We had a beautiful white Christmas here this year. It started snowing Friday evening, while we were at church for a Christmas Eve service. When we left to come back home, it looked as if everything had been covered in a blanket of wet fluffy snow! Fortunately the roads were not too slick and we made it home without incident. It continued snowing a bit more throughout the night.
When we woke up Christmas morning, it looked like a winter wonderland outside. The greenhouse was an oasis in the middle of all the snow.
(click on any image to enlarge)
We had to dig under about 3 inches of snow to find our stone out front.
The holly bush by the garage was more visible but still snow covered.
snow on the holly
We quickly saw we weren’t the only ones who had been out and about. Tracks were everywhere, meandering around in the snow. Were they reindeer footprints?
tracks in the snow
Upon closer inspection, we decided it was probably some of our numerous local whitetail deer.
Bambi, or Rudolph?
I was concerned about the snow on the cold frame covers. Too much weight could cause them to sag and crush some of the plants inside.
When I opened the first one, I was relieved to see that everything was all right. The plants were frozen but unharmed.
We’ve had questions from folks who are curious to know how the lettuce is doing in the cold frames. So far it appears to be surviving the cold weather. Even the young seedlings I planted in December seem to be alive and well.
Today the snow is starting to disappear. Later in the week the temperature is supposed to get up over 50F, and this snow will just be history. Still, it was nice while it lasted, and made for a beautiful Christmas morning!
Those tracks were definitely from Rudolph!!
Lovely photos, and I agree…it must have been Rudolph.
Your cold frame lettuce doesn’t look much different than my AZ grown lettuce. as your temperatures rise, ours are expected to fall. It looks as though we’ll both be seeing daytime temperatures in the 50s for a while!
We might share the same temps for a bit, but it will soon be cold again here!
I always enjoy seeing pictures of salad greens with the cold snowy weather in the background. It’s beyond many peoples understanding that this can be done. If you ever get a chance to read the Nearings book “Our Sun-Heated Greenhouse: Grow Vegetables All Year-Round” I think you might enjoy it as part of the topic is the Nearings thoughts and discoveries on winter hardy salad greens.
Mike, I’ll have to check out that book (right now I’m reading The Good Life). I’m always looking for new ideas. Or old ones. 😉
You are so right about most people not realizing it is possible to grow things year round. If I didn’t have the greenhouse I’d build more cold frames for greens. That’s a really inexpensive way to extend the seasons, and I’ve made and used a lot of them over the years. As it is, the greenhouse acts like a big cold frame in winter. We really have all the greens we want now, and it truly isn’t that difficult!
Isn’t that snowy scene beautiful?! We only had a sprinkling — it missed the upper Shenandoah Valley and headed towards DC and the coastal areas. That worked! 🙂
The snow-filled Happy Acres rock is lovely. Glad your plantings have survived the snow’s weight! Betcha your Rudolf would have loved those tastey treats to graze on!
Happy holidays!
Sounds like you all dodged the bullet on this snow. We did too for that matter. And yes, I’m sure Rudolph/Bambi would LOVE to get in those cold frames!
My hoophouse is covered with snow right. I’ve been meaning to check on my greens.
Temps in the 50’s??? I don’ think we’ll be seeing that in New England for a long time.
You all got hit again, Thomas. I’m hoping your hoop house holds up!
For us the snow came after Christmas, though we did get a few inches before. Yesterday was the blizzard. I’m pretty buried at the moment. But it should melt out a bit this weekend. We should be in the 40s. I love the look of your yard in the snow. Very pretty.