First frost

Yesterday morning was the first (light) frost of the year. I was not even aware it was going to get that cold! I guess I was just not paying attention, i.e. watching the news. The temps officially got down to 33 degrees F, which to me means in some areas it did freeze.

Happily, it didn't do too much damage to my more tender plants at home. Just a  twinge of grey and wilt on a few spaghetti squash leaves. The tomatoes stayed relatively unscathed.

However, my tomatoes at the community garden raised bed (ORB) were affected. When I visited I noted a good amount of dieback in the outermost, newest leaves.

So, last night I was paying attention, and I laid protective sheets over all my tomatoes last night -- both at home and in the ORB. I'm going to do what it takes to shield my tomatoes through the winter this year.

Anybody know the right thing to do with dead/frozen tomato leaves? Remove or let remain?

The bells are ringin'

We thought this was some sort of weedy tree when we first moved in. The home inspector said we should trim it back because it was so close to the house and roof. Then a month or so ago it started blooming spectacularly.

It's called Tecoma stans, or Yellow Bells. It's also known as esperanza, which is a name I just love. In general it's a shrub, meant to grow about 12 feet tall and 6 feet wide. But here it is at least 20 feet tall, towering over our home. The branches are so loaded down with these fantastic, sweet-smelling flower clusters that some of the branches have bent and broken.

The bees and hummingbirds are going absolutely nuts over this Southwest native. And I am too! It's going to bloom all through the winter.

I'm going to try trimming some of the long branches with blooms on the end and using them inside as cut flowers.

Ready to shop now.

Just found a cool site called sustainabletable.org where they directed me to a National Resources Defense Council tool that you can plug in your area (for me: Southern California) and time of year (late April) to see your list of seasonal produce. If you click on some items, there is a recipe. Awesome!

Sustainable Table

NRDC Eat Fresh