The Haphazard Gardener

Starting the Fall Garden

2011-07-05T11:10:00.007-05:00

I know, I know. It's been more than a year since I blogged about my garden. Due to some health issues my husband has been experiencing for the past 6 or 7 months, we didn't get to do much spring gardening. We did get some garlic and taters, but I didn't have time to blog about them. However, the husband's health issues have been addressed, he's feeling better, I'm getting more rest, and we're back in the saddle for the fall!

I've never really "done" a fall garden because you have to start it in the dead of summer when the temps are over 100º and it's miserable to be outside during the daylight hours. Really, who can garden in the dark when it's not so hot?? On top of the miserable heat, we've had NO measurable rain for weeks.

I still have lots of bell peppers that I managed to plant in the spring. Of course, they didn't get planted "on time" so they've not done much until recently. As long as I can keep them watered, they should do well through the fall. I think I planted something like 14 or 16 transplants. Less than half of them survived the squirrels and the birds. Grumble, grumble.... I have 1 Bullnose Red Pepper, grown from seeds saved from last year's crop, some orange peppers, golden peppers (yellow), and chocolate (purple) peppers.

These are the chocolate peppers. They're supposed to be really sweet, but since I've yet to taste one, I can't say for sure. The plant is a nice size with lots of branches and a sturdy trunk. It's loaded with babies, too! I counted 5 babies on one plant yesterday and that was just at a glance from one direction!

The husband is going to erect some kind of shade thing for them so they don't get sun scald. The one red bullnose pepper that I have already has a touch of sunscald, so we'll have to use it soon.

Last Thursday, I sowed cantaloupe seeds. They germinated in 2 days! We'll grow the same variety we grew last summer, Honey Rock. I think every single seed I planted has germinated, even the ones I dropped and couldn't find so they wouldn't germinate in the wrong place! LOL

This picture is from yesterday. Today, all the leaves are open and they're up above the straw. Soon, I'll have to thin them to 3-4 plants per hill.

Until next time, have fun playing in the dirt!

Garden Update

2010-06-27T11:36:00.007-05:00

We've been so busy harvesting and shelling black-eyed peas (pink eye purple hulls, actually) picking tomatoes and okra, and watching the progress of the cantaloupes that I've not had time to update. Not to mention that work really hinders my computer time!

It's been hot, hot, HOT here in my neck of the woods for the past couple of weeks. We finally got about 1/4" of rain a couple of days ago. We're more than 5" behind in our rainfall for the year. I think it's going to take something big, like a hurricane to come ashore (unfortunately), to change the weather pattern. I'm so ready for cooler temps and rain and it's just the end of June! I'm usually not feeling this way until the middle to end of July.

The Contender bush beans gave up the ghost this past week. They were really starting to look stressed because of the temps, so on Wednesday, the husband and I harvested all the beans and then yanked out the plants.

We ended up with a mop bucket full of beans.
The partial harvest for the day of the beans.

Out of our bucket full of beans, we got 3 quart sized freezer bags full of cut green beans. I did blanch them for 3 mins in boiling water followed by 3 mins in a cold water bath before bagging and freezing.

The pink eye purple hull black eyed peas are going crazy! They are so loaded with pods it's not even funny. For the past week, we've been harvesting pods, shelling them, and then putting them in a freezer bag in the freezer. I'm cooking them TONIGHT!

Bloom and the first pods.
Green pods
Ripe pods (purple hulls)
Fresh shelled. See the pink eyes?

We have 2 mounds of cantaloupes. The first mound has already set 3 fruits. The largest fruit has started to develop its webbing, so it should be ripe and ready soon.

Still a bit on the green side, but you can see the webbing starting to form on the skin. Soon....

The second mound of cantaloupes is in an area that receives more shade than the first mound. Those plants have finally started running and sending out both male and female flowers. I saw a couple of potential melons this morning that look like they've been pollinated. Here's one of the potentials on my watch list.

Lastly, the watermelon patch is really filling in. I think there's some kind of fungus among us, so I'm researching that and trying to figure out what it is and how to treat it.

The watermelon patch before straw was put down.

First potential watermelon. It's teeny tiny, but located just to the right of the black edging between the two leaves.

That's it for today. Next time, I'll show off my cucumbers!

Harvests

2010-06-16T21:18:00.005-05:00

It seems like so much has been happening in the garden lately! I'm so tired of the hot temps already. We usually have these temps in July, not in June. We're also lacking precipitation. We're 5" behind on the rainfall totals for the year. However, there's good news in the garden! We've been harvesting for the past week or so.

Today's harvest of a handful of cherry tomatoes from our volunteer cherry tomato plants, a few okra that are now in the freezer, and a lemon cucumber.

