Yes, there's negatives and positives no matter where you live.

So when you're suffering through those long, dark, horrible months with snow up to your waist, here's a Photo that you can look at that may serve to warm you up a little.

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It's a little overcast, but I've still got flowers blooming in the garden. If it's any consolation, out here in Northern CA I become quite envious of all of you who are enjoying your ripe delicious tomatoes before the 4th of July. I guess in every region, there are plusses and minuses!

Stay warm!

Here is a link that might be useful:

Dennis the Menace-

What i do during winter is visit Olbrich Gardens win Madison, WI. Its fun to go wonder around there on a sunny, cold winter day. Its 80F+ in there and the palm trees, bananas, orchids, etc are wonderfully green, many plants are flowering. I wonder if you have any tropical greenhouses near you?

The other option is to get on a plane and head for S. Florida.

January of 2009 in Ft. Lauderdale
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Hi Dennis

Here are my greetings from sunny Central Florida. My garden today is at the peak with cool season crops and still got some tomatoes to harvest.

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Bananas are ripening

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A salad made with lettuce, herbs and tomatoes from the garden and served as one of the dishes for Thanksgiving.

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And I am sending you warm wishes.:)

Silvia

Thank you from me too. It's not quite so cold today, the snow has disappeared but it's dull, very drab and raining. Looking out the window at all the black foliage still clinging to everything from the early freeze is depressing to say the least. I think come spring there might be a lot of shovel pruning. We're not used to having Jan/Feb weather in November.
Sandhill, that's one gorgeous photo, breathtaking rock formations.

Annette

Thank you, Annette. Outdoor Photography is what I do when I'm not gardening. This area is located just south of where I live and there are breathtaking formations all over around this area. I Photograph there all the time.

Greg
Southern Nevada

whgille-

I'm moving in. There are 4 of us (2 young ones). I hope you have room :) :)

I am cold! almost slipped on a sheet of ice on my walk to work today. It was so cold this weekend I planted a bunch of winter crops (radichio, lettuces, cilantro, parsley, collards, chards....). I was out there in the middle of the day when it was warmer but still had to wear a jacket.

Sylvia your garden looks great! my lettuces are still very small, but we are starting to eat a few of them already. We had tomatoes for our thanksgiving salad too, but now we are down to just a trickle of the cherries. I need to take my okra out too. If it freezes (for longer) we will loose the chayote crop, but we got a few already.

I will try to take more pictures and post them. The peas and favas are looking nice here.

Hi Frank - No problem, you are always welcome here and the young ones too.:)

Thank you Cabrita - We are having nice weather for now, I expect soon to get cold.

Eating a lot of greens, broccoli and cole crops

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Papayas too and they are good!

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Dennis, do you remember this?

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Silvia

Sword Beans!

I had a few in my garden this year. They are difficult here in North Alabama, but can make a crop. I took one to the seed swap at Bill Best's place on October 2nd. One of the men there had brought a handful of creaseback beans to show around. I took one look and reached in my bag, pulled out one of those monster 14 inch long 2 inch wide 3/4 inch thick beans and smiled and said "I think my creaseback is a little bigger than yours". You should have seen the looks on their faces!!!

DarJones

Oh what beautiful pictures and gardens ya'll have. We have had one cold day and that was Thanks Giving day. It's unsual for us but it was a nice change from deep frying beach side. This is some of what is blooming in my gardens. Hope you guys enjoy. Josie

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Here is a link that might be useful: My garden pictures

La Nina's here alright.
We're coming into what looks to be a long, hot, dry summer and they haven't had any decent rain for three months up North.
Other people's lawns are dead already (I covered the one out front with bark and turned the back into potatoes and garlic).
My hulking mulch threatens to shade out seedlings and provides excellent cover for slugs to make night raids on the peppers, but I can't imagine my garden surviving without it. And then where would the worms party?
Summers coming, I've got tan lines from my sandles!

I am jealous now. Of pippimac who has a summer ahead (instead of a winter for us northern hemisphere folks) and of Sylvia because she can grow papayas.

Sylvia, do you mind telling us when you start your cole crops? Mine are tiny still and I started them in September. Do you direct plant or start them in little pots first?

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One of my artichoke beds with nasturtiums during the winter.

Dennis, as it happens I'm getting on a plane for florida tomorrow. Won't be doing much gardening - got over 6000 sq ft of metal roofing to do.

maybe a picture of us real sunburned and toasted will help?

DarJones - I can image the faces of those people that saw the sword beans,lol. I get the same comments when friends come to my house, they all said " looks like Jack and the beanstalk!"

Cabrita - All my seedlings are started outside in those blue and green containers, when I have space available I transplant them to the beds, I do succession planting all the time, this way I make sure some seedlings survive, if it is still too hot I put the containers in a little bit of shade, now is perfect weather for cole crops and lettuce, I am sharing a lot of lettuce for a while now.
I love your garden beds, very pretty!

