Winter gardening in a very rainy winter

Okay, this is not something I would have expected to apply to me, given that I live in a desert, but this is my first year attempting a winter garden, and I've been discovering that it's *really* wet in winter here.

I think this year is abnormal.  Normally we get lots of snow.  This year, it's lots of rain.  Rain which has turned all the soil into mud, and all my brassicas, instead of freezing solid and thawing in spring, have been freezing and thawing over and over again, and most of them have big black mold spots all over the leaves.

Can they survive that?  Do they still have a chance of making seeds in the spring?

I'd love advice from anyone who's grown winter crops in a climate that has lots of winter rain.

In my limited experience with brassicas in cold climates, it handles the freezing fairly well... it is the excessive water on the roots that causes the most problems.

You might be quite a bit colder than me Emily, but my garden is certainly wet in winter (!). I have perennial kale that is several years old and sea cabbage that is coming into it's second winter at the moment. I find the leaves get a bit tatty in the wind, but once the weather warms up and the plants start growing again, they soon recover. I think as long as the stem is OK, the plant will resprout in spring. Do let us know how you get on though.

Let's see . . . Ilse of Skye . . . you're in . . . 8b?  That's not that far off from my growing zone.  I'm in zone 7b.

I'm planning to grow Homesteader's Kaleidoscope Perennial Kale this year.  It sounds awesome.  In fact, I'd love it if all my brassica oleraceas can stick around and turn into perennial bushes, partly because then I can harvest them all winter, and partly because then I can plant them around my banana plants and let them work as living insulation during the winter.  (Grin.)  I'm hoping it will be a good companion crop pairing, because the brassicas will probably appreciate shade from the banana leaves during midsummer, and both species like high nitrogen.

It's encouraging to hear that your experience has been that if the stem is okay, they will probably regrow.  All of them still have healthy stems, and many of the leaves even look healthy.  There's one plant that seems to be wilting that's probably done for, but there's one that shows no mold or damage whatsoever, and the rest all look okay other than the mold spots on their leaves.  If that's something they can recover from, I won't worry about them!

Emily Sorensen wrote: and most of them have big black mold spots all over the leaves.

Can they survive that?  Do they still have a chance of making seeds in the spring?

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Your brassica may have black rot which is a fungal disease:

https://extension.umn.edu/disease-management/organic-management-black-rot#cultural-controls-3112611

Emily Sorensen wrote:Let's see . . . Ilse of Skye . . . you're in . . . 8b?  That's not that far off from my growing zone.  I'm in zone 7b.

Well US zones don't really translate well to the UK, my winter temps probably place me in zone 9, but our summers are so cool (and winters so wet) that many of the tender plants that should theoretically survive are fairly short lived. The woody tissues don't ripen properly, and the roots rot in the damp soil. Good drainage (and shelter from wind) is the key for me.

I hope you haven't got black rot, that sounds like it could be a bit persistent.

source
Most of the picture I see online look more yellow than black....so hopefully something less worrying.

Great idea to plant banana and kale in a guild. I love my kale so much I'm thinking of using it to clear ground. After a couple of years it spreads into a clump and shades out quite an area, so I think it could clear grass given a starting point....An idea I got from Luke Simon at Mortal Tree

Well, they're big black spots that definitely look like mold, and don't look like the picture, so I hope that's all it is.  Of course, I still want plants that are resistant to it, so I should be prioritizing saving seeds from the ones that exhibit the least amount of damage from it, whatever it is.

Good point about not saving seeds from plants that exhibit the disease, though.  If it's in my soil, I think the wisest course of action is to breed a landrace that's resistant to it, not to fuss with crop rotations or whatever.  Since I want my brassicas to be perennials, ideally, crop rotation isn't really in the plan, by default.  And since my garden is small, I'm pretty sure any disease that's in one part of my yard will be in the rest.

I'm glad you like my plan about planting brassicas and bananas in a guild!  I wonder what else would work well around bananas?  I've been considering peas, given that they're a nitrogen fixer (and so won't be competing for nitrogen), and maybe they might use those big banana stalks as a trellis.  And maybe, being a cool weather crop, they may also appreciate summer shade.  Mutual benefits would be great.  But mainly what I want is protect my bananas in winter.  I was thinking cold was the only thing I'd have to worry about, but now I'm concerned about the wetness.  Bananas don't like wet feet.  I do have sandy soil, which is ideal for bananas, but the fact that it's been soaked and soggy for months makes me concerned about the health of my banana plants, since I want them to overwinter outdoors as perennials.