The other night, I went out and picked about a pound of Contender bush beans, a few strawberries, and a couple of okra. This was our first harvest of beans and they were really tasty! Husband put the okra somewhere, supposedly in the freezer, but I've not found them yet! LOL

This is the first year I've grown lemon cucumbers. I didn't really know what to expect, but I thought I'd give them a try. I'm in love!! What a tasty little thing and perfect for just one or two people! It's about the size of a medium sized apple, grows green, and then turns a light shade of yellow and gets stripes from the top down when it's ripe. There are little spiny things on the outside of the skin, but if you use a vegetable scrubber on them, they'll come off. The skin is tasty and the inside is nice and crisp!

Here's the inside. It's so pretty, I think!

We pulled the garlic up on Sunday. It hadn't fallen over, but it was all brown and dead looking, so out it came. This is elephant garlic passed along to me from a gardening friend who's been growing and passing it along for about 20 years now. All I can say is that the fully mature bulb is HUGE! It's about the size of a softball.

Here's my haul. The smaller bulb on the left is a 2-year bulb. I'll let it cure, then plant it again in the fall. Next year at harvest time, it'll be the size of the larger bulbs on the right. The 2 bulbs on the right were grown from full size pods last fall. They are full size cloves of garlic. We'll use one of the bulbs for cooking and one of them we'll plant in late September-early October so we'll have more full-grown garlic bulbs next June.

If you'll look at the picture of the garlic on the right, you'll notice that the outer paper husk of the garlic is not there. That's because we waited too long to harvest. These cloves are still viable, but without the paper, they are more susceptible to disease and pests. We'll have to use these first. They need to dry for about a month where it's not too dry and out of the sun. We've brushed the dirt off them, but not used water on them. Right now, they're on my washing machine, but we'll soon hang them outside under the carport where they'll be out of the sun, but can take advantage of the warmth and high humidity.

These are the small bulbules that grow on the bottom of the larger bulb of garlic. These are 2-year pods and this is what we planted most of last fall. They have a very hard outer shell that takes awhile to break down and germinate. The smaller bulb in the previous picture is what was grown out of one of these bulbules. I need to clean these up, let them cure, then they'll be ready for sharing and planting!

Until next time, I'll leave you with a pic of one of my garden visitors.

Today in the Garden

2010-06-09T13:26:00.007-05:00

We have a lovely lemon cucumber growing.

The Contender bush beans are getting ready. They were flopped over, so the husband has been working today to get them "contained" in a more orderly fashioned.

The black-eyed peas have started blooming.

I spied my first couple of maters ripening...finally! Now I just need to keep them safe from the birds. Need to put up bird netting. Oh good! Something else to do outside in the heat.

Lastly, we released our first Black Swallowtail butterfly grown from a caterpillar this morning!

I have one caterpillar getting ready to pupate and form a chrysalis, 1 in the third instar stage and then I discovered 2 first instar stage cats this morning in one of my containers.

Excitement in the Garden!

2010-05-26T18:09:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I found baby Black Swallowtail cats on our dill plants. They were teeny tiny, much smaller than they appear in these pics, and weird looking. I've never seen Black Swallowtail cats, so I had no idea what they were! Before I could rescue them, though, the wasps got them. I was so upset!

This morning, as I was coming back inside from my morning stroll through the garden and checking on the tomato cages DH has built, I found a Black Swallowtail cat that had evidently escaped or survived the wasp attack! Woohoo! I was so excited! I showed it to DH and told him, "We HAVE TO rescue this guy!"

The husband had an appointment and had to leave, so I found a wide-mouthed plastic gallon jug, cut the parsley and put the sprigs in some water in old medicine bottles, and put the guy in the jug. I cut some holes in the top for ventilation until we can get some screen mesh put on the top. I need to get a stick for the cat in case he wants to make his cocoon on it. Otherwise, he'll probably use the screen mesh.

He's currently residing on my washing machine, but I think he'll probably be moved back outside to a shady spot. Stay tuned for updates!

The Flower's are a Bloomin'!

2010-05-06T17:57:00.004-05:00

The front flower bed by our driveway is coming alive with color. In the past couple of days, I've added several new plants, which I'll profile later on at some point in time.

The gaillardia (Blanketflower) has come back in full force. I gave many of these away at the plant swap this past weekend and I've pulled some and put in the compost pile. There are many self-seeded plants in my flower bed as well.

This scabiosa daisy has really put on a show this year. I really wish this thing flowered all summer, but alas, it doesn't.

Phlox pilosa (Prairie phlox) was added last spring. It's a wonderful bloomer and the flowers have a very soft scent to them. It's most prevalent in the early morning and late evening hours when it's not so hot.

Here's a better pic of the little flowers that can range from pink to purple.

This Sweet William was also a new addition to the garden last year. It acted as a perennial last year, but I'm not sure if it really is. I absolutely LOVE the color and the long-lasting flowers. I hope to collect seeds from this to plant more next year. By the way, that's a Prairie Coreopsis sticking out from the middle of the plant!

The poppies have performed beautifully this year. I've pulled out several of the little ones that have already bloomed, but I'm waiting for the bigger ones to go to seed before pulling them.