Harvested broccoli

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Another bed

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Radish grown in a container

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Silvia

Well, you know, this is the season for counting our blessings. We had Asian mustard greens for Thanksgiving dinner with the last of the pole beans and tomatoes(killing frost Thanksgiving night).

I'm most grateful for fresh lettuce, greens, carrots, onions, garlic, etc to eat through our cold months (well, really weeks). It sure would have been easier for the Pilgrims if they had landed further south! On the other hand, Thanksgiving day was so hot and humid here we ran the air conditioner and my daughter said "Oh, boy! It feels like Christmas!" ....

If the Mayflower had missed the Chesapeake, managed not to founder on the outer banks, and found Charleston or Savannah or one of the other Georgia harbors, they might have done alright. Florida in those days was a very unfriendly coast, so if they'd been blown that far things would not have gone well.

Hi Pat

I thought you were in the plane already, when you get here try to look at the Florida forum sometimes to say hi and see how we are all doing, we have some news about a magazine? It is going to get cold soon.

Today's picture to warm everybody that is feeling cold.:)

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Silvia

hi whgille,
did you pick the main head of the broccoli if you have they
are very big side shoots after i pick my main head the side
shoots are much smaller then yours,regards.

les

Hi Les

The garden is all mine, I got no helpers,lol. I have different varieties of broccoli, broccoli raab, broccoli&gai lan mix, sprouting broccoli and others.

Here is probably something like the one that you have?

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Silvia

If they would of hit Savannah (Actually they would of hit tybee Island and that soil is just about pure sand!). If they would of managed to survive that winter they would of all died the next summer of the heat and humid but if some of them would of survived that they would of got eaten by the 10-25 foot alligators in the savannah river!

Silvia

That is it. Those pictures are incredible. I want to marry you. I want to come and eat everything in your garden. Wow. those bananas are incredible and the papaya. What have I missed all my life.

I wasted my entire life up here in the frozen tundra and now I find heaven is in florida. Wow. I am impressed. I really never knew it could be that good.

Today the high for the day was below freezing. all day. they expect it to stay cold for some time. it is not even christmas yet. I have to get my snowblower going for the 2 foot over night snows that always come. that is not the half of it. the dumb snow plows lock you in with huge mounds of snow at the street meets the drive way. that is the hardest part to get rid of the snow.

I never knew you could grow bananas and papayas in florida. that is so awesome. and that salad looks incredible. I will be lucky to see a tomato like that by late August.

You are living in the real Garden of Eden.

George, I agree - the farther south beyond the Norfolk region that the Puritans might have landed the less their long-term chances would have been. They simply didn't have the necessary adaptations, whereas much of their knowledge did transfer ok to southern new england.

Dawgie, if you decide to come to florida to grow your bananas and papayas - and pigeon peas and pineapples and much else - keep south of Orlando. For mangoes and the other tropicals draw a line from about indian river to ft.meyers.

Gardendawgie - You are too funny! but you would not envy me today, we had a freeze last night and this morning is cold!

I had to pick all the fruit and veggies that could get damaged, cover all the sensitive trees trunks, my brogdon avocado is too big to cover.

Me and my friends are eating a lot of lettuce, I made one for a potluck, the biggest container that I could find that is used for a punch.

Different type of lettuce, picked cherry tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and goat cheese from the fridge and edible flowers that I saved putting them in the porch with all my herbs for cooking.

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Hi Pat, I guess there will be no sunburn for you in Florida, lol.

Silvia

Actually we are getting quite sunburned - the reflecting foil on the roof is like standing in a solar collector. This morning there was ice on the metal roofing which had to be carefully avoided.

As Eeyore might say "It's not too warm here right now". Maybe this weather will kill some of the bugs. My sister-in-law bought a house near the Alabama line after Katrina destroyed their home in Louisiana. She was ooh-ing and aah-ing about the warm weather things we can grow here, where it usually doesn't freeze in the winter. I told her to just go and grow her big peonies, apples, and all that northern stuff. Our fleas never die here. They just get bigger and bigger. Everyone has something to enjoy and something to complain about.

Check out the Alabama forum. They are a hoot!

After sitting through one heck of a cold start to December and it barely being 1/2 over I'm about ready to be someone's warm climate friend.

When there's still 3-3.5 months of below-60F temperatures left and you're already sick of it...things probably aren't getting better any time soon. Phew...

That said, I love it in the spring when warm climate people are posting the pictures of their harvest when I'm still weeks away. It's nice to see people's "final" summer crop harvests in December when mine are long done, too.

