First Frost

I woke up this morning to find a hard frost on the ground, the first frost of the year in Newport News.  I've been expecting it, but for some reason was surprised to see it through my bleary, tired eyes.  The air was crisp, and so were my veggies!  Fortunately most of my plants are hardy and tolerate frost quite well, which is a major reason I planted them.

Frosty head of Winter Density lettuce.

This Winter Density lettuce head was very frosty.  If you look closely, you can see where the dew initially beaded up on the surface and then froze when the temperature dropped.

My carrots held up well.  The roots seemed unfazed as I walked around the garden in my slippers, but the weight of the frost caused the carrot tops to bend down at an awkward angle.  This isn't overly important because the roots themselves are what I plan on eating (even though you can eat immature carrot greens).

Carrot tops, a bit on the chilled side of things.

My bed of kale was indeed happy to feel the freeze.  Kale often benefits from a frost or two, and I'm hoping to make some kale soup later this week.  Here is a pic of a kale plant with ribbons of frost tucked into the deeply ruffled leaves.

Crispy Kale.

Surprisingly my potted citrus plants, which I left outside all night and are still loaded with limes and lemons, were not covered in any frost.  I attribute this to the fact that they are positioned significantly closer to the house, which unfortunately is as well insulated as a hairless dog, and leaks heat to the outdoors.

My poorly insulated hairless dog, bathing in the sun to soak up heat.

I haven't had a chance to see how everything else in the yard tolerated the frost because it was already dark when I got home from work (a major bummer of the late months of the year).  But I'll likely post again sometime in the next few days with an update.

Mission: Possible -- Carrots

My carrots have been growing for a while now.  The tops are lush, large, and bright green.  So what about the tasty bottoms?  I finally unearthed a few this morning to check on the crunchy roots and voila!  Vibrant orange roots that actually look and taste like carrots!  Nice and sweet.  I'm pretty happy with the results because this is my first stab at growing them. 

A fistful of orange and yellow carrots!

The roots were hairier than I would've imagined, and some of them were less than straight.  If the roots meet any resistance when growing (rocks, debris, etc.) they tend to bend and twist.  Sure, they don't look like your average grocery store carrots, but that's exactly the point!  I'm not looking for average grocery store carrots.  Harvesting was also simple.  The smaller carrots were removed by pulling straight up from the base of the greens.  For longer carrots, I found it helpful to push down on the tops of the roots and then pull up from the base of the greens.  Easy.

I rinsed them off and brought them inside.  I trimmed some of the wayward root tips.  I also cut the greens to within an inch of the roots to prevent transpiration of moisture.  If you don't cut the greens, the carrots will get dry and shrivel in a relatively short amount of time.



Trimmed the tops for better storage in the fridge.

This last picure is a close-up of the surface of a few carrots.  Note the vibrant color, smooth surface texture, and tiny hair-like roots.  I've got an entire 4' x 8' bed loaded with many different varieties of carrots, and it will be a joy to harvest them into the winter.  Can't wait to eat them and grow more next year.

Just need a rinse, peeling optional.  These babies are a sweet and healthy snack.



Orchids

Okay, orchids don't have anything to do with vegetable gardening, fruit trees and shrubs, or herbs.  But I like 'em and have a few that are blooming or are ready to bloom.

I started growing orchids about 5 years ago, figured they couldn't be too hard to grow.  I then promptly killed my first phalaenopsis.  I was bummed but persisted and tried again.  The second time I had success, and I slowly expanded my orchid collection.  I even joined an orchid society, or as my wife called it "The Dorkid Society".  It was a good place to get information and plants, as well as talk to 85-year-old women who have hundreds of orchids in their houses.  No lie.  While I'm no longer active in the society, I took the tips and tricks I learned there and have put them into use.

Here is a picture of a cattleya that opened this morning on my dining room table.  It lives outside for most of the year until the weather cools in the fall and I bring it inside.  The blooms are about 7" in diameter and have a great fragrance.

Most orchids have ridiculous and lengthy names.  This one is no exception.  It is called Blc. Ronald's Canyon 'Koko Head'.