The Brazos Penstemon is still blooming. It's gotten top heavy and some are laying down. The color is so pretty and the flowers are so dainty. Last year, when I didn't know what I was doing, I collected a seed pod. Threw the seeds into one of my winter sowing containers and they've sprouted! Now I'll need to transplant them to bigger containers and then plant them in the fall.

What's Going on in the Garden

2010-05-04T15:29:00.016-05:00

Things are finally picking up in the veggie garden. We've finally gotten some steady warm weather and the veggies are thriving. I think I can safely say that spring is here and summer's on our doorstep.

This is the last radish of the ones I planted in March. I'm letting it go to seed. The radish itself is HUGE!

The broccoli is also going to seed. From the looks of it, I'm going to have TONS of seeds!

Both of the larger garlic plants have thrown up bloom stalks. I have cut them off so that the energy goes to the bulb and produces larger bulbs.

The companion planted bed is growing well. This bed has cucumbers, which you can't see well, onions, carrots, and volunteer tomatoes in it. We finally got it all mulched with oak leaves from our front yard.

Lookie what I found on one of the maters?!? How exciting is this?!?

I planted out my little orange bell peppers last week. Some are doing well and others have bit the dust.

The cukes have finally come up and are doing well. The squirrels kept digging up the little hills where I'd planted the seeds. Everyday I was having to stick seeds back down in the ground. It's one of the few times I wish I'd had a pea shooter or bb gun!

We have black-eyed peas! They only took 3 days to germinate and we didn't pre-soak them.

A few of the okra seeds have also started germinating.

The bush beans are also starting to germinate.

My lone jalapeno plant went into the ground last week, too. I traded 2 away at the plant swap and I'm giving 3 away to friends.

The dill is doing great! One of my plants has set a flower pod. I think this is called a "crown", but I'm not sure. I expect flowers soon and then some seeds! It's really been a nice plant and a wonderful scent to have in the garden this spring.

Lastly, I scored 3 blackberry bushes for my berry lovin' husband at the plant swap. One of the guys in the group was digging his berry bushes up to get rid of them, so I told him I'd take them They came with some young fruit. I know nothing about growing blackberries, so this is strictly the husband's project.

Spring Has Arrived (Pic heavy)

2010-04-11T18:05:00.005-05:00

You wouldn't know it with the drop in temps we've had this past week, but spring has definitely arrived in the garden. I've spent about 30 mins or so each night pulling weeds in the flower beds and trying to ID seedlings. I've been successful with some, but most I have no idea what they are! In the first flower bed I started I am now to the point where I'm ready to move plants and rearrange things so the shorter plants are closer to the front and the taller plants are towards the back. I have a few plants I'm still waiting on to come back to life, especially the Esperanza plant. It's always the last thing to come back, but I'm not so sure it survived the extremely cold winter we had. Here are some pics from my walk about the garden beds this morning.

The butterfly weed showed up last week sometime. Hooray!

My Brazos Penstemon has really taken off since the late winter. I can't wait to see this thing bloom.

This Balloon Flower will be moved. This is the first year I've gotten a volunteer in addition to the mother plant.

This sedum will bloom a pretty yellow. It's planted in a small Weber grill!

The Texas Gold Columbines are starting to bloom. Love these flowers! The plant gets pretty scraggly looking in the hot summer weather, but they go crazy in the winter and really start growing like crazy.

The gaillardia (Blanket flower) is starting to get its flowers on! This thing will bloom non-stop till fall.

I thought I'd lost my Four Nerve Daisies this winter, but they survived!! Here they are with their happy little flowers.

This dianthus (Sweet William) has been waiting for a year to bloom. Finally put out flower buds and started blooming this past week. Love the color!

My Cranesbill Geranium is going like gangbusters. I have it in a pot, but I'm going to divide it and transplant it out in the flower bed by the front curb. It loves the sun and will survive the winters.

My little Cowpen Daisy has come back from the dead of winter as well. Sooooo excited about this!

May Night Salvia does so well in my flower bed. It's a bee attractant like none other in my garden.

Pincusion Daisy (scabiosa daisy) is putting out its pretty pink flowers.

A look across the flower bed to see the height of the poppy in relation to the pincushion daisy.

I Hilled

2010-04-02T19:42:00.007-05:00

Some of my potato plants were getting tall enough to progress to the next stage, hilling. This helps the potatoes produce more potatoes. I'm using leaves as my hilling medium, but you can use compost, soil, straw, or mulch. Basically, you pile your hilling medium up the stems of the plants, leaving only about 2" or so of leaves showing.

Hilling has many purposes. One, it cools the soil, which here in Texas is very much needed. Second, it creates space for tuber development. All tubers (spuds) form at the same level as the seed piece and higher, so you are also creating more growing space. Third, it keeps the sun's rays from the tubers. Exposure to the sun causes 'greening' of the potatoes, which often taste bitter when eaten. Fourth, it gives you something to do with all those leaves and dried grass clippings in your yard. Fifth, it helps with drainage and prevents weed growth. Lastly, it makes harvesting easier since the tubers are in the leaves, straw, dead grass clippings, compost or whatever you use.

