Kitchen Garden Forum

It's been interesting to see how the frost & snow before Xmas and through January has affected our plants. Usually I have brassicas & leeks growing through Winter.

By the end of January, the outer leaves of our cabbages, spring greens, curly kale, Cavalo Nero, Tatsoi and leeks were all brown or rotting. Sprouting broccoli seemed to have escaped this, but had been pecked to death by birds. Garlic seemed fine.

I've not noticed this as badly in previous winters, though it did get down to -11C here. Anyone else getting more frost damage than usual or is it just down to needing extra protection when conditions require it?

I lost all my autumn sown broad beans despite being in the polytunnel. My onions and garlic seem to be coping ok but I have lost some kale and sprouting broc to the frosts.

Could it be more to do with the length of time things have been frozen for?

Considering we went from being flooded more times than I care to remember and then snow and ice and back to flooding again. I think I can honestly say my winter crops have been the best ever. I have just finished lifting the last of the carrots, celeriac, parsnips and swede. Picked the last sprouts and still have a couple of dozen good leeks left. Purple sprouting not looking very good but may recover. Minicole cabbage I cut before the frosts and stored in the shed. Kept perfectly. Last one in the fridge now.

Beryl.

My hardy kale and Cavalo Nero have survived OK, but most of my leeks seem very mushy, and the Swiss Chard on which I also rely for late winter greens has also gone quite slimey. I'll rescue & eat what we can, but I think there will soon be an extra layer on the compost heap.

All our kales (Cavolo Nero, dwarf curly and Ragged Jack) look very sad though I am still picking a few leaves of each. Ragged Jack seems to have survived the best.
All the top sprouts in the sprouts (Montgomery) have rotted and some of the individual sprouts have bits of rot inside although they look ok when picked.
Purple sprouting broccoli is fine though not nearly sprouting yet.
Leeks (Musselburgh) are ok.
I am worried about the garlic though. It was planted mid-October and usually it pops up and then stays stuck until spring before growing again, but this year it hasn't shown at all yet. So I have planted a few more cloves of Solent Wight (from last year's crop) and hope for the best.
Overall, this weather of snow/frost/snow/frost hasn't been brilliant for our overwintering veggies.

Hopefully, we'll have a bit of a bit of a dry spell now and will get the big bed of green manure dug in!

We've not had anything going rotten apart from a few outer leaves on the sprouts, but quite a lot of the kales have been squashed and had leaves broken off. We've had two falls of 10 inches of snow, so perhaps the depth of snow has protected the plants from the frost and squashed everything instead. It has nearly all gone now, just a bit round the edges of the paths, so I may manage to get some digging done this weekend.

There is still one huge beautiful Kalibos pointy red cabbage waiting to be picked which is perfect under its tatty outer leaves, and the parsnips and leeks look good too. I've not been able to plant the garlic or shallots as the ground has been frozen solid or under snow for so long, so I've potted them up and put them in a cold frame to start them off.

After I posted this, I thought "of course people up North will be used to more extreme weather and either not expect much to overwinter, or will protect with fleece etc". However from your responses it doesn't seem quite as simple as that.

I'd also mention that in our back garden we have an olive tree that's about 12 feet high. When it first snowed, the branches became weighed down and it pulled out a support strap pinned into a wall and bent over double. I was able to get it upright and pinned the support back in and when we had further snow, it coped better. It now seems not much the worse for wear, just one or two leaves going brown and several of the olives turning brown (though this may just be them ripening).

By contrast, a standard bay tree (only around 3 feet high) that we've had for 7 years hasn't fared as well. nearly all the leaves have gone brown.

No it isn't that simple really. As someone from 'up North' we are usually in a fairly protected situation and haven't seen snow like we have had this year nor such low temperatures for a long while.

I think the length of time the cold weather and snow lasts is relevant as often plants can take short cold spells but don't respond well to extended periods.

That said so far our veg are doing OK. Tree fern looks poorly though - just hope the fleece in the crown protect the bits that matter!

My autumn planted garlic (in tubs) came through by about 3 inches before Christmas, and now have brown tips to their leaves. Probably too much rain and then snow. I think they will probably be ok though when the weather warms up a bit.

I always plant mine in tubs in the cold greenhouse for early bulbs - its cold but had protection from rain and snow etc.

For planting out later we pop clove in pots again in the cold greenhouse. As our soil is very clay based we have had garlic rot if planted directly in the soil.

Perhaps I will pop the tubs in until things do warm up then It might give them a boost. Thanks