Just got back from central fla. By golly, that wasn't far enough south as it turned out. What does a person have to do, leave the country? I saw ice encasing the citrus trees - from the sprinklers running at night - for consecutive days. That's right, thick ice persisting for days in florida. Some days working on a metal roof we couldn't walk on the north side for the frost, too slippery.

For the first time ever in florida I saw ice formed on top of a body of water, shallow swamp water, ice a quarter-inch thick.

Hello everybody and greetings from the frozen south! :) Remember how my garden look before the freeze? Well, I made or Mother Nature made changes. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, bananas, papayas were picked. A lot of the lettuce too, the rest like flowers, seedlings, herbs, tropical fruit trees in containers were moved to the porch and in freezing nights I put a heater on. The veggies were not covered and are happy, 2 young citrus because they are young they were covered, a red lime and a red orange, all the other citrus made it through.

Here are today's pictures.

Brogdon avocado in the background, cole crops in the front

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Tronchuda cabbage

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Spigariello Liscia broccoli raab

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Bed of carrots and beets

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Another bed with peas, carrots, beets, spinach

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Views from the garden, bananas are toast but they will come back from the roots, papayas maybe.

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Views from the porch, saved veggies, flowers and fruit trees

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Star fruit in a container in the porch

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Mayer lemon not covered with blooms today

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Happy Holidays!

Silvia

Hi - guess I've been holding out - but inspite of 5 days of almost constant rain and flooding, the veggies are thriving in my back yard. We are still on the established every-other-day water rationing schedule, but guess that is one chore I won't have to worry about - maybe for at least a month or more.

The ground is saturated, but cutting lots of lettuces, Chinese cabbage, bok choy, bibb and romaine types.

Earlier - the end of summer - we had so much cold weather, that I thought the peppers would surely die before they turned red - but with patience - they survived and managed to get enough warmth in Oct/Nov to do so - and are still hanging on for daily picks.

The mandarin orange tree is loaded - as usual, with many harvest for the freezer, and a Christmas dish of mandarin, pineapple, fruit cocktail and whipped cream is planned.

The banana tree looks a bit forlorn, but holding up strong against the south facing concrete block wall, and maybe I will enjoy some fruit this year. It has sprouted 2 or 3 pups and maybe I can find room to start a plantation (perish the thought), although have very little gardening space left.

According to the locals - the beach was only habitable for 2 days this summer - although our usual influx of "zonies" (Arizona summer birds) were only too happy to visit and find respite from their unbearable summers. They bought lots of warm weather jackets to withstand the beach chill tho.

Some seedlings of cabbage and broccoli are still in their cups, being hardened off, waiting for the floods to recede, and hopefully some warmer weather. The fruit trees are sadly in need of dormant spraying, but just like last year, the rains kept coming and they didn't get it. Funny thing, we had a bumper crop of apricots, peach, almonds, plums, etc., last year.

Stay dry and if you come to Ca., bring your water wings!

Bejay

Once the rain quits for awhile I will be back up working in my garden. Had to order new rain boots because everything is so muddy. All I am getting right now is lettuce, onions, swiss chard and rhubarb. Here are some pictures of my garden throughout the year to cheer you up. I am on the Central coast of CA.

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden and flowers

Here is a few pictures taken day before Christmas.

Bearss Lime {{gwi:118939}}From December 24th pictures

'Sunshine Blue' Blueberry {{gwi:118940}}From December 24th pictures

Elixir Cherimoya
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I forgot to say, have a Happy New Year everyone! Next year is coming up fast, and I wish everyone the best of wishes with their garden and future harvests.

aptosca - you mentioned rhubarb in your posting. This is something I've had problems with in my zone 9/10, actually Sunset zone 23-24 (near San Diego). Can you give me any tips - would like to grow it here.

More rain here - and now near low 40's. May need to transplant my cabbage and broccoli plants in small cups - into larger half gallon sizes - or they will not transplant.

Rain, rain - go away, come back next summer on a drier day - when we need you!!!!

Bejay

We are in a cold air basin between ridges. In 1990 we got down to 13deg., set records. We usually don't get below freezing and that is just over night. I am on 2.5 acres in the Santa Cruz Mts. so have pockets that range between Sunset's 14-16 zones. I can grow fruits that need winter chill and also grow tropicals (brugmansia) and lots of citrus next to the house.

I just looked up growing rhubarb.Here is what it says, "Rhubarb is a cool season, perennial crop. It requires temperatures below 40F / 5C to break dormancy and to stimulate spring growth and summer temperatures averaging less than 75F / 24C for vigorous vegetative growth." So I guess, since we have several days where the night temperatures get down into the 30's in winter and the fog keeps it cool in summer, we have the right temperatures for growning it here.

I have been growing it here for 33 years with no problem. Maybe there is a new hybrid out there that can take warmer temperatures which I assume you have. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sunset Central Coast zones