Here are the first containers with leaves. I only hilled around the plants that were 6"-8" tall. I covered the stems and any leaves at the lower level. If you're overly zealous, you can clip off the lower leaves. I am lazy, so I didn't do that.

We already need to add either another layer of sides or some kind of wire caging to the box so we can add more leaves!

Same planter, different angle. In this pic, you can see that I have too much plant showing and need to add more leaves. I know what I'll be doing on Easter Sunday! LOL

The big blue planter. One of these plants is growing like it's on steroids! Couldn't completely cover the bottom with leaves because of the new little shoot poking its head out.

Junior sprout!

This plant is appropriately hilled--for now.

I'll continue hilling until the plants start blooming and stop growing. Then they'll start making tubers!!

For more information on potato growing, check out the growing guide on Ronningers Potato Farm's website. Scroll down the page to the *.pdf documents under the form for the paper catalog.

An Update

2010-03-31T16:34:00.007-05:00

I planted my first winter sown container out on Sunday. I could hardly walk on Monday because of it, but it's nice to be planting and playing in the dirt again. Sweet Pea "Matucana" planted on a trellis in the back flower bed. The soil in the bed was so wet it wasn't even funny! We have very heavy clay soil and when I dug a hole for the transplant my trowel, the dirt just came up in a big glob. Then, getting the plants out of my jug in one piece complete with roots was a challenge. I ended up filling the holes with some dirt from the veggie bed that has had some amendments added into it.

The potatoes are doing great! With the warmer temps we've been having the past couple of weeks, they're really starting to take off. Some of the containers are continuing to sprout, but they've all got wonderful growth going on.

Red Norlands They are some of the bigger sprouts, but they also had the most growth on them when I planted them out.

Banana FingerlingsThey are the most numerous since I had so many pieces. If I grow them again next year, I'll only plant 1/4 lb. in a container since they produced the most pieces.

Kennebecs and Purple VikingsThese had the fewest pieces planted and some of the Kennebecs didn't even have growth on them, just eyes formed. I noticed a new sprout on one side of the container today. It's hard to see it in this pic, but I'm excited to see another sprout. I don't remember which variety I planted on which side of the container, so it's going to be fun come harvest time! LOL

Sprout(It's in the dark portion of the pic on the left and you can hardly see it. LOL)

The Wando Peas aren't doing so hot. I think the birds are feasting on the sprouts once the seeds germinate. DH planted more seeds yesterday, so we'll see if we get more sprouts. I'm thinking of putting down some tulle or bird netting over them to deter the birds and squirrels, too. Here are a couple of sprouts that have survived.

Notice the wilted, dead-looking sprout in the upper left hand corner of this pic? This is what's been happening to them.

The onions are doing okay. All but 4 or 5 of the purple onions I planted have died. The 1015s are doing great, though! Their bed is being taken over by henbit, so it's going to be my evening weeding project for the next couple of nights.

The carrots have finally started germinating. Not sure what the problem has been with them, but the packages do say it could take as many as 3 weeks to germinate. I think it's been about that long.

The winter sowing project continues. Almost all of the earliest sown jugs have sprouted. The latter ones have not, except for 1 or 2. There's also some really warm weather plants in those, though, so they may not sprout til it really warms up.

The lettuces are starting to bolt. It's just about past their time, but they've done great since last fall!

Things are Moving Along!

2010-03-15T21:21:00.008-05:00

Spring is such a fun time in the garden. It's a time of renewal and hope. Things that have been laying dormant for the winter are coming back to life and new things are starting to sprout.

Yesterday, we planted a row and a half of peas (snap peas). We're trying "Wando" peas this year. Wandos are an OP and heirloom variety of peas that seem to be more adapted to our area. They take the cooler temps better and also can stand up to some of the warmer temps we get in late spring as well. In between the rows of peas, I planted some dill, leftover from last year's winter sowing! LOL

The white forks mark the rows, btw. The dill plants are those frilly green things you can barely see. The trellis is invisible. Actually, it's leaning up against the storage shed in the backyard. DH has yest to put it up.

Anyhoo, we planted 2 peas per hole, 3" apart. I plopped the seeds down and the DH followed behind me and buried them. He was like a little boy playing in the dirt, complete with sound effects!

After we did the peas, I ventured to the far back flower bed to clean it up, weed, and find a spot to plant my sweet peas. Many of the plants I planted out there last year survived and are in the process of rejuvenating. The (dis)Obedient plant multiplied like a rabbit! I started with 2 little plants and I now have this blanket of plants, which will look pretty when they bloom, but sheesh! I didn't need THIS many!

I have decided to trade some away and to plant some in the little strip o' flower bed under the kitchen window and possibly along the side driveway. We'll see how that goes!

