Daily Dose Blogger Bios
Me and My Big Mouth!!!
Okay... I have received a message from the universe. Here I am, blogging from Southern California, rhapsodizing about agaves this and aloes that - succulents succulents succulents ... poor everybody else who can't grow them, they're so easy ...
Well, it actually froze last night. 24 degrees.
And I had declared the day before that I wasn't going to "swaddle and coddle" my plants. I was so cavalier. I said - and I quote- "If something bites the dust in my garden, there are ten plants waiting in the wings to take its place" Was I tempting fate or WHAT? So the result is, even some of the things waiting in the wings bit it.
Sheesh. I think my low maintenance bravado may have been masking a lazy gardener. And gardening is no place for the lazy. We who play with plants in So Cal have it easy in many ways, because dealing with freezing is one of the most challenging thing a gardener faces, and I certainly didn't give it the respect it deserved. We haven't had a freeze like that in my area during the twelve years I've lived here. I guess I needed to experience the pain of it firsthand to really learn it.
Message received.
Oh no, no fair! You are such an amazing writer, Ivette!
Thanks for that incredible compliment - coming from you, well ... it means alot and has put a big smile on my frowny face.
So what happens now to the frozen agaves? Mine all froze too, as did my young meyer lemon tree.
Isn't it awful? I'm so sad about you losing your Meyer Lemon.
You know, I'm not sure what happens now... I've been too shell-shocked to go to my succulent guru ... the growers at California Cactus. They had loses, too - but thankfully, they were limited to a small area of one growing yard. What I can see is that all of my lusher, greener, more 'juicy' agave are the ones that got hit hard ... the blue and gray varieties which are stiffer and spinier came through fine. My beautiful variegated Agave attenuata, which is in the photo of the posting on the super-red aloes, is completely melted... but some of the other ones that froze might grow out from the center.
Check yours carefully. Is the center point, where the leaves unfurl, firm or mushy? If it still has some strength to it, try leaving it in the ground. It just might come back when the weather gets back to normal. If mushy, forget it - I don't even think they'll compost!
It's hard to be philosophical about this, but in the end, part of why we garden is to be in a closer rhythm with nature. And the fallow cycle, the enforced garden silence that comes with a freeze, is a jarring thing for us. I'm trying to see this as a lesson in letting go - but a Meyer Lemon! Damn!
Oh Germinatrix,
So sorry to hear about your recent plant loss! I know like the Phoenix, you will rise from the ashes, and garden harder and tougher than ever.
Rock on,
Posey Parker
I needed that, Posey Parker.Thanks ...I'm going to gather myself and rally. I can do it - I have really good role models!