Texas weather

Well, we have had our first freeze.  It was early, very early.  Before global warming became a real thing, our first cold snap was around Thanksgiving.  I would always bring in fully blooming Christmas cactus and hang them in the sun room.  Well, this time they had not even set their buds and I had to bring them in.  And it was weird.  I left a Bouganvilla outside.  I fully expected it to freeze.  It did not.  However, two of my crepe myrtles did freeze.  Weird.  Anyway, my sun room is full to bursting.  I moved in a night blooming Cereus.  It is an orchid.  It has beautiful blooms but they only last until about mid morning.  I also have 5 poinsettas  that I rescued from work after Christmas two years ago.  They were almost dead when I got them.  Now they are about 3 feet high and do still bloom, but not at Christmas.  They are not a Christmas bloomer in the wild and they are a tree of about 10-15 feet.  They will grow in South Texas but are very tender and will freeze easily.  Add to that a couple of gardinas, airplane plants, and african violets.  I do not know why I bothered moving in the airplane plants.  They will freeze, but only the leaves and will come right back out.  They are really hard to kill.  So my AloeVera is in the garage.  I will not lose that.  That is like a whole medicine chest in one plant.  My roses are blooming up a storm and were not even touched by the freeze.  Love them. 

I noticed that the plantain was beginning to come up in the flower bed.  Time to make some hand salve.  It really makes a good hand salve.  And with my hands so sensitive to any chemicals, I use it almost exclusively.  I will use goat's milk lotion, but it is not as good as the salve with plantain.  And yes plantain is a weed.  A weed that contains medicinal properties and you can dry the leaves and make tea.  Gonna do that as well. 

I mulched the back flower bed today.  It is about 3feet x20 feet.  And after I finished mulching it, I broadcast Swiss chard and mustard seed.  Cannot wait till they come up.  Lettuce and bunching onions are next.