My Passalong Pink lily. I really hope this thing blooms this year! I've had it for 3 years now and it's not bloomed yet. :>(

You may have to click the pic to see this one, but I am just beyond excited that this Frostweed is coming back. It has one very little, teeny tiny green leaf on it! Just color me happy!

This is my Cowpen Daisy. I love this plant and I'm so glad it's coming back!

Houston! We have taters sprouting!! Yesterday, I discovered my first taters peeking through the dirt in one of the planters. I *think* it was the Red Norlands, but I could be wrong. If I remember correctly, we planted about 6 seed taters in the box and I've already seen 4 sprouts, but there's one more coming up. Today, when I went to check on things after I got home from work, I found sprouts in all the other tater containers as well!! Boing! Boing! (That would be me bouncing up and down with happiness and excitement.)

Sweetness!

Here's one just starting to break the surface and poke it's little bud out!

Lastly, the lettuce bed, which also contains a few spinach plants and a cabbage, is flourishing in the warmer temps and spring rains.

A Stroll Through the Gardens Today

2010-03-10T19:40:00.004-06:00

It was an absolutely perfect day today, after the rain and hail moved out of the area. The temperature was in the 70s, the sun was shining, there was a bit of a breeze, and all was well in my world. Around mid-day, I took a stroll through my gardens to see what was going on and what was coming back to life, what weeds needed to be pulled (got a bumper crop this year!), and what new seeds had sprouted in my winter sowing jugs. Here are a few, okay many, pics from my little excursion.

My winter sown jugs of tomatoes and bell peppers.

A strawberry bloom on one of the strawberry plants the DH dug out of the bed leftover from last year.

Radish seedlings poking up. I planted these last week. :>)

Found this bird's nest in our holly bush! Not sure if it's currently in use or not.

Jug eyeball! Those are self-heal sprouts in there!

A baby toad lily! I just planted these last year, 1 little plant in 4 different places in the front bed. I've already got at least 2 new sprout on each plant!

This Brazos Penstemon has doubled in size over the winter. I have a total of 6 of these and they've already started producing clumps. Yippee!

One of my May Night Salvias coming back from the dead. I was really thinking I'd lost these this winter.

Poppies! Need I say more?

John Fanick Phlox. I only had one measly little stem on this last year and already I see about 3 or 4 stems!

The Great Potato Project

2010-03-04T15:03:00.006-06:00

It's finally stopped snowing and freezing enough during the day that I have been able to get out in the garden and PLANT! If you've read some of my previous posts regarding potatoes, you'll remember that this year, I'm growing potatoes for the first time. Because we have such icky soil here, I decided to grow them in containers after watching this video from the Farmer's Almanac website.

While I'm not using a trash can, I am using some large containers.

You can clearly see the smaller of the containers in this pic. The big blue square thing at the top of the pic is the 2nd container. It has 2 varieties of potatoes planted in it. The smaller containers each have one variety.

DH made the "sides" on the smaller containers, then we'll add chicken wire (poultry wire) to the top as we start going up with growth of the plant and the potatoes. Because the blue thing on the bottom has these HUGE indentations in the bottom where the legs are formed, we placed a layer of leaves on the bottom of the container to fill up the holes and to keep the subsequent dirt from falling through the vent/drainage holes. We then put about 6" of ammended soil in the container. I lined up my taters that I'd cut and dipped in wood ash over the weekend.

We then shoveled another 4" or so of dirt on top of the potato pieces and topped it all off with a very thin layer of leaves, just to help keep insulated against the still cool temps at night and to keep the soil from drying out too quickly during the day.

One of the really stupid things I did several weeks ago was move the potatoes from labeled containers to the egg cartons without labeling them. I just knew I'd be able to remember which variety of potato was which! Ummm....not so much! So now, I've planted my potatoes and the only ones I'm really sure about are the Kennebecs and the fingerlings. I have no idea which are the Reds and which are the Purple Vikings. The Kennebecs are planted on one side of the big container with what I think are the Purple Vikings. There's Reds in this small container (I think) and the fingerlings are in the other small container. Should provide some excitement come harvest time!

The Great Winter Sowing Project, 2010 edition

2010-02-21T16:53:00.003-06:00

Last year for the first time, I tried winter sowing. It was a huge success, so this year, I'm expanding my efforts to include herbs and veggies. Today, I planted tomatoes, 20-something varieties of heirlooms!

One group almost ready to go to the garden cart. They've been planted, but not taped up.

The garden cart loaded with tomato jugs.

The winter sowing area of the yard. There are some annuals, perennials, and herbs in addition to the maters in those jugs.

I would've planted more, but I ran out of prepared jugs. I have 2 more 33 gal. bags full of milk, vinegar, and distilled water jugs, just have to get the DH to cut the drain holes, vent/water holes and then cut them for planting. I still have bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, and lots of perennials to plant!

