Monday, January 24, 2011

It might as well be spring

It's late January and quite pleasant outside....afternoon temperatures in the low 70's. Almost time to start gearing up for major spring planting. I cut back the dead asparagus foliage and found two green spears already pushing their way out. They look delicious, but you're not supposed to harvest in the first year (they were planted last spring) so I'm trying to keep my hands off. There are also a couple of blossoms on the peach tree and the calla lilies are emerging from the ground. One of the broccoli plants has flowered; I read that you could eat broccoli flowers so I'm going to try it. Romaine lettuce has done well, but only one leaf lettuce plant (red) survived and I'm disappointed in the sugar snap peas that have done so well the past two years. No cauliflower yet, but I see one head forming.

We had a bad December frost and in spite of $15o worth of frost cloth and spray, may have lost the two ficus trees in the back yard. The ones in the front yard may make it, as the bark is still green when scratched, but all of them look terrible. Bougainvilla, lantana, and hibiscus look dead but I'm pretty confident they will come back, except perhaps some of the newer ones around the pool. The frost got the nasturtiums just at the wrong time, too.

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