Photos
Christmas Rescue 2020
In keeping with a long tradition of saving post-Christmas plants from the trash bin, this year's rescue is a 93 cent bargain. It's 4-inch tall poinsettia in a silver 2-inch pot that's definitely seen better days. It has one green leaf and a few red bracts still hanging on, probably because they've been sprayed with glitter glue. The glue has also attracted what looks like cat hair (or worse). My record's pretty good when it comes to nursing abused poinsettias back to health, but I have to admit, I think this one's iffy at best. We'll see how it goes. [keep reading...]
Happy First Day of Winter
Yes, this is the actual temperature in San Diego just before noon on December 21, 2020. The temperature just before noon on the first day of winter.
Orange Marmalade Aloe in Bloom
Walked into my greenhouse and there it was -- a glowing nuclear alien aloe with a 12" stalk as candy orange as the plant itself. So I took a few minutes out of whatever
Christmas Cactus Then and Now
Rescued a baby Christmas Cactus from a near-dumpster experience last year and brought it home. This year it's rewarding us with a Christmas red and candy pink and white display.
Keyhole Garden Update – December 2, 2020
Gardener’s Log : Keyhole Garden day 610. Weird weather--hot days, near freezing nights--has put a squeeze on the keyhole garden's output.
Peppers are Pooped Out
It has come to my attention that my Central American "Culebra Negra" peppers are not at all happy about the cold weather. It's the end of November so we've had a couple of near-freezing nights with 34° to 37°F lows right before dawn, but nothing that I would consider a hard frost. The Hidden Lake Hot Cayenne/Thai hybrids are still flowering and fruiting quite a bit, but the Culebra Negras are a different story. Seems these poor plants, with their burned and shriveled leaves, have a lot less tolerance for the near frosty temps.
Thanksgiving Prep – Green Beans
The best green bean casserole calls for fresh picked green beans, so we're picking the last of the pole beans. It's not easy to keep them growing this late in the year, but I've found that these Forex beans will produce right up to Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Prep – Sweet Potatoes
Short of the turkey, everything for our family's Thanksgiving feast is grown here at The Acre. It takes a few days to harvest everything and bring it all together, so we always start with the stuff we need to dig up. This morning is was sweet potatoes, red and white varieties. This is way more than the four of us will eat, so we'll store the small ones to plant is spring, and share the extra big ones with our neighbors.
The Passion Fruit Ate My Patio Cover
Went up on the roof yesterday to clear the rain gutters and finally got a look at how the passion fruit had grown over the summer. It's hard to believe the giant green monster that's eating my patio cover was a tiny plant in a 4-inch pot not too long ago. Obviously it's quite happy where it is.
Last Spider of the Season
All summer the garden is thick with big, fat orb weaver spiders. By mid-autumn, they're all but gone. Here's one of the few left weaving a web backlit by the sun setting over the Pacific.