Potato Update

2010-02-17T16:32:00.004-06:00

We have survived more freezing temps and SNOW, a foot of the white stuff, and it's time to get busy planting the taters. However, the Handy Husband promised to make me a couple more potato planters. It's only happening in my imagination..... Soooooo, the taters are hanging out on top of my hutch in the kitchen. I moved them to cardboard egg cartons so they could get more air circulation. I took them down today to check on them and this is what they looked like.

The Purple Vikings (right) and Red Norlands (on the left)

The Banana Fingerlings (in the background) and the Kennebecs (foreground)

Green growth is good!

Twins on the Purple Vikings

I hope to get them cut in the next day or so and in their containers by the weekend. I must motivate the husband first, though.

Potato Update and Onions

2010-01-26T09:59:00.006-06:00

The potatoes are flourishing in their new settings. I check them occasionally to make sure they're not getting soggy or rotting. So far, so good!

Red Norland

Kennebecs and Purple Vikings

Banana Fingerlings

My "walrus" banana fingerling

But, apparently, the best place for potatoes to start budding out is in the basket where I keep the potatoes from the grocery store!

Another new veggie in the garden this year is onions. We tried, very unsuccessfully last year to grow them. We planted them wayyyyyyyy too late and they gave up the ghost before we really even got started. Here are the onions waiting to go out. I have 2 bunches of red burgundy and 3 bunches of 1015Ys, "the" sweet Texas onion. Their packed in some dirt and I water them about every other day. Didn't want to leave them without water as they'd die. Still a few weeks away from planting time, so I gotta keep them babies alive!

In other news, the seeds are sorted and my catalog of what we're growing is made. I'm still looking for a few things, like a different okra variety and possibly another variety of pole beans. Other than that, I think we're set! To see my spreadsheet, you can visit it on Google docs. Stephanie's Spring 2010 Plant List Once you get there, just click on the blue links at the bottom to go to either herbs, flowers, or veggies.

Potatoes

2010-01-20T11:43:00.005-06:00

Gardening season is getting ready to fire up around here. I'm so excited! One of the first things we'll plant are potatoes. This will be my first year growing potatoes, so I didn't order too many (1/2 lb. of 4 varieties). I'm also fairly clueless about potatoes, other than how to eat them, so this will definitely be a learning experience for me.

Around New Year's I ordered my potatoes from Ronniger Potato Farm. My planting date is Valentine's Day, so I requested my taters to be shipped the week of January 17th (this week). My potatoes arrived the first week of January during the Deep Freeze! They came wrapped in mesh bags clearly labeled with the variety. I ordered Red Norland, Kennebec, Purple Viking, and Banana fingerlings.

According to the Gardening Gurus over at Dave's Garden, you're supposed to take the seed potatoes out of the bags and let them start growing. (I grow my store-bought potatoes VERY well, so I'm an expert at this part! LOL) I put them in some kind of container and labeled each container with the variety so when I go to plant them, I'll know what I'm putting where.

Initially, I put them in the enclosed sun room where they'd get lots of warm air and sunshine. I have since found out that I should put them in a place that gets indirect light and not too warm temps as the warmer temps will cause them to rot faster. I don't think you can plant rotten potatoes. You can however, put them in the compost pile. Been there, done that!

Here was my setup yesterday out in the sunroom:

And today, on the kitchen counters. Please excuse the mess.

As you can see from the pics, some are already starting to sprout. That's great news!

When I plant them in a few weeks, I'll be planting some of them in this container. DH originally designed and built it to be a compost bin, but that's never happened, so I'm going to put it to good use. It's made from some kind palettes that they used to get where he worked. It has plenty of drain holes and ventilation. I think it's going to be perfect!

He just told me today that he's got more of these blue things in his old van, so he's going to build more containers for me! I didn't know he'd been holding out on me. :)

The Lettuce Bed, Cole Crop, & Garlic

2009-12-30T14:33:00.006-06:00

Sometime in the fall, I planted several different types of lettuce seeds, a couple of cabbage seeds, and some spinach seeds. I had gotten 2 varieties of lettuce at a plant swap and the rest I ordered from either Cherry Gal or Victory Seed Company . They survived being transplanted and they've survived freezing temps and snow. It's done very well for us and now we're thinking of letting one plant of each variety go to seed. It's wonderful to have fresh lettuce during the winter months. As a matter of fact, I need to harvest some for tonight's dinner.

Endive (foreground) & Parris Island Cos

Buttercrunch

Red Rapids

Grandpa Admire's

Bronze Lettuce

Black Seeded Simpson

Craquerelle DuMidi

Kentucky Limestone

Lollo Rosso

Tango

January King Cabbage

Monnopa Spinach

Garlic

The Final Haul

2009-12-02T23:19:00.004-06:00

We woke to SNOW this morning in my little part of North Texas. What a huge surprise!! It didn't stay for long, thank goodness. The snow was pretty much melted by noon and the streets and rooftops dried up by nightfall.

