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.