I'm so sorry you had a freeze. grrrr.... I know its gonna happen but you still hate it. We might get one Saturday so I went out and cut what few I have. Now tell me what are you hoping will be showing by Monday or Tuesday? Oh wait, you dig yours up and I don't so thats the eyes, right? Think I answered my own question. Its almost my bedtime and my brain must have already went nighty night. Your pictures are so lovely!! Can I ask how close you plant your tubers? I am hoping to maybe plant some a little closer so I can have more of them. Judy

I may have to follow the Johnny Apple Seed model :). I live on an acre of land but water is a problem. There is a small creek next to my property that supplies unlimited water during the spring but slows down to a trickle of maybe 100 gallons a day by fall. My family's ranch is ~155 acres but a 20 mile drive I don't want to make every day. Water is a bit of a problem on the ranch too but it does have three year round springs. That's the real downside to California, no water. In addition to what I grow with water I pump I would like to put a couple of fig trees next to the creek that borders my property. Ditto for ranch, maybe put a few dozen trees down hill from our springs. These will be 'free for all' trees in that I don't care if the varmits that get the fruit be of the two or four legged variety! Hope I don't boor you too much with details but much of California was logged around 1900 for either Redwoods or Oak. In addition to what nutients you directly lose from the local ecosystem by pulling out lumber and firewood, tailings left behind actually produces nitrogen depletion of the soil as decomposition uses more then it supplies. You end up with trees like Gray Pine that do well in poor soil, squirrels that eat the pine nuts, raccoons going through garbage cans, and coyotes eating house cats. Fig trees seem like they are the ideal solution or at least worth a try jerking around on a small scale. Almost every other tree gets eaten by deer and never make it to maturity. Figs are almost as controlling as me! I mean they have a built in "don't eat these parts or I'll poison you + You can eat this part when I am ready for you to eat it and not before." Things seem to roll when you are able to put a couple of tons of food into an environment. We used to dump waste fruit and vegetables on ranch we had by Lick Observatory. Herds of deer, bobcats, ground and tree squirrels, coyote, mountain lion, dozens of species of birds, fox, bugs galor, raptors, you name it. I'd like to see if I can make a sustainable 'hands off' and diverse ecosystem locally based on the fig. That and grow all the figs I can eat of course! Rick

Hello Jen, Those are beautiful blooms... Your temps are in the 80's? Lucky dog!! LOL... We just had a snowstorm here in VB...started out with ice..schools were closed today, then it turnes to snow!! We probably received 3-4 inches...which is unusual for December in VB. My Plumies are suppost to be sleeping quietly in the backroom...tonight , after I came home from work...I checked on the "kids" and they aree not behaving as they should!!! The noid that has the seed pod, has produced another small inflo and the Thornton Lemon is trying to produce another inflo as well...I told my friend Andrew, that they are like a bunch of kids at a sleep over that won't quiet down!! Everyone else is following my directions...but a few are still trying to cause trouble!! Your trees look wonderful!! Enjoy those blooms and those warm temps...Here the temps is 31* with the wind chill at 23 degrees...Brrrrr!!! Merry Christmas to you Jen!! Take care everyone!!! Laura in VB

Here is a picture of my kitchen layout with the island Here is a link that might be useful: