greenhouse update

Tonight will be the coldest night of the fall so far with expected overnight lows to be 3°.  I think that I will probably need to check later to see what the temperatures are after dark.  In the meantime here are a few pictures of plants growing in the greenhouse.

mizuna

all star salad mix

radish

pak choi

lots of seedlings transplanted into cups

seedlings on the heat mat

there are six gutter planters hanging so far

And this is a couple pictures of the two piles of leaves that Lisa raked, bagged and saved for me. 

Mom hauled them over and now I get to put them to good use.  I will dump them out of the bags, run over them a couple times with the lawn mower and then pick them up and spread them in the walking rows between the raised beds and add them to the compost piles.  So excited.  Thanks, Lisa!!!

I checked on the kale that is growing in the potager.  It has been doing well with the colder weather and I have been picking some for Lisa and have been searching for recipes in which to use it while it is still good.  Anyway, I have been doing some research and found one site that says that kale will tolerate 10° so our predicted overnight 3° was making me a little nervous.  I decided to go out and pick a bunch and then cover the rest.  It was about five o'clock and about 20° when I went out to do this and I found the kale frozen.  It is stiff and breaks apart when touched.  I decided to pick some anyway and cover the rest.  When I brought it in the house and it almost instantly thawed.  I am going to watch how it reacts and consider picking the rest while it is still frozen and place it in the freezer if it looks like it is not going to recover.  I have found some awesome looking recipes that pair kale and butternut squash that I am hoping to try.  I am missing a couple of ingredients that I hope to remedy tomorrow at the grocery store and then look for some kale in upcoming recipes on my other blog, the farmstand cookbook.