Well, it's getting to be that time of year again..........The winter garden is dying and preparations are now in place for the spring garden.

Actually, let me rephrase that last statement: The winter garden was a dismal flop that never took off, and now we're ready to grow something (anything) again.

The far left row was the last of the turnips----if you'll look closely you might see a sprig of something green.........the turnips sprouted, took one look around, and promptly refused to grow. Yes, we had one inch plants for about two months.

The next two rows are collards and cabbages. I actually thought the collards looked good until Howard told me ONE plant should fill a pot on the stove and it's taking about three of ours.........

The last row on the right are the cabbages.......actually, they were going to be the cabbages. This fall they were the cabbage LEAVES. They came up, started to make cabbages, then stopped.

We're not sure what happened, but the 13 tons of topsoil (otherwise known as sand in the southwest) that we dumped in the garden might be the culprit. It helped with the salt problem, but had zero nutrients.

This weekend, Howard tilled in all of the dead plants he chopped down from the fall, plus the stuff lying under the debris pile in the corner of the garden. The soil looks 100% better----there are little bits of plants throughout the soil and it's a beautiful chocolate brown.

It's January 18th. Pepita 1927-2006. Feliz cumpleanos mami.......