Snug in their bed for a long winter's nap.

Well, our last frost caught me by surprise coming as early as it did so I didn't yet have the hoophouse covered. Fortunately my cold sensitive container plants were able to pass the night on the carport no worse for the wear.

Fool me once, but not twice. The Kinder Major and I quickly did the deed with the greenhouse so naturally the weather did not turn cold again. Until this coming Tuesday night when the friendly folks at the National Weather Service predicts a low of 36 (this is two days out) which is not in itself low enough to really injure anything, but chilly enough to bring growth to a halt.

I hate having to work in the dark with plants as thorny as lemons and limes so this afternoon I moved all of my cold sensitive citrus into the hoophouse. When it's partially buttoned up it stays a good bit warmer than the outside air which makes things like limes and lemons happy enough to put out new leaves and blossoms. On the frosty nights I close the house up completely which keeps things in a non-frozen state. If it really drops into Jack Frost country I have a small space heater and fan that keeps things warm. The heater has a thermostat so if the interior temperature begins to rise too high it turns itself off. The fan keeps the warm air from pooling in the top which it is wont to do when there is no air circulation. This keeps the heater in the bottom of the house from having to run as much.

I had hoped to have some genuine UV resistant greenhouse plastic to use this year, but it didn't work out. Once more it is just simply builder's plastic which is good enough to get through a winter and spring, but will finally grow brittle and crumble in the hot Florida summer sun. If I were able to really go whole hog on house covering I'd use two layers of plastic with a layer of bubble wrap in between for insulation which would reduce the amount of power needed. Maybe next year.

We've been enjoying Satsumas for a couple of weeks now from the little tree in the orchard. The Ponkan (Honeybell) tangerines are coloring up nicely. They're actually ripe even though the peel is still half-green. Citrus is funny that way in that the peel color of a fruit can be as green as grass yet the interior can be perfectly ripe. For the orange colored citrus they need exposure to a certain amount of cool temperatures to evolve their sunny color. In the tropical areas they may never change color and once in a while you can find green colored but ripe citrus for sale in the markets. The Seville (sour) oranges are beginning to color up as well. I'm looking forward to this as I want to try my hand at making orange marmalade from our own fruit. The juice is well suited to Florida style barbecue and ade type of drinks as well as that good Cuban mojo marinade.

The vegetable garden is coming along nicely but I didn't take a photo as I'm still weeding the rows out. I made a start this morning, but didn't have time to make a lot of progress so it will have to wait until next weekend.

.....Alan.