All Bundled Up

Cindy put the corks in place to support a protective cloth covering for the vegetable beds about a week ago, and when temperatures dropped into the mid 30's the last couple of nights, she covered them up to protect the plants from frost.

Shhhh, The Veggies Are Sleeping

She's not about to put all that work into raising the plants from seed, preparing the beds and transplanting the seedlings to have them nipped off by frost.  As a bonus, it makes it harder for the ravenous California Towhees to get at these plants to do the same kind of damage they've already done to the tender young Sugar Snap Peas.  

We're really pretty lucky that we live in a place where it is possible to start growing veggies in December, but they still have to be protected to keep them growing.    

Cork Farming

Using the wine corks as mulch for container plants has worked out pretty well for us (see: "Showing Our Dedication To A Noble Cause" ), but what do you do when you don't have enough corks or can't drink the wine fast enough to accumulate all the corks you need?

Why, of course you plant a cork farm and grow your own corks!  

Corks Up!

Actually, Cindy had intended to use these corks to support some shade cloth to keep the emerging vegetable plants safe from bugs and other veggie predators, such as the California Towhee or the Lesser Goldfinches, who like to nosh on our plants.

She had to quit for the day before she was able finish, but left the corks in place with the shade cloth over the top of the anti-varmint panels.  

 It's more fun to think of it as a cork farm, though.  

Nobody Told Them

I guess nobody told these green beans that they aren't supposed to want to grow at this time of year.  We didn't even plant them; they came up from this summer's beans that had dried out on the vine and fell into the bed.  So when we got some rain, the beans just sprouted and began to put down roots and develop leaves.

Volunteer Green Bean Plants

Although the freezers are already stuffed with the beans we grew this summer, as well as some from years past, Cindy decided to put up some strings for the bean plants to climb, since they appear to be thriving.

Sugar Snap Peas

The Sugar Snap Peas at the other end of the bed, which are supposed to be growing at this time of year, have been having a harder time of it.  Cindy put hardware cloth cages around some of them to keep the varmints, especially the feathered California Towhee type varmints, from eating the emerging plants.

The snap pea plants without cages have been stripped to the stems, so I guess the Towhees are hungry.  They don't seem to fancy green beans at this time of year, though; I guess they know they're out of season.