Happy New Year!

Today we finally picked the one an only mandarin.  It looked nice, but it was a little sour.

There are buds coming on the lemon, but I'm not sure what they are.  There is some growth that may be below the graft.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see what we get.

First Mandarin!

Today we picked the first (of two) mandarin.  It still had a little green on it, but it felt soft, so we took a chance.  It was pretty good!  We decided to leave the other one on a little longer.

Gloriosa

Today I turned over the pot that had the two gloriosa lilies in them.  I was happy to find a double bulb in each one.  They broke in half, so next year I should have four plants.  I've put them in the garage for now to dry. 

I also dug up two sweet potato vines.  The tubers aren't very impressive, but I'll try to plant them next spring and see how they do.

The two mandarins look like they are starting to turn orange.  They have a slight yellow tinge.

As for the winter crops, the broccoli and cabbage are doing well.  There are some small heads coming on the broccoli, and the cabbage is ready to cut any time.  The kale could be bigger.  One harvest will pretty much finish them off.  The spinach is still tiny, so next year I need to plant it about a month earlier.  And the last planting of carrots is very small.  Maybe they'll grow in the spring.  The ones I planted on August 15 are a bit small, but useable.

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Winners and Losers

Now that spring is actually here, I've done a survey to see what made it that I thought wouldn't and what didn't make it.

First, the winners.  Both the Satsuma mandarin and the Eureka Lemon, the latter looking totally dead at one point, are looking very good.  The mandarin even has lots of flower buds.

And I'm happy to report that all the blueberries, including several that I transplanted from the yard of the vacant house next door last fall, are alive and well.  In fact, it looks like we may have a bumper crop this year.

Now for the losers.  My 'Bennet's White' cistus and 'Snow White' cistus are both gone.  The windmill palm in a pot on the deck is toast.

I've lost several things on the deck in pots, including a hesperaloe that had a tag claiming it was good to -20.  I'm pretty sure it didn't get that cold here.

All my penstemons, salvias, and agastaches died.  I've replaced some of the the agastaches, but not the others.

State of the Garden

We had a (partly) sunny day, so I went out to see what things looked like and do a little more cleanup.

I pulled the remaining broccoli, kale and chard plants.  They were mostly mush, with little chance of recovery.  I left the spinach and some mache and lettuce that's under a cover.

The carrots that I left in the ground had totally frozen on top, but are surprisingly good in the ground.   I pulled some and left the rest for now.  They do better in the ground than out. By the way, the 'Merida' carrots I planted to overwinter came up but never amounted to anything.

I dug up all the remaining parsnips.  The ones from the first planting are huge, much too big to use.  But the second planting are a more reasonable size.  Again, the tops were totally dead, but the roots were fine.

I did a little weeding, mostly among the blueberries, and the garden looks pretty respectable.

My two little citrus trees look pretty bad.  The lemon is almost completely leafless.

The mandarin looks a little better. 

Both of these were protected with plastic down into the 20s, then in the garage below that. The catalog says they're hardy to the mid-20s.  We'll just have to wait to see if they come back.

Garlic

We've had several nice sunny days, so I was able to plant the garlic.  I put in two rows, each about six feet long.  This really is the last thing to get planted (I think).

The asparagus has gotten really tall, so I've put up some stakes and string to contain it all.

I bought an Owari Satsuma mandarin tree from One Green World.  I've put it in a 7-gallon pot and set it along the south wall of the house, next to the lemon.

The Eureka lemon was about this size last spring.  It has more than doubled in size.

Lemon Tree

My little lemon tree has put on another spurt of new growth.  The four blossoms never developed into fruit, but someone told me the tree has to be fertilized monthly for it to bear fruit.  So maybe next year, if it survives winter.

Heat Wave

It's been in the 90s for several days now, and most things in the garden are enjoying it.  The squash is getting closer to eating size.  And the bush beans have started to bloom.   The pole beans are nearing the top of their teepee. 

The three large artichoke plants now have small artichokes.  This one is about 2" across.

The Eureka lemon has three flowers!

The bread seed poppies have opened.

The scarlet runner beans and the twinberry have both started to bloom.