Thank you Ann. I posted and it did not appear for at least 10 minutes so I posted again. The edit feature did not allow me to delete the double comment. Happy New Year! Teresa

Happy new year to you,too,Jannie. I'm seeing Marci next Tues. and will tell her you were on the forum.

Happy New Year to you, too! To take more pictures. There really is something to having an annual video diary of the garden. The Juniperus scopulorum I planted as 6 inch seedlings in 09 are now 5 - 6 feet tall. I have an apricot I planted as a 2 ft whip 2 years ago that's now approaching 8 ft. These are wins I should celebrate more! Last night I downloaded a couple of maps of champion tree tours in nearby towns. I plan to visit them over time. I'm hoping that will help me learn to work smarter, not harder by choosing trees that will grow here. And yes, worry less! I think that's on my list every year. Barb

Thank you. As I recall we had a record high of 80 last Sunday (1 January). Tonight and tomorrow night (6 and 7 /January) will get down to 24 and 26, then back up into the 60/70s after that. The ground is always workable. The lows are very short in duration. The day temps normally warm everything back up. This is a great time to garden. Weeds grow slow, and no mosquitoes. It is a gardeners paradise from oct to march. April, May and June starts to warm up. July, August and Sept are too hot and too many bugs. In the recent past, I tried a second tomato season in late fall. Looking back, it makes no sense to try to grow in July, Aug, Sept when it is so effortless now. Of course, I can't grow tomatoes now. I am thinking I will just grow extra tomatoes in the normal season and freeze the extra. The ones I froze from last summer did real good in Sauces. I don't have a lot of time to can/make sauce to freeze, but I can always make time to quarter tomatoes and throw them in a bag in the freezer. The sweet white turnips, hakerie (name is close to that), are one of the lesser cold hardy varieties. They are very tastee, especially roasted with the carrots. I have a small patch of them and few remain. I will cover them. Everything else is very hardy and remains uncovered: Kale,broccoli, collards,onions, carrots and Lettuce. I expect some Lettuce losses, as there are many varieties. I expect half to survive just fine. I watered real good yesterday getting ready for the cold snap.