day here or there, we've had a few weeks of bone-chilling weather. When the temp drops so low, I generally leave the cold frames shut. I'll still harvest some kale or leeks from my mulched beds or a mini tunnel, but the rest can wait until it's a bit warmer. Which brings me to this past Wed and Thursday when the temperature rose to the almost-tropical 9 C.. a mid-winter heatwave! It was blowing like crazy though and as I peeked out my kitchen window, I could see one end of one of my hoop tunnels had blown loose so I wandered up to re-secure it. While there, I snapped a few photos and harvested a big bowl of garden greens.

Asian greens.. under a mini hoop tunnel. These were
'volunteer' babies that I replanted to this bed.. Then
covered it for winter and we're still using the greens
for salads and stir-fries.

This bed demonstrates the extreme hardiness of
kale, Asian greens like mizuna and mustards, arugula and
radishes. I had covered it with a mini tunnel in early December,
but just roughly with no actual clips securing
the plastic. I totally forgot that I never secured it and
of course the cover blew off in a late Dec snowstorm. That bed
has since been covered with about 15 cm of snow for the past month
and was uncovered in the last few weeks of arctic temp's. But, once that
snow melted in this weeks mild patch, the veggies were FINE!!
I have since re-covered the bed and now that it's Feb, we're
getting more than 10 hours of sunlight a day and these
will begin to regrow again.. 

Curly parsley that has no cover.. The plant is 10 inches across
and still producing.

A carrot cold frame ready for picking!
Our other one is nearly empty, so we'll be turning to this
carrot factory for the rest of winter.