Yesterday we planted about 50 transplants into the Grocery Row Gardens.

Some of the potatoes were dying back, so we dug them and replaced them with peppers, sweet potatoes, watermelons, Jamaican sorrel and some zinnias. We also filled other gaps. It’s been dry, so the growth hasn’t been what it should be.

We also lost a lot of the cassava we planted last year. Some is coming back, but we had a night down to 17 degrees, and we also had a lot of rain this winter, and between the two, many of the cassava we were overwintering rotted instead of sleeping until spring.

I think part of the reason we were more successful with cassava when we lived in N/C Florida zone 8b/9a was due to the consistently dry winters. The wet winters here also killed our moringa. The combination of freezes with rain do a number on tropical plants. Dry and cold is much more survivable.

Unfortunately, we get dry weather when the plants need it and rain when they don’t.

I ran into someone from Loxahatchee, Florida a month ago and told him how much I envied his climate.

“You should move down!” he replied. “There’s still acreage in my area!”

“I know,” I said, “but I’d have to pay millions for the amount of space I have here!”

This is what you get for $400k in that area:

I have a mortgage significantly less than the price of that place… and we have 15 acres here. And more house, plus outbuildings.

Granted, I could grow a much wider variety of species down there, but we’d be crammed in. And what would we do with all those old cars?

Civilization is collapsing… and everything is ridiculously expensive. It’s the way things are for now. If I could afford South Florida, I would be tempted. It’s just not in the cards right now. And even if I had the income, I would think twice about moving to a highly populated area.

Meanwhile, the garden needs more work – I gotta get started. The sun is getting hot.

“In all things give thanks!”