delicious valencia orange

I just ate a lovely Valencia orange. I planted this tree in August of 2009 and this is the first winter we have nice juicy oranges. I've pruned every winter and this year the shape finally looks good. We had a horde of aphids last year, but releasing a box of ladybugs seems to have helped. We also had leaf-miners, but I was able to squish them individually by hand and so far that has worked (the trees are still quite small). This has been a fair amount of work,  but it's a real treat to walk out into the backyard for a little snack.

cabbage in the winter garden

The winter garden has been doing well, though some little critter has been eating the brussel sprouts and cauliflower. The cabbage looks good; I'm eager to try the first head....

rich black compost

I just stirred the compost with a pitchfork. It's amazing how a collection of leaf clippings and table scraps get turned into rich black dirt.