Celebrate the culture of agriculture & share skills (Growing! Cooking! Eating!)

Cold in January

We in Kansas were surprised not to be the coldest and deepest snow, or even the highest wind speed anytime so far this winter. I am used to missing several days of work due to several feet of snow on the roads, and I have lost buildings, roofs of buildings, doors and windows from the occasional 60+ MPH winds in the winter. My sympathies are with the folks catching it now in the Northern Plains, New England, and the Rocky's. It is only been below zero about 4 nights so far, and most of our snow has melted down to icy patches scattered in the roadway. My chickens have been laying steady, no frozen fountains or rats and mice problems, I think I can call my chicken coop hoop house a success! We added another storage building for lawn equipment, finishing up the ramp today.

I did have to park a horse trailer in the pasture to serve as a windbreak for the horses when it hit a wind chill of -20 or less, they did appreciate that!

I broke up all of the ground in my raised bed gardens last fall, when I pulled all of the dead plants out. With the snow so far the ground has leveled nicely, and should be ready to seed early this year. I plan on putting cold frame Plexiglas tops on them and starting the seedlings 1 march. I won't be putting kale out this time, as we started it in a container in the basement last fall, and it has been growing and adding to our meals all winter long. Carrots, onions, leaf lettuce, cabbage, eggplant, and later cantaloupe and other melons, peas , runner beans are all on the list. As each gets to the hardy growth stage, we will move them into the terrace gardens, and keep the deer and rabbits at bay with cheap(inexpensive) hog panels around the terrace.

Comment by Jennifer on January 13, 2014 at 9:56am: Rick: Glad to hear you're getting a bit of a break from the roughest weather. A question for you: Any special tricks or tips for keeping the kale going inside all winter?

Comment by Rick Nichols on January 16, 2014 at 11:53am: Not really. We started the kale from seed in a container in August. When it started to frost, we moved the container inside the basement, where it has great eastern exposure and some southern throughout the day, we water everyother day , the temperature is about 66 degrees, and we pick leaves off the outer layers of each plant about every three days. The leaves are tender, tart not bitter, and remind me of fresh cabbage (the wife says not, but I thing so).

Comment by Jennifer on January 17, 2014 at 5:46pm: Gotcha. Many thanks! I'll try to find a sunny spot inside next fall and see how things go. What size container did you plant the kale in?

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