Lucky, Little Blooms!

   Back in December, we had winter.  Yep!  Old Man Winter made his way this far south and dropped the temperature down well below freezing for four days.  While I do not mind cold, the garden was not too happy.  I had planted (over planted because people forgot to come get plants) cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, green peas, beets, mustard greens and collard greens.  Knowing the cold for that many days was going to wreak havoc on the plants, I spent two days piling leaves in the gardens.  I figured that covering the plants with a foot of leaves may help.  Well, it did...it did not.  Several hundred of the plants perished.  Others survived and are now doing well.  I did have to replant the entirety of the peas but they are growing extremely fast so, hopefully, peas will be on the menu soon.  

  Since the beets took a beating, I decided to plant spinach between the few survivors.  Checking the spinach seedlings caused me to find my smile for the day.  Since the nice weather has returned, the oxalis have emerged and are blooming!  I love these tiny plants so much that I allow them to grow wherever they wish...including in the beet/spinach rows.  It matters not.  

  Back years ago, Mark's grandma (Momie) showed me her lovely pot of oxalis and it was during our conversation that I learned how she adored the purple blooms.  She and I shared a good many times together and I grew to love the plants as much as she did.  Oxalis are also known as wood sorrel and bloom in some lovely colors including purples, pinks, whites and yellows.  Their leaves are what a lot of folks call "clover" when they find that "lucky" four leafed one.  Most of the time, the leaf stalk is topped with three leaves but occasionally a fourth leaf shows up!  I suppose it can be lucky if you wish since I feel lucky just seeing the pretty flowers as they tell me that spring is on its way soon.

Poor, Sad Flowers

  Fall was here!  Fall came.  Fall went.  Winter pushed it away.  That is ok.  I am good with winter but I do not like the idea of Old Man Winter killing my plants!  He just has no right to do that, if you ask me.  Actually, I was tickled to see that my struggling marigolds took off into a wild growth spurt in October.  The gardens look at least somewhat presentable for the clue hunt teams that trotted themselves about the yard.  Each plant shot out dozens and dozens of blossoms giving that perfect "Halloween" orange to brighten the otherwise drab garden.  Splotches of orange dotted not only the gardens but wherever the seeds decided to grow.  It made me happy.  Then winter happened in just one night.  ONE NIGHT!!!

 Now the pretty blossoms have bowed their heads and look dismal.  The marigolds, along with my once thriving bell peppers, are wilted and dying.  I knew this was inevitable but had high hopes that fall would be prolonged into more than a week!  Oh, fall, where did you go?  

  Nah, I am ok with it.  The gardens will be cleared and readied for a winter garden.   I was just pondering the planting of broccoli, cabbage and mustard greens.  I suppose this plan will be put into effect a lot sooner than I had expected.  Oh, well...broccoli is good...cabbage and mustard greens...good.  So long peppers and marigolds!

Looking On The Bright Side

  We had several hard freezes this past winter.  Not many but enough that it caused problems and is still causing problems.  In the Deep South, it is not uncommon to see citrus trees growing in our yards.  Usually, the lack of winter cold makes for fine growing for these trees but that one cold snap that sees the temperatures drop in the teens for a few days harms the trees.  This year, we had a few of those hard freezes that damaged the citrus trees.  In spite of my efforts to protect the trees, a good many of the limbs were killed.  My citrus grove looks terrible but there is nothing to do but trim back the limbs and hope for the best.

  Recently, I was out wandering behind the house when a delightful aroma wafted through the air.  Ahh, citrus blossoms!  Yep, the satsuma trees were blooming on the few branches that remained green! This sight gave me hope that at least the trees would attempt regrowth!

  The blooms that I inspected looked good and had the tiny oranges intact.  No, we will not have a bumper crop this year.  No, the grapefruit trees do not have blooms nor do the navel oranges and lime trees but the satsumas and lemons are bursting forth with new leaves and blooms!  Somehow, that makes things all better.  

  There is nothing like a tiny leaf or blossom to make you realize that life goes on regardless of hardships.  That one step forward is all it takes to make things better.  I figure if a rag-tag tree that has been put through the mill can grace the yard with its heavenly scent, then I can face whatever is thrown at me.  Here's to looking on the bright side!

