Happy Sunday! As Thanksgiving will be here in the U.S. in a little over a week, Tina is challenging us to show some photos of Gratitude for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #235.

We had our first snow storm of the season yesterday. According to my mom, it came “early.” I cannot recall the first snow storm of 2023 but to be honest, 2023 was a dry winter. It was for that reason I was able to go on my Christmas road trip.

I’ll admit that with the new structures in the garden this year, it’s looking a little different than prior years. I’ve been meaning to swap out a portions of the PVC pipes for the furniture-grade PVC pipes to help the structure withstand the wind better. I didn’t get to it, unfortunately. When the temperature dips, it makes me want to hide under a few layers of blankets and spend the day doing nothing. I’m glad I got these structures built even though it was during the hottest days and I am grateful these held up and didn’t get blown over and destroy my tomatoes and cucumbers.

Overnight, we got about an inch of snow and immediately, all plans seemed to had gone out the window. Even though I’ve driven in snow before, my mom didn’t allow me to go out because “it will get the car dirty,” her words.

Having just stuck in the house for over a week, I was barely holding back cabin fever. I had to get out of that house. For once in a long time, I was thankful there’s a park nearby. Despite the path has not been cleared yet, I still walked 3 laps around the park with music in my ears, which seemed instantaneously eased my anxiety and frustration of having to be trapped in my house.

I forgot to take a picture of the tatsoi this year. This is from last December. I got to harvest the tatsoi for the first time yesterday. For those who are not familiar, tatsoi a brassica that grows like a rose. I grew this variety late last year and found it thrived in cold weather. I took advantage of the southern exposure and dedicated a whole bed to winter vegetables like mustard greens, spinach, lettuce, tatsoi, and other kinds of cold weather-tolerant brassicas.

I told my boss I will be harvesting vegetables this winter, he said, “If you have vegetables growing in Utah winter, you must be doing something right.” I must be but I think growing a winter garden is mostly down to research and micro-climate.

I’ve switched tactic this year. Instead of using a thick frost blanket, I’m using a 6-mm thick nursery plastic, which will create a warm micro-climate for the plants in the day by generating heat from the sun. That heat will slowly decrease overnight and it’s been working so far and I’m grateful for that and all the harvests over the last 11 months and hope for more harvests to come.