Clean-up

I did a little bit of clean-up around the backyard, clipping off dead stems and pulling the nasturtiums, radishes, and cutting down the bolted lettuce.  Lots of the native plants have stems that die, but there's signs of life at the base of the plant, either in new leaves or new shoots.  I think even the swamp hibiscus is sending up a new stem.

The Oakleaf Hydrangea put out some new leaves in December, but the plant has felt a couple of freezes now, turning the leaves to deep maroon.  This seems to be one of the last deciduous plants to lose its leaves in winter, but we had a very warm and confusing December.

I bought 1 lb each of Red Pontiac, La Soda, and Yukon Gold seed potatoes.  I have the Geobag potato growing sack from last year, and I also purchased two Bloem potato planters, so with fewer potatoes and more containers, I'm hoping for more production.  I really want to get some phosphorus into the soil to help w/ root growth, so I'm standing by with that.

I also need to get the Nantes carrots in the ground soon so they have time to grow.  I will probably pull my other carrots soon to make room, even though they are all small.

I have some sugar snap peas (I think this is the variety) to plant as soon as possible.  I need more soil first.

Radish, Rosemary, and Cilantro

The cilantro is doing really well. It loves N. Florida's cool winter weather.

Survivors

Looks like my Florida Flame Azalea made it through the year.  After losing the Pinxter Azalea, I babied this one w/ manual watering.  It's got a number of buds on it, and maybe some will be bloom buds this year.

The Ashe Magnolia also made it and has re-made a leaf bud in the same place.  It's a stick of a plant still, but hanging in there. 

I think the Fringe Tree is also still alive.  It's got a few new branches for this year's leafing.

The garden plants continue to do well w/ the cooler weather and weekly-ish rain.  I might have a small harvest in a few days (onions, a few collard leaves, a few tatsoi, tempted to eat Brussels sprout leaves, tiny lettuce, few bites of broccoli, etc).  I'm hoping, for example, taking a few collard leaves will spur the plants to produce more quickly.

Green Cold

We're finally getting some steady winter-ish weather. Maybe the high temps will stay away from the 80s.  It's also been raining enough to stop supplementing w/ the sprinklers.

The second try of spinach and lettuce in the pallet bed failed despite water and fertilizer. Same with the beets in the raised bed. The Swiss Chard really never did anything either, although there are a couple of small plants still around here and there. The second planting of lettuce in the raised bed is looking promising but is still small.

Something is eating the Tatsoi, but you can see the nice rosette shape of the plants now.

The container Brussels sprout is doing... something. Looks healthy.

The healthiest cabbage is heading.

The cooler weather and rain has helped the first lettuce plantings.  I think this is Captain Bibb. The Deer Tongue is also looking good (my photos were blurrier... maybe next time).

The spring seeds are in locally. I'm sure I will buy a few seeds, but I'm hoping to mainly buy seedlings when the time comes.  It depends on what will be available.  I have some Nantes carrots to plant... someday soon. Early February?  Of course, I don't have room for them yet.