It didn't get down to freezing so all the veggies still out on the plants were okay, but when we watched the late news this evening, the forecast was "at or below freezing temps" for tonight, so DH and I donned our winter coats, picking baskets, hand held pruners, flashlights, and headed out the door. In the dark. To harvest the rest of the maters and peppers. This is what we came back with.

Most of the maters we picked aren't ripe. There's a couple of yellow tomatoes in the pile, some Green Zebras, and some regular red tomatoes, either Ponderosa or something else. We'll have maters on every windowsill in our house!

So long, garden of 2009! Hello garden of 2010 starting January 1st!

Liftoff in the Garlic Bed!

2009-11-01T14:18:00.005-06:00

At the beginning of October, I went to the North Central Texas Fall Round-Up of folks from the Dave's Garden community. It was a cool, rainy day and not nearly the turnout as we've had at previous getogethers. One of the sweet ladies, who's a Master Gardener and extremely knowledgeable in Texas Native plants gave everyone a snack size bag of garlic pods to plant. I was so excited because I wanted to grow garlic this year, but our financial situation has kept us from being able to purchase any garlic to plant. The bag contained 2 large bulbs that will be ready to harvest next year and tons of little "bulblets" that will not be ready for 2 years.

A couple of weeks ago, I planted the garlic. We (DH did most of the hard labor) dug up the small bed in the backyard that had previously grown green beans, watermelon, pumpkins, and a rogue tomato plant. We added some compost from our compost pile, some llama manure (also secured at the round-up), and some mushroom compost to the soil that was already in the bed. Then we planted!

You can see the size difference between the 2 pod sizes in the pic above. The ones at the top of the two rows are the ones that will be ready to harvest next June or July. The smaller ones, with a tougher covering, will take longer to pop out and longer to reach maturity.

So I planted these on a Sunday. The next week, we had cooler temps and 8" of rain! Then the following week, we got more rain. I was beginning to panic, thinking the little bulbs had either rotted or were planted too deeply. Then, during my walk about the gardens this morning, I discovered LIFE in the garlic beds!!

There are 2 little bulbs poking their heads off. These are the ones that were bigger and will be ready next year. Yesterday, I planted the remaining 12 small bulblets in a different bed just in case these didn't make it. Now, I just have to find a spot for the 4 o'clocks I got!

Early Fall Views

2009-10-28T19:50:00.004-05:00

Everything seems to be enjoying the rainy weather. Now, if we could just get some warmer temps and a stretch of sunshine, it would be perfect!

This is What Happens When...

2009-10-06T22:16:00.003-05:00

...you don't have proper support for your tomato plants...then you find our they're heirlooms and grow to 10' tall.

...you get 8" of rain in a 5-day period and above mentioned tomatoes decide to set roots. The problem is they're 6' from any type of soil.

...you forget to empty your winter sowing containers and after 8" of rain discover seedlings have sprouted after lying dormant during the 100º+ summer temps.

...you don't turn your compost pile on a regular basis.

...you have 10,001 cherry tomato plants STILL producing.

...your winter sown plants that you've babied all summer finally decide to bloom!

It's Party Time!

2009-09-06T15:06:00.006-05:00

At least this little girl pumpkin thinks so!! Things have cooled off, my back is cooperating better, and I'm feeling like getting out in the gardens again. Thank God for my husband! He's been diligently caring for the garden, watering, treating for bugs and worms, and harvesting the veggies. I knew there was a reason I married him! LOL However, the heat and dog days of summer really did a number on the veggie garden. Everything except the blasted okra and the jalapenos quit producing. We pampered the tomatoes, the bell peppers, and the watermelons through the worst of it and now we've got some fruit growing again. I'm surprised how well most things like the warmer side of cool temps!

Here's most of today's harvest. There are still a few more cherry tomatoes out there that I need to bring in, but I was tired of fighting the bird netting so I decided I'd collect them this evening.

Some of these jalapenos are HUGE! I noticed that when the temps got really hot, the jalapenos were smaller and turned red much faster than when the temps were more moderate. The larger tomato in the pic is supposed to be a cherry tomato, but that thing's big for a cherry tomato! (They do say everything's bigger in Texas!)

A pretty orange bell pepper enjoying the shade. This might be part of my dinner tonight!

Some cherry tomatoes in various stages of growth.

Our last Sugar Baby melon ripening in the sun.

Our first Moon & Stars watermelon. These finally took off when we pulled out the beans.

Our first full size fall tomato!! It's an Oxheart Orange tomato and I accidentally discovered it yesterday while examining the tomato patch. There's also another little baby growing on the plant as well. I'm so excited as this is the first of the $0.50 each heirloom tomato plants we purchased at a local nursery and planted in late April or May. They're all huge and tall now and I hope they'll produce well during the upcoming fall months.

