It's December, and here in the northeast that means it's getting pretty cold especially at night. I still have lots of things going in my gardens. It's wonderful to be able to eat fresh veggies at this time of year. The photo above shows some winterbor kale, baby bok choy and barely visible on the left, swiss chard. With my mid weight row cover i can keep these vegetables going for quite awhile yet. It keeps the soil from freezing allowing me to harvest when most uncovered vegetables have died for the season. I also have row covers on my beets (for beet greens), my full size pac choi and my carrots. While carrots will over winter without protection, once the ground freezes you can't harvest them anymore. The row cover keeps the soil from freezing and allows me to harvest carrots much longer. These are all in raised beds, so the soil freezes faster than if I was gardening directly in the ground. I could harvest all winter long if i used cold frames under the row covers. Hopefully i'll be able to do that with a hoop house next year on some land my partner and I are starting to work. More on that next post.