On 12/23/2016 11:47 PM, T wrote:
On 12/22/2016 06:20 AM, George Shirley wrote:
The hard freeze two days ago did in the sweet peppers, eggplant, and
tomatoes. We're letting them sit for the moment even though the
temperatures are back in the high sixties, low seventies. I will miss
the three or four year old pepper plant. It's still green but the leaves
are crumpled so I think it will not come back.

The fall vegetables are doing well, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.
are coming along well and we're harvesting several varieties of lettuce
daily for our salads and sandwiches.

Nothing much else going in the gardens but am still waiting to prune the
pear tree. Still lots of green leaves and my "pear book" says to prune
just before the tree leafs out again. That will probably be mid January
to early February due to our screwed up weather. I think I'm going to do
some light pruning for the kumquat tree, the fig tree doesn't really
need to be pruned as it grows openly.

Still to cold for my wishes but not much to go outside at this time of
year. Could use some more rain but haven't been getting much, which may
be a blessing as many drivers here don't do well in rain, sleet or snow.
I do fairly well due to being stationed in New England when I was a
sailor a hundred years ago or less. G

George

I feel your pain. Our hard freeze was about six weeks ago.

Nothing more pathetic looking than a frozen zucchini plant.


It has been nearly four years since we've even had a winter T. The kale
is still going strong and the old pepper plant seems to still be alive.

I will prune the pear tree in mid-January to get rid of the "rain" limbs
that would shade the fruit come spring and the new blooms come in. We
had a nice crop of pears this fall and also of kumquats so may do a wee
bit of pruning on the kumquat tree. Just to open up the small tree to
more sunlight and, I hope, more fruit. We had a nice fig crop this year
too. It won't be long before we fertilize the fruit trees.

I'm going to pull out the blueberry plants in early spring and put in
domestic dewberries as the blueberries are not getting enough sunshine
where they are but dewberries like some shade.

George