Sanctuary Gardener Update ~ 1/26/15

Good morning, everyone. To all my New England family and friends, stay warm and cozy tonight and tomorrow – and be safe in that Nor’easter blizzard heading your way. I miss winter snows, but I don’t miss blizzards! Weather reports like that make me a little less homesick and a little more grateful that I am able to grow and harvest some things in January. I’m happy to share a little bit of our warmer clime with you today.

WHAT’S NEW:

Remember the Black Krim tomato cutting that I transplanted a week or so ago? I have a new, large flower bud on the top of the plant! I’m not sure what’s going on with those tiny buds I saw when I transplanted it, but this is definitely going to open up into a flower.

Flower bud on Black Krim tomato cutting transplant

IN THE GARDEN:

I thought I had lost all of my Black Seeded Simpson lettuce. It turns out, I lost only a couple of plants; the others are growing back! (That’s a Red Sails lettuce plant in the top left of the photo.)

Black Seeded Simpson lettuce

My key lime trees are looking pretty rough, especially the younger one (on the left). I’m hoping the roots are still viable and that the leaves will come back in the spring, so I’m still covering them when the night temperatures go below 45.

Key lime trees after frost – despite covering

The peas I planted two months early (in pots under my teepee trelllises) aren’t looking good either. The frost got to them more than I realized.

Dwarf Gray Peas in pot after frost

Happily, my new pea seedlings (which I planted at the right time) are doing well.

Dwarf Gray Pea seedlings

While working in my yard this past Friday, my Garden Wilson caught these juvenile egrets flying past my front yard. They’re beautiful!

Juvenile egrets flying in front of my house

Juvenile egrets in flight

IN THE KITCHEN:

The other night, I was craving a salad. Other than a store-bought cucumber, everything in this salad was harvested from my garden the same day. Can’t beat that.

Winter salad: Reine des Glaces lettuce, watermelon radishes, scarlet nantes carrots, and (store bought) cucumber

GARDEN BOUNTY:

I didn’t harvest much this week; I was working a lot and we got two inches of rain on Friday and Saturday. However, I did harvest almost a half pound of lettuce, 2 pounds of radishes, and 3/4 pounds of carrots.

The weight of the lettuce was all from this one head. She was a big one!

One head of Reine des Glaces lettuce

Many of my watermelon radishes were hit hard by the frost; I thought they would grow back, but not all of them did. So, I pulled the ones that had dead leaves as well as the ones that were ready to harvest. I still have some left in the ground, too.

Watermelon radishes

Here is my first harvest of carrots. I could smell the carrots the second I pulled them from the ground. I barely got them washed before I was munching on a couple.