Winter Solstice Work 2024

  'Little Finger' variety carrot seeds planted 11/23/2024, Seedlings appeared 12/7, almost as exciting as finding a gopher in the trap.   Fifteen days to germinate.  

 

I chose a small 3" (8 cm) type, having never grown carrots before. 

 

Seed packet says 10-25 days for germination;  harvest in 57 days.  Is that harvest time from planting or from seedling appearance?  From planting.  Seed packet said to plant a row or two every three weeks for a sustained harvest. I think harvest will be more than 57 days.  The seedlings are not getting enough sun.  Short days at the solstice. 

 

Tiny carrot seedlings protected with a tent of hardware cloth.

A tree trimmed:  evergreen, decorated with glowing globes, a different kind of December tree, a 'Cara Cara' orange:

It took all day to top and clear out dead branches from the interior.  It could probably use some more (to the white line), to be done after this winter's harvest.  Fruit trees can be kept shorter, to nine or ten feet (3 m).  The point of a fruit tree is fruit, and keeping them short enough to safely pick is wise.  Less water needed, too.

 

Citrus trees are very ornamental:

I've read more than once it's best not to limb up citrus.  Their roots are fibrous and sensitive to heat.  Leaving the lower limbs and letting the fallen leaves be shades the root system.  On the always-shaded north side (right side in the photo) is a space limbed up enough to allow access to the interior of the canopy.  

 

We've had a warm (not hot), sunny, dry (sigh) November and December.  Some gorgeous days.  The Sweet Pea seedlings, unlike the last two years, have grown a lot: 

 

Not so pretty, the troubled neighbors had another big party last weekend.  The next morning showed someone had ran into our 5'+ wide 'Blue Flame' Agave out front.

It was preparing to flower but now it won't--the center growth point got snapped off:

Another day of chopping ahead.  This will be a job:

The 'Sun Glow' Agave by the front door is flowering, almost complete. 

If I want a replacement 'Sun Glow', I'll have to chop out a side-shoot.  This will be a job:

Rose blooms are dwindling now as January pruning time approaches.  That will be a job.  But the last blooms are extra precious. 

'Iceberg', of course:

'Bolero' (2004):

'Princesse Charlene de Monaco':

'Drop Dead Red':

An interval of roseless-ness ahead after their own chop in January and February, but they'll be back.  In the meantime, Hellebores, Aloes, Gerberas, and other joys.  

 

The arrow points to the new Hellebore:

Very early, that Leucanthemum:

Gerbera:

Aloe 'David Verity':

For any idled by winter, or "stuck", at the Solstice, a Wendell Berry poem.

 

THE REAL WORK 

 

 It may be that when we no long know what to do 

we have come to our real work 

and that when we no longer know which way to go 

we have come to our real journey 

The mind that is not baffled is not employed 

The impeded stream is the one that sings