Sorry about your angel trumpet, Beth. Turns out my Meyer lemon tree is not dead -- didn't cover it or anything and it's in a big pot on the raised deck. Was just sticks but looked better than I thought but without doing a thing to it, it's full of small green leaves now so I'm going to have to fertilize it soon. Most everything died but lots of the succulents still made it and the two big pots of garlic chives are still good, looking like they didn't experience anything at all. Nothing big froze (like the orange tree) but it took out most of the smaller plants. But most were annuals still kicking over the years.
Will gradually replace the herbs in pots on the back deck and this year, I got smart and hired Lynn, who cleans for me and is a Master Gardener and does landscaping work for lots of people), to weed the raised bed (8 feet by 4 feet), and put all the leftover stuff in bags in the garden (half a bag of compost, a big bag and a half of soil, some seed starting mix, a small bag or orchid mix, and a bunch of other partially used bagged stuff on my deck (I paid her to clean it up as it had tons of dead oranges on it that dropped and some had been stepped on as they were hidden by leaves from the orange tree; she organized everything so all that bagged stuff is together on the deck now and all can be thrown into the raised garden). I gave her $20 and told her to buy whatever else she thought it might need (I thought it needed some soil and maybe some peat moss though all of that added stuff might suffice to aerate the soil in lieu of peat). She said she thought soil was all that was needed and I agreed. She's probably going to come Friday so I'm going to try to get the new man who cuts the yard to come tomorrow or Friday morning -- the weeds/clover/anything but grass has grown up since we had so much mild weather lately -- but she it won't bother her if it's not mowed yet. It's not too late for me to grow some lettuce in that raised garden, along with more arugula and baby bok choy. I'm also going to put some radish seeds in there too and try some carrot seeds in there again, though they didn't come up last time, probably 'cause the seeds were too old.
I'll probably buy two or three tomato plants, two large tomato ones for big pots and one cherry I'll put in the raised garden. Stopped doing as many as we used to have and though we don't get as many as we used to get when we were a lot more attentive, we get enough along with the wonderful Creole tomatoes we pick up at the roadside stands and also in the local grocery we use -- they always handle good local produce when it's in season and plentiful, especially Creole tomatoes. We just admit we can't do what we used to so we grow the easy stuff. Oh, and when the weather warms up for good, I'll plant some cucumber seeds along the fence as we still have the garden netting hanging on the fence so they'll grow right up that puppy. We enjoy the cukes and I try to pick some small so I can make some pickles. I'm going to use Norm's dill pickle recipe he gave me so mine will come out better than the last time. Bread and butter ones I have no trouble with but the dills weren't what we expected for sure. His recipe seemed really easy, too, which has great appeal to me!
Glad I decided to get Lynn to get that bed ready for me -- and actually acted on it early enough. Love walking out there and picking lettuce for salad or for sandwiches, and who knew Brian would love the quick-cooking baby bok choy, which is also good when it grows up to be big mama bok choy! Such a good vegetable to throw together and sauté quickly in some oil, garlic, salt and pepper with some pepper flakes -- I can eat a whole pan of it myself. Love bok choy even more now that Brian eats it!
Also finally got some Thai basil seeds, too, that I'll grow probably in pots on the deck -- or at least have one pot of it on the deck and some growing in the garden. I love Thai basil as it holds up in stir fries better than regular basil, I think. Just love it in pho so I wanted to grow some for me to use in lots of things.
Will have at least one jalapeno plant, too, and maybe another pepper plant. Might try poblano but never had luck with green bells so I doubt poblanos would do well for me -- might try anyway as I love those puppies!
Am psyched, as is Brian, that daylight saving times begins this Sunday -- makes us feel wonderful to have so much light later in the day. Makes for good balcony sitting, too, especially since we're spending so much time upstairs these days!
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