GARDEN REPORT

Here it is....I'm sure you were dying to know.......How did we survive the frost & almost flurries?

Pretty well. Sweet basil hates me. Sweet Bell peppers refuse to bloom, but haven't died. All my Brassica family (cauli, brussels) love the cold. My lettuce, onions, big & cherry tomatos are chugging along as though nothing has ever happened. I did not picture the brussels because it seems like they are going nowhere in growth. They are 2 1/2 ft high with buds.

Feel free to click on images to enlarge.

Here is my big head of cauliflower. I'm guessing but I think it will be another week or 2 before picking. It isn't pure white but I think some of that is my fault because I didn't blanch it (folding leaves over it & tying w/ a rubberband). The seed packet insisted blanching was not required for these "Snowballs" but I'm second guessing myself putting a rubber band on it or not.

My Lazarus cauliflower that came back from the dead. It is holding its own. I'm stand amazed.

I have to pick my tomatoes as they turn orange otherwise the hungry northern birds will eat them the day before they turn a nice red. I want vine-ripened fruit but I also don't want fruit with bites in it. Oh well.

Bunching onions are nearly a pencil thick. I wish I had put them in rows instead of grass-like pattern.

Lettuce going to seed soon. This will help me not have to purchase new seeds for spring. I picked some of my lettuce heads and let this one go to seed.

Baby Herbs. I just can't remember if this was the row of sweet basil or cilantro.

Not that you asked but I wanted to share with you my butterfly garden. I trimmed back everything making it rest while I figured the snakes were in hibernation. I added some lantana in the center. I put a plain mulch in there but I'm wishing I had put red now. That would really set off those yellow & purple plants. It has azalea, yellow roses, some variety of red lily, yellow mums, marigold, something purple, and now firey lantana. Something is blooming in there all year long.