Sunlit Dandelion in February
Having grown up in Seattle where there are actually recognizable seasons, winter in Southern California still seems odd to me. Sure it did briefly get cold-ish and wet, (and it even rained on the Rose Parade for the first time in a long time) but the typically warm and dry January has seemed unreal to me ever since I moved here in the early 80's.
Plants don't seem to understand our seasons either. Examine, if you will, exhibit A pictured above. I never caught this fellow in bloom, but I did catch his seed head in a sunbeam the other day. A dandelion blooming in the dead of winter is just something I would never have seen in Seattle.
Here is a weed in all its glory, and for a moment at least, beautiful. This is also why I keep a camera around: I like to find little bits of surprising beauty in the world.
Meanwhile, my avocado is in full bloom and a lantana I thought had died popped up some brilliant white flowers to say "hello".
It still doesn't quite feel like winter, though.
posted by -rkb-
2 Comments:
Ross,
Very nice. I'd love to know more about growing avocados. I have an old tree that's a great producer, but the fruits are rather tasteless despite my attempts at fertilizing this past year. Any tips?
7:08 PM
I think it has a lot to do with the heritage of the tree. Nothing quite beats the flavor of a true Haas, and some Haas descendants come close and others are just bland.
Our avocado is of the green, thin skinned variety, and when we actually manage to pick some instead of letting the squirrels, stray cats, and some of the birds get them all they taste pretty good.
Every couple of years I try to remember to shake some avocado/citrus food on the ground at about the drip-line. Watering it once in a while doesn't seem to hurt it either. Mostly we just plain ignore it, which is the way we treat most of the trees.
My gardening philosophy has generally been to ignore everything that isn't actively a hazard, and indiscriminately mow and prune the rest as needed to keep it out of the way. Nobody sticks a thorn in my, and I keep the sheers off of them. Seems to work, but won't win any prizes ;-)
11:38 PM
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