It's So Cold That...

We headed out this morning at 9:00AM and it was cold, too cold!   As I sat bundled up but shivering in the car, the temperature on the dash registered 2 degrees.  As it turned out that was the balmy temperature where the sun was shining directly on the car.  When we headed down the lane the numbers dropped steadily finally reaching - 3.  I shudder to think how low it actually got last night.  Any gardening to be done when it is like this will be inside.  I watered the rosemary and ran my hand over the leaves of the plant to get that lovely fragrance.

I used my kitchen shears to give the lemon grass a haircut.  Running your hands over this plant would be a bad idea.  The leaves have very sharp edges, but they make a nice cup of tea and add  wonderful flavor when cooking.

While we were out we stopped and picked up some insecticidal soap.  Last week it was warm enough that Ed took the lemon verbena plants outside to rid them of white flies.  With this kind of cold any battles with the bugs will have to be fought indoors.  A treatment that kills the patient isn't very helpful!

Matching Job To Day

We always have more tasks that need attention than we can possibly do in a day.  One technique used to manage that chaos is to always take advantage of the weather conditions so that our work is made easier and more productive.  Our lemon verbenas needed attention to help them cope with the rigors of indoor life.  Bright sunshine combined with south winds to raise the air temperature into the 40's F.  The verbenas needed a shower bath so they were carried outside.  Several applications from the watering can moistened both the tops and the bottoms of the leaves.  There was some concern about the wisdom of wetting foliage right next to deep snow but the bright sun was encouraging.  The plants were left outside in the light winds to dry somewhat before their return to the basement.  A  quick check this morning found the verbenas looking great sporting clear bright leaves.  Both the wind and the water had dislodged at least some of the white flies.  For now the plants are inside near their basement windows.  We will watch the outdoor conditions looking for another day when a cold shower is possible.  If necessary we will enlist the help of some purchased insecticidal soap.   I did a little reading and found the calcium and magnesium present in our water renders our homemade spray ineffective.  For today we were able to do some gardening outside.  Not bad for the middle of winter.