A big mess...

We had our first freeze a few weeks ago. Manperson and I heard these really loud sounds outside our bedroom window and thought there is no way they are playing baseball this early on a Saturday morning. We were correct. Our pecan tree had a massive small limb and leaf drop.  The back patio was covered as was anything within 5 to 10 feet with several inches of it. Starting to dislike the pecan tree even more. I know it serves a purpose in keeping the house cool in the summer, but this is the second major mess it is has created. The last time it was a pecan drop all over the patio and the pecans were too early and unhappy enough that is was just another big mess with no reward. Not that I eat pecans much anyway. I know that a lot of the early, sad pecan drop was the stress the tree has been under because of the long-standing drought conditions. But I don't care, the tree is now on my list of too much work. I don't think I will be planting any nut trees anytime soon and if I do they will be of the dwarf variety.

I also regret not pulling out all the tomato plants before it froze. I was just too taken with the tiny green tomatoes and the pretty yellow flowers. They all melted in the freeze which was exactly why I didn't bother planting any and created and particular ickyness in my raised beds. In the 4x4 bed, the sugar snap peas, nasturtium, swiss chard all didn't make it, on the other hand who knew salad greens were so frost hardy. I'm planning on my vacation from work to totally redo the 4x4 bed and start some new salad greens. Apparently, one can plant them and spinach all through the winter months. I haven't even been watering my ollas. The last time was just before it froze to make sure they didn't break. In the 4x8 bed, the volunteer tomato plants were yet again a pain, along with it's closeness to the pecan tree. I don't know how much time I will need to spend removing leaves from my veggies.  The other unexpected painful plant was the dill, it didn't exactly melt, just keeled over, but greenly still I think I will keep it confined next time. I realized finally that the mystery plant that I have been trying to figure out in the middle of my 4x8 raised bed is not something I planted. On the good front, the cabbage lopers liked it enough to leave some of my other plants alone. On the bad front, they kept other stuff I planted from growing. I'm pulling them all up when I clean up the 4x8 bed. I got one more green harvest out the 4x8 bed with some really tasty rapini. The cauliflower bud does not look happy after the freeze, I think any cauliflower I plant again will either need to be done early or protected from freezes. The hardy greens i.e. kale, collards and mustards as well as the tsoi tsoi, rapini and what is left of the broccoli all made it through just fine. Yay, brassicas, mostly hardy. I have some small broccoli shoots that are growing and hopefully will make it through subsequent freezes. 

I will write more postmortem gardening sum-up  during the winter break including all the new plants I planted in early november, pictures, and future plans.