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| Citrus blossoms |
The three citrus trees, which are on the porch to protect from Winter until I can get their raised beds built, are in full bloom. The scent is amazing. I opened the window over the sink in the kitchen (it's the window in the picture above) and it was like an all natural air freshener for the house. Love it. Some might find the scent a bit strong, especially concentrated like that, but it sure was nice.
And made me think of Spring on a cold, gray day.
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| Bananas protected from freeze |
With a freeze looming both tonight and tomorrow night (Winter is back), I put the box around the banana trees again so they would be safe. It worked when we got down into the upper 20's so we should be good with this round of freezing temps.
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| Napa/Chinese cabbage |
Harvested the last two Napa (Chinese) cabbages. Well there was one more but it had not formed like these and looks like it was about to flower. I pulled it and threw it away. Since we still have one more from last time, we gave both of these to 2nd Family.
This is interesting. Here is the front of our property along the road. In the years we've owned it, the county has never done this but they did it to several properties that front the roads around us. Obviously this is the easement so it's in their right and we're OK with it. They actually graded down into the soil to created a curved area from the driveway all the way to the corner. Side note, not sure what kind of machine does this but it must be cool, ha).
Obviously it's done to help with flooding and to let water drain away. We don't want it to grow up with grass and start to fill in again. Does anyone know a good way to keep this up? I'm guessing I could mow it, though it's a pretty steep curve so I'm not sure that would even work on the riding mower. Maybe it's something we might have to pay to have done every few months?
Anyone have any experience with this?
Any advice on upkeep?
Ahhhhhh...I can only imagine the smell from the citrus trees! I want to grow a lemon tree in my home sooo badly!!!! Is that possible?!?! So very jealous! Have a wonderful day!!
ReplyDeleteThe citrus smell is indeed intoxicating (in a good way, ha). Yes, I have heard that lemons can be grown indoors. A large enough pot and good light and they will grow. You might only get a couple lemons but you will get lots of blossoms.
DeleteI bet that really did smell nice coming through your window. Great air freshener for sure.
ReplyDeleteYes, they dig out the ditches around here also to help with the drainage and the roads flooding.
Around here the county does the mowing along the road area but don't know what they will do along the fence line. You may want to contact them and see what they do or you may just have to take your weed wacker and do along the fence line.
It's funny, when I left the house and shut the window, I had to load some stuff in the car, go lock the barn, etc, when I went back into the house, it still had the fragrance even after the window was shut. Someone needs to bottle that natural fragrance, ha. That front line is about a 1/4 mile long. It would be a lot of weed eating, ha. We are going to get a new fence along the front (and have it cleared) so I'l have to get used to clearing it somehow on a regular basis, certainly more than now, ha.
DeleteBorrow a couple of the neighbors goats for them to eat along the fence line. :)
DeleteActually, maybe you could use some sort of weed killer along the fence
Citrus blooms smell heavenly. Airing your house out with that scent must have smelled lovely.
ReplyDeleteUgh, a late freeze! I had to go out and cover a lot of things. I debated on covering my orange tree because it’s 12 feet high. But it’s full of those gorgeous blossoms so I got out a very big AgFabric cover and was able to cover the bottom 7-8 feet of it. Hoping this is the last gasp of winter.
When I lived in the country, the county was responsible for cleaning out the ditches. They did this very infrequently. You could keep it mowed yourself but the steep sides make doing so kinda dangerous.
It was so nice and it lasted quite a while. Yep, a last gasp of old man winter I suppose. Fingers crossed it's not long enough to hurt anything. Yep, I'm guessing the county does this but you are right, the steep sides are kind of dangerous. I guess we'll have to figure out something. Stay warm!!!
DeleteLooks like you also provided cover for the spider along with the banana plant!
ReplyDeleteLOL, I didn't realize the spider was in the picture until you said that. Yes I saw it as I moved the box, it was not a dangerous one so I left it alone. There was also a small frog on one of the banana plants. I just left them to do their thing, ha.
DeleteIf you are a FB user, check ______County News and look for a post from last Friday by JBS or JRS, then scroll down to see a rather lengthy post by the county judge. You may be one of the lucky few who has had their ditches cleaned by the county. Another possibility is a drainage district operated by the 2 "largest" cities in that area B and K. I think they also clear roadway ditches in that area. Our ditches aren't quite that deep and we keep them mowed as you can't count on the county's schedule. You could mow as long as you are comfortable with the angle, then finish with weedeater. I think Grazon (sp?) is good for fencelines along pastures. Looks nice!
ReplyDeleteYour cabbages are gorgeous! Nice to see how you protected your tropicals. Those are important to nurture! Interesting about the ditch; I've not seen one like that before. You're right that it will grow in but for now I'd be concerned about erosion. Maybe you could plant it with a ground cover that will be easy to maintain and won't mind being flooded now and again.
ReplyDeleteI have a similar ditch, but our county workers come by every few weeks with large mowers and keep it mowed back. Has your county ever mowed along your road before?
ReplyDeleteSetting up this ditch and fence roadside area is a great opportunity to help our pollinator friends. In many areas of the country, those roadside edges used to be full of wildflowers and especially milkweed for the monarchs. Now that so many farmers are using glyphosate to manage weeds, those road edges are bare or just grass, and the numbers of beneficial insects are critically endangered. If you can create a band of wildflowers there, you'll save yourself a lot of work, and give the pollinators a place to feed, breed and reproduce, we well as creating a place of beauty. Please don't kill it all with weed killer. That's bad stuff!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant Idea you have there Karren. Mow that whole area as short as possible and in the Fall plant wild flower seeds along with variety of bulbs that will come up in early Spring.
DeleteFall is the best time for planting wildflower seeds, etc. https://www.americanmeadows.com/fall-planting-wildflower-seeds
Would take some work in preparing the ground but hey, ask for volunteers in your area to help out. Just think how pretty that would be with wildflowers growing along that area.
When they are all done blooming, then mow and that will help scatter all the deadheads from the flowers.
Thought of this earlier and forgot to mention; check to see if there are any Garden Clubs in your area to see if they would be willing to come out and help you in beautifying the road way along there.
DeleteI'm with Leigh on what to do with your 'naked" ditch. Could do the groundcover or seed it with wildflowers if you're into the out of control country look like I am. Like others have said, keep erosion under control. And the smell of the orange blossoms sounds lovely
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