The soil in my unheated hoop house has finally thawed so I'm now able to survey the damage to plants I was over-wintering.

The grand prize winners this year for successful overwintering are mache, chervil and spinach -- they retained their green leaves and have already resumed their growth. Next prize goes to cilantro, mizuna, lettuce and sorrell -- they died back but are now popping back to life. And as usual, claytonia gets the prize for the hardiest and most persistent weed. Its nice you can eat it but NEVER let it go to seed or you'll have it coming up everywhere!

Surprisingly my parsley and kale were nearly wiped out -- other years I've had much better luck with overwintering them. I'm seeing a lot more damage than I've had other years. Not sure if it was the weather, the plants' maturity, or what. (In addition to one layer of plastic on the hoops, I had the plants covered in remay for a little additional protection.) Any one else have an unusually tough winter for hardy plants?