Dandelion Poof

This picture is from a friends Instagram post.  At first it might seem like an art stylized version of a dandelion but it's really just a near perfectly dewed poof.  Not enough dew to collapse the poof entirely but just enough to give it that glistening look like a jewel in a field. (I think this one was in a parking lot somewhere though by the looks of it.)

My wife has always liked dandelions, not sure if it's the simple beauty of the poof or the way the seeds gracefully float through the air after blowing on them.  Either way they really are pretty.

This one reminds me of a sundew.  Of course the "dew" on those plants is actually a sweet sticky substance meant to trap insects so the plant can eat them but they're still interesting.

Of course it also reminds me of the grand agave that survived the frost that covered it.  A very similar look.

Warmer Temperatures Back

With the short frost gone and warmer temperatures back in swing my tomato plants are uncovered again and ready to keep producing.  There are several tomatoes still on the vine and although there was a slight bit of damage on some of the leaves for the most part the plants I was able to cover are doing great.

The parsley too seems to have grown significantly. Compared with the one on the outside it's almost twice as big.

No worries for at least a week and hopefully more. I left the stones out there for future use and folded the sheet up as well.

Tomato Protection

Made a protective cover for my tomato plants. I actually do have a greenhouse but these plants are in the ground and well established. Tonight is supposed to get into the mid to low 20's, no way they would survive without this.

What I did was get a medium thick sheet and put in stakes to support it over the plants. Sure some of the plants are hitting some of the sheet but for the most part they are pretty safe. The stems are hardier than the leaves anyway and with the warmth of the light in there they should be enough, with the small area, to keep warm overnight. I weighed the sides down with large concrete blocks.  Most of them took both hands to pick up and place carefully. There is also a parsley plant in there with them.

It;s supposed to freeze again Sunday through Tuesday next week so I will probably leave the sheet on until Wednesday and turn the light off during the day as long as it isn't supposed to be too cold during the day.

I used some of our parsley last week in my gumbo. Loved it!  Still have a few bowls left over in the freezer, one of the few really good freezer foods. Another of which is the muffins we made, fennel, fig, and chocolate. We made a lot of them about two years ago and I popped one out yesterday to thaw for a couple hours.  Almost just like we had made them that day.

Frostbitten Plants

The extreme cold has really taken a toll on some of the plants. Even the agave plants have a bit of damage where they bent a little while nearly solid leaving crack lines across some of the leaves. All but the hardiest of plants in the side bed have died back but this has also given the seeds waiting or spring a good chill preparing them for the growing season.

Some of the inside plants at the office have also felt the effects of the cold with the drop in humidity and the cold air coming off of the windows. Inside plants are usually more tropical and not used to a lot of change in their environment. The thicker the leaves the better they do though.

Can't wait until the air gets a little warmer and I can go enjoy the yard again for more than a few minutes at a time.

Pesto Time Again

I harvested several large basil plants, some forming woody stems, to make pesto before cooler frost hit last night.  I got a mix of purple and green but after you blend it all together you can't really tell, it's just a little darker than normal.
The long part of making pesto is picking the leaves off of the plant.  You don't want the woody stem in the pesto since it won't cook down quite right when you add it to a dish. i can't imagine eating pasta with chicken or possibly shrimp and finding a hard woody piece of basil in the mix.
The recipe I used calls for pine nuts, but I used walnuts instead, along with garlic and olive oil.  As usual it took a while for the leaves to get chopped up enough to blend well but in the end it made 16 cubes of pesto.  One cube is plenty to season a pasta dish for my wife and me and should last most of the year the way we use it.  Last year we didn't get quite as much and had to get some pesto from the store.
I tossed the flower heads along with the stems back into the garden to finish reseeding for next year's crop.  There were also some smaller basil plants up front that I left. The mild freeze seemed to have mostly gotten to them and weren't many good leaves to use.

The Basil has Survived

I wasn't sure about it but going out in the middle of the night to pick basil wasn't very high on my priorities.  The weather guy said it was supposed to reach freezing but just barely.  When I got up I went outside to look and they seemed fine.  I'll check again when I get home just in case they got colder as the sun was rising.
The coldest time of day is often just after sunrise before the sun has had a chance to really change the temperature any.