Again I'm reminded that this garden does not need me.

When I came home from almost dying during my super icy morning run (I've now got a pair of YakTrax - thank you Lesley for that one) I went out and found my garden covered in an icy death crust that I was sure meant that I'd soon be facing a bunch of vegetable beds of brown goo where my pretty green plants used to be.

NOT SO.

When the ice thawed and I found my way out to the beds in the daylight hours, I found that the only plants to have gone to goo from the frost were the nasturtium, which was no big surprise.

They do this every year and it is, in fact, their job to turn to goo and cover the soil until spring when they get dug under and TEE DAH the soil springs anew.

It is the circle of life thing. Sing it if you want. Just not around me. Thanks so much.

Everything else though, including the icy little pea tendrils which I was certain were going to cuh-roak under the ice, was AOK.

In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd think the frost did them some good. Like, made them sure that it was their season and time to grow because they were safe from the summer vegetables that are always rushing them in and out of the beds because the summer vegetables are totally the teacher's pet. Where the teacher is me and I keep pets like tomatoes.

You understand.

Anyway, the kumquats, lemons, peas, purple kohlrabi, broccolini, leeks, garlic and fava beans are out of harm's way for the moment and have been enjoying some winter time rains while we've been enjoying the winter time snows.

It's all just very whimsical and growie out there. Which, of course, means that I am intermittently waxing my snowboard and flipping through seed catalogs.

I won't spoil the fun of 2010's Adopt a Crop, but I think I found the perfect melon. And it's not even one of my own! HA! My jokes have not improved!

So, because I came here, not with the intent of torturing you with my inane sense of humor, but rather to show you pictures of the plants I did NOT kill - let's see these mystical creatures:

Money Chicken asked for a scarf for Christmas. Notice he is still nude because he is a naughty little bastard.

Garlic - Alive+

Kohlrabis - alive and some are very purple.

Peas - alive with tendrils AND fancy rain drops.

Lemons - obviously alive. Not even a mad shearing can kill this tree.

 As Bubba would say, the kumquat is "quatting":

So, now that I know that all this shit can live without my intervening with a floating row cover or other device that requires me to remember I have a garden growing out there when it's 30 degrees outside, I feel free to go about my business ordering seeds for a summer garden and riding around on the slopes of Tahoe without another thought to the vegetable garden.

I mean, sure, I'd like to eat some broccolini or kohlrabi one of these days, but while they're not dead out there, they're not really growing all that fast either, so I'm not going to get super worked up for that.

Though, when these kumquats come ripe, which I WISH THEY WOULD ALREADY, I will eat all 11 of them in one standing and I won't even feel guilty about it because it's not like there's a full dozen or anything. Who could eat 12 whole kumquats at once? Ridiculous.