Barnacles in the Garden?

I went out with my camera to wander around what is left of the gardens. I found a few things which I may show you at a later date. I was poking around in the garden next to the house, to see if there was anything to be photographed, especially in what's left of the Sedum. The remains of the flowers on the ends of the stalks are dark brown and not very interesting. But while looking carefully at that, I spied, down near the ground, bits of green showing! Green? At this time of year? What? So I moved some brown leaves out of the way, and was astounded to see this! I guess this is how they will make their way through the snows of winter. I will keep my eye on them and report how they are doing. Oh, I thought that they looked like the barnacles you would see on boats or pilings in the salt water.