The first thing I would suspect is your soil is too dry. A tip off is, your seeds did not germinate firstly and your plants did not do well. There may be other reasons but that is what I would suspect.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

When did you plant? I planted by our GA calendar as well and nothing has come up or done well either. I had to replant most everything and am just now seeing some tiny seedlings. I don't think we were ready for that HUGE cold spell last week.

I'm confused. Was this stuff planted in the fall or this year in the last month?

These plants were all planted in the Fall for a winter harvest. And seedlings DID come up (ie: turnip greens in one planter, which were planted the very latest of everything I had mentioned). Probably put out sometime in December. These plants actually dont look half bad, they just are not really big (yet?) I've not given up on them.

The soil was kept moist (mainly by regular rains as well as watering in between).

When pulling up the beets for example the soil is perfectly moist, no evidence of drying out. I kept a pretty regular watering schedule.

Also I broadcast time released fertilzer about November I'd say.

The cold temps last week, may have stunted some of the greens, but they did not appear to be dead from it.

Not sure about GA, but here in WA, I know I planted way too late. I needed much more growth in late summer, early fall before the cold temps of winter kicked in. My hoop covers didn't provide the temp protection I had hoped and all my plants died as well. If I can't provide answers, at least take comfort in the fact you were not alone... There's always next year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!

Sounds to me like they were planted too late. Georgia has areas that have the same planting times as my area of Texas and all those veggies went in my garden in mid to late August. The only thing that went in later was spinach because it refuses to germinate in the heat.

Did you amend the soil before planting? Plants only need food, air, water and the right temps to grow. One was missing or there was too much of one.

rjinga...hmmm. What I have done is plant a complete 4X4 box in nothing but spinach. We eat it, and then when the weather gets too cold or when I just get tired of gardening, I go out and just snip off all the spinach leaves and leave the main plants in the ground. I dont cover them at all for the winter. I live in Utah, so, we usually get a pretty good dose of snow. When the snow has melted and it begins to warm even a little, I have all my spinach that has over-wintered. I can send you a picture of what it looks like right now after a hard winter if you like. Just send email....maybe another idea..

I had a couple spinach plants that I planted in the fall (not early enough to do much). I didn't have the heart to pull them up so when it got cold I tossed a few inches of hay over them. I checked on them a couple weeks ago and not only are they alive but they had some center leaves that look like new growth that are a couple inches tall now. Surprising since we've certainly had temps around zero.

I may seriously consider snibbs method for next year.

I wish I'd read this last fall. I dug out all my spinach the day before we headed south, and threw it in the compost bin. If I had just tossed some hay over it, or cut it back like snibb, I might have had fresh spinach waiting for me when I get home in a couple of weeks.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Granny,
I was pretty surprised to find them alive under there! I have some little carrots in there that are alive too.

do they keep growing if you mow over them and the tops are cut? i know it sounds dumb, but i am curious! hubs mowed everything down, and we had leeks, carrots, beets some other kinda stuff in our catch all garden, some i knew had grown, but i didn't know if it had stopped and died after hubs mowed it down. now i have everything in their own box, and DARE him to mow them!! **mean grinn** no weeds grow there though!! LOL ~Medo
that is weird Rjinga!! all kinda stuff grew in mine, but no winter, although i didn't plant any, i didn't even think of it **snapping finger**

Medo, I do know radishes don't grow back after the rabbits eat the tops. LOL, at least they picked something I don't really like all that much!

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

when you chop off the tops of carrots, they still grow. Some folks use this method for storage right in the garden during hard winters.

A picture of what I walked out on after winter with no work on the garden yet. In about another 3 weeks, this will be completely full, with hardly any work at all...pretty fun stuff..

Snibb, that looks exactly like the spinach I planted here in AZ this winter. It has looked just like that for about two months now...never gets much bigger, and tougher than a toenail. I think fast growing contributes to its tenderness. Oh well, it still tastes great, even if it is a bit tough.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Mine's a little bigger leafed than that, but has a bed of dead leaves under it. And yep, tough as nails, hehe. I'm replanting.

And I'm going to slink in here like a thief in the night and just say howdy. I have been ashamed to show my garden because NOTHING has grown this winter. Most of it is that we'll have two nice weeks and then an overnight freeze..then a couple more nice weeks and another freeze.

I never thought I'd need cold frames in south Florida! I guess I should build some this summer when it's too hot to do anything else.

Howdy, all!!!