Ten Gables Cottage

Ten Gables Cottage
Ten Gables Cottage

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Cleaning up after the freeze


Hello from Ten Gables Cottage,
It is a glorious day today with temps. in the high 60's, low 70's. We are trying to clear out some dead vines, twigs, etc on the North side of the house. Florida has been so dry lately that there have been brush fires, so we are clearing dead brush away. Look closely and you can see a man we hired who is cutting vines with a machete.
He is a whiz!

You can see the dead bits and also a big bush of Florida Holly which is a big nuisance, so some of it is going to go, too.


What a job, but it will be much neater and a lot safer, too, as this brush is on our fence line about 20 feet from the house. There is a small canal behind it, too which has a small amount of water and is home to an alligator in the Spring when she nests. We can hear her grunting, so we stay safely away in the Spring!
By the way, Wed. we had a wonderful rainfall, so things will begin to green up.



I checked out my garden, too and pleasantly found that the veggies look great! I have just neglected them since Christmas and since covering them during the freeze. Everything looks great. This shows a radish...I am getting a few now. The first ones were pretty strange and not worth eating, but I think the others will be fine. The pinks in the photo are blooms from a nearby bougainvillea that blow into the garden and provide nice natural compost.



This is the second crop of broccoli and I need to start cutting it. I have put several packages in the freezer.



The cabbages look great and one of them is ready to cut. I always hate to cut them as they are so pretty, but I will need one soon. I have a delicious recipe for cabbage soup that is supposed to be a diet soup and I surely need to diet!!






I think this one is definately ready to cut. I am so glad that the freezing temperatures did not hurt my little garden, except for the basil and the peas! It will soon be time to plant another garden here in Florida. I will wait a few more weeks to plant, but I doubt we will have any more nights below freezing. If we get a freeze at all, it is usually just one or two nights out of the whole year. Not too bad, huh?? Winter is really our most pleasant time of year!





3 comments:

  1. Wonderful wonderful produce! But I'd be worried about the presence of alligators - that's a predator that not many people have to contend with! (Would it please come and eat my foxes...?)

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  2. Alligator in your backyard? Scary..what if it get ideas to check out your garden! Im looking forward to your diet soup recipe!

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  3. Alligators stay away from people mostly. My garden is not anywhere near that canal and the alligator would have to cross the open yard to get to it, which they don't do, at least not in the daytime. But I am on the look-out, always!
    Check out the soup recipe. I know the orignial recipe works on a diet because I tried it in the past!

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