I don't know about you, but I have never tried growing spinach before. I thought they are harder to grow especially in Vallejo where the temperature starts to warm up after the last day of frost. My good friend Darren Goon gave me some spinach seeds a few years ago and I never planted them.
We are now about halfway through winter, yet here in California, signs of spring are well underway. Trees are blossoming, daffodils have bloomed, the days are getting longer (I was working in my yard tonight until 6 pm).
Who doesn't enjoy a pretty bouquet of freshly cut flowers from the garden? But have you ever tried picking a bouquet of hydrangeas? I discovered the flowers are rather finicky. Once cut, and almost before the stems touch water, they wilt.
Yikes, what is this, what happened to it? It's supposed to be a lemon. According to the UC IPM page on Pests in Gardens and Landscapes, the deformity is probably caused by a Citrus Bud Mite called Eriophyes sheldoni.
Crazy times, eh? The COVID-19 pandemic is similar to past national crises in that people, fearing the shortage of life's essentials, are denuding grocery shelves of staples.
