Snow Farm

I recently visited the snow farm, aka beach farm, ostensibly to drop off my permit application, pay my fee, and receive my parking permit from the NPS ranger who mans the little shack, left turn, before the bridge. But really all I wanted to do was trudge through the snow, taking photographs under the mid day sun, of all the good things I expected to see there.

The snow had a firm layer on top, compressed, congealed, by the many icing events over the last few weeks. Walking was easier than I imagined, sinking in about three inches on each new step. The landscape was untrammeled, except by a lone animal as evidenced by these tracks.

This is my plot, along with a receding view of neighbors' plots. The snow had been caught in drifts, affected by wind and obstructions. The few upright sticks indicate the location of the garlic I planted last November.

The snow was quite deep to the north and south side of the fence, dipping at the fence line to just a few inches.

My plot, looking northwest, untouched since late November.

I became quite aware of the heat created by decaying wood. Look closely and you will see green things quite unfrozen  at its base. This is the north, not sunny, side of the post in the corner of our plot.

In fact, the more I walk, the more green I find. Not exuberance, mind you, or even real growth, but definitive aliveness wherever the icy snow had melted away from the heat of decay or radiation. 

Though weeds, they bring exaltation.

To the south of the garden were vines with green leaves -a surprise. But then consider the micro climate -south facing fence line, peninsular location, and of course, the great pile...

...of horse manure.

And although this has been one of the coldest winters I can recall in recent years, the rosemary still has tender green leaves near and under the snow -not those dry, gray leaves my potted rosemary has (it's okay to call that dead).

Even my neighbor's Swiss chard had seemed to survive the winter.

I now find some useful logic in the winter garden. City folk relent, while we curse snow on streets and sidewalks, the constant snow cover is a friend of the garden. If we want to over winter certain herbs and vegetables we want a winter snow cover, which protects the plants from those freezing, drying winds, keeps the soil from freezing hard, and limits the detrimental freeze/thaw oscillation. Add to this the beauty of decay. Livestock manure, a large compost pile, rotting wood, or some other form of heat generating bio activity. The heat generated is enough, especially if placed in a sunny, protected spot, to keep some cold weather vegetables and herbs alive. 

Of course, the plants can usually read the season better than us, lying in wait.