Summertime in Alaska - or not!?

The past few years I have tried without success to grow a nice firm head of cabbage here on the farm to no avail!  It has been too hot and I do not have an area of good enough shade to keep the cold weather crop doing what it is supposed to be doing,  One year I had rabbits take out the whole lot, and one year it just flat out bolted and tried to seed before it ever made a good head.

So this year I decided I would plant some good ole' Southern Hot Weather Greens!   I got Mustard and Collard seeds and Jicama too.  I prepped the raised bed and sprinkled in the seeds in neat, tidy rows.  And we have had the coldest summer in 5 years starting out!  June 16th it was 48 degrees at 9:00 at night!  Most likely colder overnight - most assuredly colder overnight!  But the Collards and one row of the Mustard greens have come up - Im hoping for them.

In the above photo you can just see the little rows of green coming up - we need some heat now!

I did plant some cabbage though - some Red Mammoth.  We will be doing some red saurkraut if we can get some cabbage to grow.  I planted it in the most shady grow box I have so it doesnt get full sun - just most of the day sun!  Ill keep you posted on the cabbage since it has been a little cooler start to the summer.  We love cabbage and I just can't imagine not at least trying it!

We have had such great winds too that my squash have broken off and I had to start two of then right over - they broke off right at the base - ground level darn it!  It seemed like a monsoon one night here, wind, thunder and lightning - I ran as fast as I could go to close up the greenhouse, the cold frames, and batten everything down.  Then it rained about 5 minutes and was gone.  So we have to water every day even though it is cold and cloudy!  The only thing really going great guns is the onions and the radishs.

Above shows a couple of the Cherry Belle radishes and the radish/caarrot bed behind it.  I always plant radishes and carrots together to start since carrots take longer and by the time the radishes are grown and pulled out it thins the carrots automatically for you.  Way less work thinning and you dont have to be sad pulling out perfectly good carrots!

I read a facebook permaculture post asking how any one else's green beans were doing - I know Im not alone - the consensus is that it is too cold.  I have planted by green beans in the cold frame again in hopes that they will thrive with the added protection - they have just come up but since I had them in there last year and they did well I think we are ok!

I hope your global warming is working in a way that works for your growing affairs!  Ours so far is not!  Blessed be!