The only thing I was worried about was my very tropical Jamaican Cherry and Scarlet Mombin trees, both very tropical and WAY too big to cover. But it seems that both the leaves and fruits and blooms are just fine. My "Estrella' form of chaya has lost most of the leaves, but the stems look okay. It looks like no effect on my Jaboticaba tree. Here are pics from yesterday of the Jamaican Cherry and Scarlet Mombin tree.

Here in my south Tampa yard I had immediate foliar damage on uncovered tomatoes, delayed minor damage on papaya and banana leaves, almost no damage on even unprotected nasturtiums, surprisingly NO damage on my two yellow passion fruit vines or seemingly on my Jamaican Cherry or Scarlet Mombin. The roses and winter veggies loved the 2 inches of rain followed by the chill. But folks I know in Seminole Heights and other northern parts of Tampa reported they lost even covered tomatoes and extensive damage to bananas and other plants. Josh at H.E.A.R.T. in Lake Wales reported 26 but they used sprinkling and tarps to protect things. Me and others saw weeds killed, and I think a lot of us saw major frost damage on sweet potato vines, but the tubers are underground. No damage to my citrus trees and avocado.

My last application of Nolo Bait gave me near total control in my yard and Gerry's yard east of me for almost a dozen years, then broke down badly last early spring...they even denuded a LARGE supposedly toxic Cuban jatropha! Of course ANYTHING in the Amaryllid family were taken right down to the bulb. Here is my new pound that arrived yesterday from Arbico Organics. It is quite expensive so I will do like I did a dozen years ago...wait until young ones hatch, then place a spoonful of Nolo Bait in a jar lid and place at the base of what they are climbing on. They LOVE the bran bait and eat it versus a plant, then cannibalism takes over to spread the disease, including the new eggs that survivors lay. I will keep it in the fridge the way I've done my BT Dipel for years too to insure the protozoa Nosema locustae survive. It is made in Colorado and has a fairly short shelf life when not refrigerated.

I learned about "log mulching" in dry Denver from Bill Mollison's first book, and there I used it to create a damp habitat with a small pond beneath my green ash tree. Here about 4 years ago a friend of a friend dropped off a lot of logs of oak and Brazillian Pepper, and I arranged them to create two large beds out front that previously just contained a few drought resistant roses in what had been chronically dry soil. They do wonders to help the soil behind them retain both rain water plus the 6 or so times per year I water both beds. Plus they make neat mushrooms and the soil beneath them is teeming with earthworms. Not only have the roses and papayas behind them have benefited, each winter they support a lush crop of nasturtiums, and in summer a crop of Cosmos sulfurea. When the logs finally do collapse I'll add them to the soil in both beds and try to get more logs sections to continue the effort. One bed also have quite a few Chia (Salvia hispanica) that for a few months I mistakenly thought was the VERY unlikely self sown seedling of the interspecies Salvia hybrid 'Indigo Spires, which is sterile.

Andy Firk that Everbearing Mulberry you gave me is now two years old and keeps on harboring constantly a very severe infestation of some kind of scale. So I just now took a bunch of scale-encrusted cuttings; they are in the shade while I boil a batch of neem leaf tea to soak them in once it is cool before I stick them. I will also spray the parent shrub with Neem leaf tea as rubbing alcohol gave me mixed results. I will keep folks posted.

Nice cool front on February 5 here in south Tampa.....2.5 inches of rain so far!

Wow...I saw a BIG flash of white in my front yard....a hawk on the bird bath! I took the first lousy pic through the window, but it let me get within eight feet there and on the rebar for a rambling rose! It stayed put until Cracker let out a yap when he heard me say "hi" to the bird. What a treat!