Winter Greens

Young purple cabbage plant.

With a crock-pot of goat roast simmering on the counter, I wandered out to the bed of cool-season greens with Miss Annabelle this morning. No, the cat does not eat the greens, she just keeps tabs on her humans when we first appear. We had a hard frost last night, so several of the plants were dressed with icy shawls.

This bed of late-season greens only went in after area garden centers had divested themselves of their cool-season plant-starts. All of the collards and cabbage arrived the day Edwards Feeds disposed of the remainder of their display, and they were slowly planted over the ensuing weeks. We added a few broccoli plants, too, after Hale Moss of Moss Garden Center brought several flats of plants to a Wilson County Master Gardener meeting. 

One end of our winter greens bed.

Were it not for the free-ranging poultry and the occasional browsing goat, I might have spread the cabbages around as decoration. As it is, young plants cannot survive unprotected because one critter or another will feel moved to scratch at its roots or chomp on its leaves. Indeed, our new goat Starlight saw fit to reach over the short poultry netting "barrier" last week and start pulling up the broccoli plants with abandon.

Maybe by this time next year I will have conceived of a way to maintain the balance of free range birds and landscaping with edible plants. Maybe.