Trunk Wraps and Smudgepots

  While we await round two of the frigid weather to strike the Bayou, I did the usual preparations.  One of the chores was to rewrap the citrus trees.  While there is not much that I can do about the entire trees due to sheer size (some are a more than 20 feet tall), I can only hope wrapping the trunks will save the the tree above the grafting point.  A blanket and a wind/ice shield wrapped and tied in place will have to suffice.  There is hardly anything else that can be done.  

  Back on the farm, I can remember getting up for "my shift" as fire-stoker.  This meant, not only making sure the fireplaces in the old farmhouse were burning, but also, the smudgepots in the midst of the citrus trees were chugging along properly.  Being a small-time farm family, we did not have the expensive gas or oil burners that folks with huge orchards used.  Our smudgepots were simply 50 gallon drums that were piled full of logs and kept burning all night.  Once the hot coals filled most of the drum, things were easy.  It was those first hours that needed tending the most.  Getting out of that warm bed and going outside in the middle of the night in icy temperatures was not something that I relished but it was necessary.  Pop tended the fires most of the night but if the weather continued for a week or more, he needed rest.  The kids took over and tended the fires, made sure the faucets were still dripping and lights were still burning in the pump shed.  It was also necessary to keep check on all of the farm animals so they were as snug as possible.  Life on a truck farm was not easy.  I would not have traded it for the world, though, as I learned so much.

  This afternoon as I went out to do one last check on things, I noticed that the grapefruit trees did not fare so well during last week's big chill.  There was no earthly way to protect these trees so I left them be and hoped for the best.  With north winds blowing a gale today, leaves were tumbling to the ground. There was already a thick carpet of leaves beneath the trees.  This is not good as I was in hopes that the leaves would provide coverage for the trunks.  The poor trees are in for another cold week!  Perhaps, I need to get a couple of smudgepots going!

 

Its that humidity!

  I don't know if it is or not.  The humidity thing always seems to get in the way when discussing the weather.  If it feels hot in the summer, it is because there is high humidity.  If the temperature feels colder in the winter, it is that high humidity once again.  Sometimes this just does not make a lot of sense to me.  If I am hot, I am hot and the same goes for when I am cold.  I tried asking a few questions about it and the answers all assured me that humidity does, indeed, cause changes in the way we "feel" temperature.  Moist air in the summer time can make us hotter simply because the air cannot absorb our sweat (which is a type of cooling called evaporative cooling!).  Air can only hold so much water and if there is already a bunch floating around out there, our sweat stays with us instead of cooling us.  In winter, since the air has so much water in it during high humidity type days, it takes more of our body heat to warm the space around us.  Thus, heat is actually pulled away from our bodies at a more rapid rate making us feel a lot colder. Whew!  Did you know all of that?  I did not!

The grapefruit trees after the last freeze.

One lone grapefruit hangs defiantly after the last freeze!

  Now, since it all of this has to do with how our bodies react to humidity and temperature, I wondered if the same was true for plants....and I still wonder.  I have no answers.  The reason that I am so curious about this is last year we had ice storms with the temperatures down in the teens.  Yes, my citrus trees froze or at least their leaves did. During the springtime, the trees came back in full force.  (All except for the lemons and limes...they are quite dead!)   I can't say much about that, though.  I expected the trees to freeze with temperatures in the teens.  What surprises me is the fact that, once again, my poor trees have met with a traumatic winter!  We have had several nights dip into the twenties (not teens) and the trees have lost their leaves.  The only real difference beside temperature is the humidity.  The recent cold nights that had temperatures in the mid-twenties were clear with very low humidity.  So did temperatures in the teens with high humidity feel colder to the trees than the temperatures in the mid twenties with low humidity?  Both froze my trees.  Pop always used to want cloudy nights when the temperatures would be forecast to drop below freezing.  He claimed that the clouds would form a "blanket" and keep the plants warmer.  I have stuck with that theory with my garden and it seems to be working.  So...higher humidity keeps things warmer or colder?  Or do I just need a nice warm blanket of clouds to protect my plants? Me....I blame it on that humidity!

All is well

  Another freeze is supposed to hit us tonight.  This is nothing compared to what our neighbors to the north have been enduring but here it is a cause for worry.  Our temperatures bounce around the thermometer like a yo-yo.  One day it will be in the eighties and the next we are looking at temps in the twenties.  This would be all well and good if during those warm days, I did not get a hankering to plant the garden.  Just about the time the plants look like they might do a bit of growing, the temperature will drop below freezing and stunt the growth or at least burn the leaves.  The afternoon before the big chill, I head outside to cover all my "outdoor" plants and turn on the lights in the greenhouse.  This method has been working.  My garden seems happy.

