The Vegas garden is growing ever so slowly these days. The 3 tomatoes are getting bigger, about 4-5 oz. The largest one is ready to pick, and the other two are slowly getting color. In my mom's regular phone report, there is one rose still ready to bloom, several gardenia flowers are ready to open, and the Arabian jasmine has several of those little aromatic flowers open. The 3' calamondin tree is still happy in its 17" pot. There are little fruit on it.

beca - Good luck on your vegetable seedlings. What did you plant again? I know that collards actually taste better when it gets cool near frost, when it's larger. But I've found that cabbages and root crops seem to do/taste best around 60-65 degree highs. Any warmer, it grows and bolts quickly, but it still quite good till it hits 80 or so.

On a side note, is Interstate 15 usually drivable around Thanksgiving to/from Los Angeles? How about Christmas through New Years? I know that snow and ice are possible. But are they likely driving around noontime? Thanks for any input.

Mornin' Bill

Driving the 15 fwy is a huge problem these days because of the work Caltrans is doing at the Cajon Pass. I have the internet website info for anyone who needs to know when there is a closure there at the 15 fwy & Cajon Pass.

terri_kasinga@dot.ca.gov

She is the public information officer for Caltrans. They can e-mail you with information on the weekend closure's...what a mess this is too. I just drove through it last weekend to visit my kids in Torrance area and the whole weekend was supposed to be closed at the Cajon Pass but it was cancelled at the last moment. The 15 is driveable other then the problems at the Cajon Pass area...it would just be very busy with people driving to Las Vegas for the holidays. We drove home the day after Christmas last year and EVERYONE else did too-what fun that was. NOT. The earlier you can get out of town is the best advise I can give to not having driving problems.

Back to the garden: I forgot to say that my container roses are blooming like crazy now. So beauitiful too.
I planted spinach (oh no!!!) hehehe...romaine lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli. I can't wait to try them when they are fully grown.
It got down to 42 this morning. It is getting colder slowly but surely here.

B~

Hello Beca,

The last couple of days really has gotten colder. Up until then I was surprised how mild it was, we hadn't even turned heat on in our house. Now we tried and for some reason our expensive trane heat pump only wants to air condition not heat! We ordered an EPA cert. woodstove/fireplace over a month ago - where is it? It's getting frosty in the house in the mornings.

It definitely is feeling like winter is right around the corner. The chinese pistachios are beautiful red color and a few of our trees are shedding leaves.The best looks in our yard this time of year are the grasses. The pampas grass has those tall dramatic ivory plumes and the regal mist has that reddish purple haze over the top of it and even the deergrass has some action going if not as spectacular. I love how every season has its wonders to be enjoyed.

Beca, about your tomatoes, you can pick them now and just put them in a box in the house and they will ripen. I did that last year and couldn't believe how good they were and they did all ripen. Our tomato plants unfortunately are not even close. We bought a greenhouse this spring and we just put it together. The plan is to plop it over the tomatoes and see if we can have tomatoes through the winter. We've never had a greenhouse before so it will be a learning experience.

We have the usual suspects in the winter garden, peas, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, spinach. We also just took a really long antique wood ladder that I was given and wrapped it in chicken wire and put it across our driveway every night now. This is to keep the rabbits away. I found myself wrapping up different plants and the vegetable patch and finaly decided it would be easier to just wrap our driveway! The rest of our yard has a block wall around it except the front walk and that's easy to block off.

Bill, my husband is from Fountain valley and he has family there and we have been going over Cajon pass for Thanksgiving and Christmas for 17 years and never had it not passable. I know from time to time it gets snowed in, we lived in apple valley before we came here, but I think it's not often.

Happy fall gardening, Maria

Oh Man...Maria we had a trane ac unit (in Orange county)....I was always told Tranes don't ever stop (son is in the ac business). Hope your's is up & running well again. You are right about the weather-we are very close to turning our heater on here too. Mt. Charleston got snow again over the weekend but it's gone again...looked soo pretty!! I am still experiencing hot flashes sooo I don't want the heater on and my husband is always cold (so my answer to him is to put on a sweater) LOL.
Thanks for the information on my tomatoes. I will go out today and pick them when it is warmer today.
That is so smart about wrapping your driveway!! So far our yards are protected from the wittle wabbits around with our fences but I wonder for how long?
We have a sunroom now and I am growing all kinds of plants inside it and seeing what I can grow and what doesn't. I am going to try growing tomatoes in it too. I wish you good luck with your greenhouse.
My virginia creeper vines are turning colors and look soo pretty!! Winter is definetly on it's way...

Beca~

Well...I have been out back and cut out and picked about 1/3 of my tomatoe plants and must have 2 huge baskets (12" ht x 8 deep x 16" L)of green tomatoes!!! I am guessing so far that I have about 250-300+. Assorted tomatoes: roma, early girl, juliets (love these), black cherry, crimson cushion beefsteak.....NOT counting my raised bed of hawaiian tropics and another roma plant. I got 2 tomatoes that were red out of this workout-hahaha...still have lots to finish out there. My husband knew we had lots but didn't realize just how many we did have.

Maria-just how big should this box be for them to come in the house??? LOL.

Beca~

Here in the "tropical" part of Northern Nevada, the Japanese Maples are done, but the Oakleaf Hydrangea has just turned burgundy, vermillion and purple. Some things are still green, others are bare. The Crocus speciosus have finally finished emerging and blooming, and the Heucheras are coming into their own. Snapdragons still bloom out front, the sweet peas are still blooming, and some of the chrysanthemums have yet to bloom.

It's a normal year in my garden...

I'm pretty much done for the year--the tender bulbs have been cleaned up and brought inside, the pansies planted out (I should have bought more, but it's too late now....), the patio swept, the summer pots emptied of their soil, pots corralled and everything generally set for the winter (which arrives today--it's snowing as I type).

Now it's time to start browsing the seed catalogs.

Lisa