What’s growing in January?

The weather was great on Saturday and I've had enough of winter, so I went out and did some work in my garden. Before I got down to the business of cleaning up my weedy wildflower area, I decided to search for spinach, garlic, broccoli and cauliflower.

Yay! My garlic started coming up within a couple weeks of planting back in the fall, and sure enough, it's still there, waiting patiently for the weather to get a little warmer so it can take off.

My mom taught me the spinach trick of planting that in the fall, too. It doesn't come up soon after you plant it, but it does come up pretty early. Snow, frost and ice doesn't seem to hurt it. It was much colder last year, and it still came up in late January.
I probably lose some of the seeds to the birds and the weather, but I still get plenty of spinach in early summer, which is a great reason to plant it in November. It's always nice to harvest something in late May or early June, when I'm still planting everything else. I've tried planting spinach in early spring, but I always plant too late and it bolts before I get any. 
Because this year has been so dry, I've gone out with the hose and even my two-gallon watering can a few times. According to what I just learned in my master gardening class, the roots don't require a lot of water right now, but a little bit here and there is good, given how little moisture we've received in the form of rain and snow.
The broccoli I planted in October is one that's designed for over-wintering. It's supposed to come up in the fall and then take off as soon as the weather starts to warm up in late winter/early spring. Unfortunately, mine came up in the fall but has disappeared over the winter. No sign of either the broccoli or the cauliflower I planted. Boo hoo.
This spinach is one I got from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - It's called Gigante d'Inverno or giant of winter. (I knew all that high school Spanish would come in handy one day! I can figure out Italian seed names...)