A mild winter so far

Returning home from winter break travels, I was surprised that we'd still not had a hard freeze in the Piedmont. Some of the camellias near the house are loaded with lovely pink and white flowers -- the white-flowered ones are a treat because they're almost always browned by freezes!

The cilantro and arugula are still looking great - both can withstand light frosts, and maybe more if they've been gradually exposed to lower temperatures. (The cilantro is in a glazed ceramic pot, while the arugula is growing as a big patch in the satellite garden.)  The parsley is still looking good, too, of course, and the French sorrel is putting out new leaves, too (apparently the deer haven't been back recently).

On my walk this afternoon, I saw a large patch of mustard greens (similar in cold hardiness) looking good, too. It'll be interesting to check out the kitchen garden next to the visitor center (at the botanical garden where I work) to see how the snow peas are faring!

In the mountains, the weather has been a lot colder, temps into the lower 20's.  It'll be interesting to see how the greens in the raised beds there have fared on our next trip.