  This is the first year of having the greenhouse set up like I do.  Plants used to be lugged inside during the night and then back out during the day.  This was a nuisance.  It was also not too healthy for me nor the critters that snuggled in the plant containers.  Once inside, they would warm, think it was spring and gallivant about the house. Lizards, toads, frogs, centipedes, even small rodents would suddenly be scampering about the place.  Not good.  I was fully waiting for a snake to travel indoors with the ferns!

 The building of the greenhouse has put a stop to all of that moving of plants.  Yes, I still have to cover the gardens but now the potted plants are snug as a bug inside their own place.  I do not have to worry about critters frolicking in the living room!  Ahh, yes!  Greenhouses are delightful!  It is a great feeling to look out the window and know that all is well in the plant world!

Mother Nature's Pranks

  Every now and again, you just have to shake your head at Mother Nature.  She has decided to pound the nation with a blast of frigid air this weekend.  Yep, this cold has reached all the way down here to the Deep South.  The Bayou is a tad chilly, Folks!  It is early to have this cold of air here.  We are not used to freezing temperatures in November.  Our coldest times are usually in January and February. This wintry weather has put a kink in the "fall" gardening.  We did not have a fall.  We went directly from summer to winter!  Not good!   All of this fickle weather is confusing to plants as well.  My day was spent moving what plants I could into the greenhouse and tucking the rest snugly under blankets.  Hopefully, this will protect them enough. 

  While covering the plants, I came across one goofy thing that is far out of season.  A Guernsey Lily decided that it was summer.  The bulb was one that I had dug this spring and just never got around to replanting. The bare bulb sat dormant in a wooden box.  Today of all days, it bloomed.  Why?  Why now with the Arctic blast bearing down upon us? And how?  How with no soil around its roots did this thing ever even have enough energy to shoot out a bud?  Who knows but it is pretty.  

  Since the lily did its best to provide me with a bit of beauty, I thought it at least deserved to be planted.  I stuck it in an empty pot and poked a bit of soil around the bulb.  Now it sits snugly in the greenhouse with a variety of other plants.  Once I can get shelves built, these will be a bit better arranged.  At least for now, they won't freeze.  Mother Nature! Stop playing pranks on us!  It is too early for this!   Nah...actually, I sort of like it.

Winter Woes

Oh, the ravages of wintry weather!  Our recent cold spell spelled trouble for the citrus trees.  At first, I did not think things were so bad.  Sure the leaves were a bit "burned" but overall the trees still appeared to be fine.  After meandering through the orchard today, I am not so sure.  The lemons, limes and naval orange seem to have been the worst hit.  These trees are more in the open and do not have the coverage that larger trees would provide.  Plus, these trees are quite young which might make a difference.  Their ability to tolerate the cold might not be as strong as some of the older trees.  Michael is once again telling me to have patience.  He claims that plants are more durable that we think.  I do hope he is right.  Once before these very same trees froze nearly to the ground and if it had not been for his urging, I would have cut them all.

The cold also took a good toll on the grapefruit trees.  I am thinking that these will survive but might have a bit of a setback in producing fruit.   A thick carpet of leaves can be found beneath the two trees.  The trees look a mite bare compared to just a few weeks ago.  It surprised me to see that the Satsumas and kumquats were hardly bothered at all.  Do these trees know something that the others do not?

Now, it is to happen all over again.  For the next few nights the temperatures are to drop below freezing and the days will not warm much.  This does not bode well for the citrus trees.  There is just not a lot that I can do to protect the trees because of their size. Pop used to light a "burn barrel" in the midst of his trees when the temperatures dipped below freezing.  That smudge was to keep the area a bit above freezing.  I can remember that he and my oldest brother would go out several times during the night to stoke those barrels.  I am not sure it worked at all or whether it was to give him hope.  At least he was trying to save his trees.  I cannot make that claim other than the mulch that Michael and I laid on the roots.  I have no metal drums to use as burn barrels and even if I did, I do not relish getting out in the middle of the night to feed a fire!  I will just trust in my son's instinct and leave the trees be.  "Have patience, Mom, have patience."  Sometimes I think Michael knows a thing or two about plants!  (I sure hope my patience holds and that the citrus trees survive.)