Spring planting & pruning

Busy morning in the yard left us with piles and trash cans full of weeds, branches and clippings ready to haul off. The citrus trees got sprayed with insecticidal soap in anticipation of warmer weather and white flies. While I was at it I cleaned up a older navel orange on the lower lot that's had some tough years and accumulated some deadwood. It's recovering nicely since I modified our water run off -- it was too consistently damp most of the year. Citrus likes to go dry between watering.

It was a treat to collect some nice fruit off the young lemon I planted just a couple years ago...


The tomatoes I started inside this winter (a bit early) were getting a bit tight in the potting cups. This spot is getting plenty of light now that the sun is moving back up in elevation as we start spring. The bermuda is all coming out for a complete makeover of this lawn area into a patio garden area. Nuked it with Roundup a couple months ago and it's time to start getting it out. For starters I just spaded up a planting strip for the tomatoes. My bride and I made a date of it (romantic, eh?) -- got down on our knees and went through it by hand picking out all the grass roots we could.


And there they sit. 11 soldiers in a row. All Romas. Let's see how many make it.


I still puckered up for pickles. That's next up. Plenty warm to get those seeds in the ground now.