Thanks Rita, It is not all that unusual here. Usually get a couple of these each year, guessing when is the fun part. If we get the timing right, broccoli can be harvested from Thanksgiving to February. The catch is freezing when heading destroys the forming head. Usually sideshoots will keep coming tho. The record for January is -1 Fahrenheit. Single digits occurs every 4-5 years.

I have two cauliflower just starting to form heads. They are tightly wrapped and have two layers of floating row cover on. I am really hoping the make it through!

Well, it was minus 6 when I woke up this morning at 4:00 a.m. and then it dropped to minus 8 before the sun rose. It was supposed to be -12 or so, but I was happy it didn't get that cold, as the wind is strong and brutal! I wish you folks from down South would send some of that warm air up here and chase the arctic stuff back up to the arctic!

What warm air? Oh, warm to you but not us!

We have no warm air that we can spare for the week. It is cold (below freezing) and about to really get cold tonight, with wind-chills in the single digits. I'm sorry, but though this may not be cold for you "Yankees", it is damn cold for us in the Deep South.

This cold spell that us upon us all is just too much. Tomorrow is supposed to be worse than today even. They are say negative wind chill temps to go to 40 below. Unheard of!

All we can do is try to stay bundled inside and dream of spring. Right now spring planting season seems a long way off.

But I do think of my tomato crop for this coming season. Last year I ordered lots of new to me varieties mail order plants. Some I didn't care for others where fabulous. So for this spring I Have to decide if I want to get lots of mail ordered plants or just mostly stick to local. I think I will mostly stick to local as my budget for the garden has shrunk somewhat. This because I now have a dog and my used to be gardening money is now split between gardening money and money I spend on the dog!

Weedwhacker said: ... all of you southerners getting it now is kind of equivalent to us getting a freeze in July or something... which also, unfortunately, is not unheard of Nature can be cruel !

I like to think She just has a very rough sense of humor.

And doesn't much believe in coddling her children.

She might at least give a little thought to the plants that are suffering !

Survival of the fittest! Wahoo. And we all qualify

I had to fire up my LP heater. The two electric heaters couldn't keep the temperature above 45 F in the exposed greenhouse. The lean-to (orchids only) greenhouse is holding at 55 F. It may be a long night. It is ONLY 27 F here with a wind-chill of 16 F, but is supposed to get down to 13 with a wind-chill of 7. The wind is really blowing.

I ordered some Artichoke seeds, I want to get them started this month. I have several iris seeds from crosses I made chilling in the fridge that will be ready to plant now too. I'm going to act like spring will really get here, although I some days, I have my doubts.

I bought from Burpee last year so of course getting the catalog and also e-mail adds from them this year. Well. I got the catalog last year but the e-mail stuff might be new. Anyway they were touting their tomatoes again so I go look.

First one I see is new. Or so they say. They call it Jersey Boy hybrid.
So here is what they say -
We call it “Supertomato.” Superfragrant. Supertasty. Superproductive. Breakthrough hybrid is the delicious offspring of two legendary tomatoes. ‘Jersey Boy’s 8 oz. fruits brilliantly joins together ‘Brandywine’s sublime sweet-sour tang with ‘Rutgers’ classic rich color, shapeliness, yield and performance. Indeterminate.

I might succumb and try this one!

Tom, was it you that mentioned the "San Marzano Redorta" tomatoes? I have some of those coming to grow this year, really looking forward to trying them! For anyone else that might be interested, this is the description from the "TomatoFest" website: "Named for a mountain, Pizzo Redorta in Bergamo, Italy. This is Gary Ibsen's preferred Italian paste tomato. A much larger tomato (8 oz., 4-inch) with much better taste than it's cousin, San Marzano. Good enough to eat off the vine with the bonus of ending up with more tomato paste per plant. Yum!" I've grown the hybrid "Viva Italia" for years, but for the past several years it hasn't seemed to produce that well for me so hoping to find a good replacement.

It sounds good to be. If I can buy plants I will be trying those this spring.

Try the 'Black Krim'. This variety performs great for me and the taste and color is so rich. I eat it sliced with just a bit of salt and pepper and also on sandwiches. I think you will love this tomato.

See now different gardens and different results. I tried Black Krim and it always split and rotted long before it would get ripe so I did not get any decent fruits.

Generally, at least for me, too much water when the fruit gets large causes the splitting. For me at least, since mine are all grown outside, I can't control when Mother Nature decides to water the tomato plants. About the only ones that don't seem to split in that situation is the so-called "cherry tomatoes".

Well yes, can't control mother nature. But some are more prone to splitting than others. I remember growing Germain Queen right next to that Black Krim and that one never split. So just not a good tomato for me.

Really I grow very few Heirlooms as I like the hybrids. But always trying out a few heirlooms along with them. Some years more than others but always a few.

And always trying new to me varieties. Again some years lots of them and other times only a few.

I was asked to start some tomatoes for our garden club's spring sale. I chose:

Super Sweet (cherry)
Roma
Rutgers (heirloom, mid sized)
Kellog's Breakfast (yellow heirloom)
Aunt Ruby's German Green (green heirloom)
Cherokee Chocolate (purple heirloom - supposed to be more stable than Cherokee Purple

Of those, my favorite is the Aunt Ruby's. The best green tomato I have ever eaten!!! Yum! We sell out at market all the time because after people taste it, they can't believe it!

That looks like a great list there for the spring sale. And having seedlings to sell is a great idea. Nothing more popular than tomato seedlings in the spring.