It’s not supposed to freeze here. Isn’t that the whole point of living (somewhat) close to the coast in California? I thought so. That’s what I signed up for. But apparently, I was wrong. While we were in San Diego over Christmas and New Year’s, our garden froze. It wasn’t a slight dip below 32 degrees. No, it went way down into the mid-twenties two nights in a row, instantly killing just about everything.

I thought about taking a picture of the tomato plants before we headed out. They hadn’t been flowering much, but the had grown like weeds. I figured by spring they’d be monsters ready to produce a massive harvest. Now they won’t produce anything.

We picked about 15 big eggplants before the trip, and left another 10 or so on the plant (it was already a monster). The 10 we left in San Jose didn’t like being freeze-dried.

There were only a few peppers and tomatoes ready when we left, and we picked all but one or two of each. Like the eggplants, they didn’t make it through the arctic blast.

But the artichoke plant is loving life. Who knew? And all the herbs in the front yard seem pretty happy too. So it’s not a total loss.