With the help of heavy plastic sheeting over p.v.c. hoops, we have managed to grow a little crop in the garden in December!  The lettuce is doing fairly well in spite of no heat source other than sunshine, but the kale and spinach is still too small to harvest.  They will, however, rise to the occasion in the spring and produce a prodigious crop beginning in April, lasting well through May when we will plant a new crop.

This is know as “poor farm” gardening–a greenhouse with lights and heat would produce a real crop all winter but is expensive to build.  It would have to withstand the Wyoming winds which blow fiercely and are often accompanied by tree limbs, flying gravel, tumbleweeds, cardboard boxes, feeding tubs and anything else that is left unattached or without an anchor to hold it down.

We have about finished the last of the garden cleanup, and delivered a load of frosty collard greens and kale to neighbor Tom’s pigs, who will enjoy gnoshing on this late harvest bounty.  A row of young potted cottonwood trees line the garden fence and are mulched with two feet of straw and leaves.  Hopefully they will survive to be planted in the spring.  The rest of the garden has been tucked beneath black plastic weed barrier which prevents the weeds from getting the jump on us before planting time next year.

And now for a long winter’s nap!