It’s cold. I know it’s colder in other parts of the country but you don’t think of it being 26 degrees in the morning here in California. There was frost on every surface and the lawn was crunchy. There was enough frost on the roof of the barn that the runoff from it melting made me think it was raining.

It’s amazing to watch how fast the sunlight melts the frost and yet anything that’s in shade retains the frost until the sun moves on. I saw a long silver of frost remaining because it was protected by the shadow of a small lamp post.

Citrus trees had to be wrapped during the night. We deployed a number of techniques for keeping things in the garden protected. This frost, however, signals the end of the extended growing season and things that hung on through summer are now done. Still, onions, garlic and others that we planted in the fall seem to like the cold weather. Lettuce and other greens need to be covered if they’re not growing in the greenhouse.
They grow slowly now.