George Shirley wrote:

Warming weather, blue skies, temps around 70F and up.
Looks like spring is almost here. Tearing out the winter
garden in bits. If it looks like it might bear a bit
longer we let it live. Eggplants are gone, one sweet chili
left with at least two fruit on it. Lots of chard,
spinach, mesclun mix, beets and other greens to harvest.
Will do our best for those.

Soon we will be going to our favorite garden store and
picking up tomatoes, eggplant, sweet chiles, etc. Black
crowder peas came in yesterday from Victory Seeds, will
plant those along the back fence with string to climb.
Have seeds for green beans and everything else we will
plant.

The kumquat tree still has about a dozen fruit on it that
will be picked tomorrow. We make a tossed salad with
sliced kumquat fruit mixed in that is very tasty. Fig and
pear trees are starting to put on buds. Need to prune the
pear tree, to many "rain" limbs on that one. Won't take
long to lop them off and set the limbs aside for possible
smoking meat later in the year. We're hoping to get at
least a small crop of the Tenousi pears, a mix of European
and Asian pears that is supposed to be tasty. Tenousi is
self pollinating according to the ag agent.

The blueberries are starting to put on buds too, seems the
Christmas tree limbs we laid around the bushes are helping
as they slowly turn into a nice mulch. Need to find a
place to rake up a bushel or two of pine needles to help
with the blueberries, they need the acid of those plants.

We've been getting some days up into the mid-seventies
that make me happy. I could not survive somewhere it gets
cold and stays that way for months. I guess it is because
the USN ship I was on in '58-'59 was always poking around
the Atlantic ice shield looking for Russian subs. Never
found one but it was always cold on the bridge, my duty
station. I reckon we Texans from SE Texas just never adapt
to cold. I was 18 years old before I ever saw snow and
that wasn't in Texas.

George

Rub it in, George. I'm getting snow, changing over to
sleet and freezing rain this afternoon here in SE VA.

I am planning on getting the timer set up for my plant
light and starting some seeds: broccoli, cabbage, and
lettuce. Later I'll add in some tomatoes and other warmer
weather seeds once we get closer to a real spring.

Last year's garden was a disaster. Planted out a month
later than usual due to colder weather lasting an extra
month, then in the summer it was too dry and too hot and
too buggy for anything to produce well.

But we're gardeners! We'll try again next year and every
year with the undying hope that things work out. Besides,
it's like playing the lottery; if you don't play you can't
win. Having had a few jackpot gardens in the past, a repeat
is always something to try for.

Nyssa, who is staying indoors until this white stuff goes
away