Not unusual in a mild winter. Overwintered vegetables will tend to bolt pretty quickly once the weather gets warm, so keep your eye on them.

Kale, spinach, chard, broccoli, onions, beets, and cabbage will over-winter here, but will go to seed in June. But if you water and feed them in April / May, you can get several good cuttings of fresh veggies, and then pull them out, maybe leave a few for collecting seed.

Onions, meh, they may be too soft.

Thanks you guys'

I have a brussels sprout (brussels plant?) that did the same thing. Has some tiny sprout-like appendages above each leaf. It also seems to be growing a flower stalk on top. Anybody know what to do with this thing? Last year was my first try with it and I didn't get any actual sprouts. Should I cut the flower stalk off to try to make the side buds develop?

Good to know! We've grown broccoli, which has done very well, but always pulled the plant out before winter. Think I'll try leaving one in the ground this year and see what happens :^)

And thanks for the reminder - I forgot to buy seeds to start some. Or I may pick up one already started a bit later. It's good stuff grown in your own yard!

Our small white onions/chives make it through the winters. Last year I planted Egyptian (walking) onion, but it didn't do too well and I just left it in the ground. Lo and behold, it's coming back in very strong so am hopeful it will produce for us this year.

Marj

I was actually thinking the same thing. I may try to protect the plants over the winter with mulch and maybe some plastic.

Mutajen, I was thinking about doing the same thing in trimming them back and seeing what they do. It'd be interesting to start some from seed late fall, protect them over the winter and see how they do.

I may try that.

I'm experimenting with broccoli as a winter crop in the DC area. You need cold tolerant varieties (I use Arcadia from Johnnys but Pakman and Premium Crop are also still healthy as of Dec 26 after many nights in the low 20s but no
generalized deep soil freeze). My mistake this fall was planting 5" transplants two weeks too late, in early October after warm season crops so they aren't quite mature at Christmas and I've only gotten a few small heads. However broccoli ripened in cold tastes MUCH MUCH better than broccoli ripened in early summer's warm weather.

The second issue is that animals which leave them alone in summer (like squirrels) will go after them in winter. So far I've just had some shredded leaves while they concentrated on my spinach, chewing through the netting to get at them. But if I can't come up with a squirrel proof cover the broccoli and brussels sprouts (which reliably overwinter in DC conditions) may be in trouble.