Here's one of the pumpkin vines in the front flower bed. I didn't realize how long the vines get and how huge the leaves are on a pumpkin vine!! WOW! I have one vine that's at least 10' long and sprawled all over the bed! The second picture is a little girl pumpkin whose flower opened yesterday. I'm waiting to see if she got pollinated. I don't see how she couldn't as there are bumblebees, honey bees, and butterflies all over that bed.

Of Muskmelons and Pumpkins

2009-07-18T22:11:00.007-05:00

I was out checking the melon bed this morning because it has an ant mound or nest in it somewhere, when I lifted the melon that's been laying on top of the bed and it popped off in my hand! Imagine my surprise!! I had read that when melons are ready, they'll slip off the vine, but I wasn't really prepared for them to be ready. I gently tested the other melons to see if they were ready and I ended up with another melon. Here's our total harvest for today:

The melon on the right is the one that unsuspectingly popped off in my hand! We cut into it this evening and had some for dinner. I'm guessing it's a Hale's Best cantaloupe. The other cantaloupe I planted was an Israeli cantaloupe and their flesh is supposed to be green.

Two days ago, on 7/15, I planted 2 hills of pumpkins with 5 seeds in each hill. This morning as I was peeking out my bedroom window, I noticed what appeared to be sprouts on those hills. Upon closer inspection, this is what I found.

One seedling on each hill!! This is the first time I've grown pumpkins, so this is going to be a learning experience for sure!

Some views from the flower bed in the waning evening light for you.

Blanket Flower

Rudbeckia "Herbstonne"

John Fannick Phlox

Today's Harvest & Time to Plant!

2009-07-16T19:34:00.004-05:00

A Sugar Baby watermelon (that may or may not be completely ripe), some Park's Whopper tomatoes, a Ponderosa Pink tomato, some cherry tomatoes, and more okra. We're going to have fried okra tonight and I'm thinking of making a BLT sandwich and using one of those tomatoes, too!!

I'm trying to gear up for the fall garden. I'll tell ya', it's hard to think about anything outside when it's 103º (or hotter) outside! However, now is the time to start planting if you live in north Texas and want a fall garden. Here's what you need to be planting now and in the coming weeks:

Southern Peas...July 1-August 1
Hot Peppers...July 1-July 25
Bell Peppers...July 1-July 25
Potatoes...July 25-August 10
Pumpkins (small)...July 15-August 15

I planted my Sugar Sweet pumpkins yesterday, July 15th, outside in one of the beds in hills. I put 5 seeds per hill, watered with some fertilizer (John's Recipe) and then lightly covered the hills with mulch. I also put mulch, LOTS of mulch, around the base of the hills. The seeds should germinate in 6 or so days. We'll see! Maybe the cooler temps will help keep them alive.

I've got some bell pepper seeds to plant. We're getting a second setting of fruit on the plants we planted in April, so I'm not sowing too many seeds.

I'd like to grow some red potatoes in a garbage can or pile, but I've got to see if I can find some starts. Not exactly sure where to look, so I'll call around and see what I can find.

Some Lessons Learned

2009-07-15T19:08:00.004-05:00

Not every plant will survive a string of 100º plus days. Go ahead and cut your losses. It's less painful that way.

Now then, having said that, the #1 lesson we've learned this spring/summer with our garden is that you MUST install a drip irrigation system OR use soaker hoses to water your plants. Watering by hand just doesn't cut it and watering from overhead can create havoc on your plants. They can develop diseases, suffer from burns on the leaves if the water stays on them, and a host of other things.

Lesson #2: Erect your trellis or support system prior to or at the time of planting. Do not think that you have all the time in the world to do that before the plants really need it. It just doesn't work that way. I have tomato plants with branches falling all over the place because my DH wanted to build his own tomato cages. I'm still waiting for them to be built.

Lesson #3: You can't have enough mulch. Mulch is absolutely essential in Texas. Not only does it help retain moisture and cut down on weeds, it helps cool the soil. If the soil gets too hot, the plants' roots will burn up, thus killing the plant. You can use native pine bark mulch, grass clippings from the yard, or hay. Whatever you use, use it generously. Your plants will love you for it.

Lesson #4: Have a plan. Don't do like we did this year and plant willy-nilly. Make sure you give those zucchini plenty of room to sprawl.

Lesson #5: Keep good records. Not only should you keep a list of what you planted and where, you should also know when you planted it so you know when to start looking for fruit to set and then appropriate harvest time. We were very clueless about this and kept no records this year. We had no idea when stuff should be getting ready to set fruit, much less know how long to wait for a good harvest!

Lesson #6: Be prepared for bugs and disease. Plant it and the bugs will come. Aphids, ants, squash vine borers, tomato hornworms, and a host of other problems. Know if you want to be all organic or if you want to use chemicals and have items on hand to combat the beasts.

Lesson #7: Celebrate the little things, like peppers setting fruit in the hot July temps and tomatoes setting fruit when it's warmer than 92º during the day.

The Heat is Taking a Toll

2009-07-11T17:13:00.008-05:00

It's been over 100º for the past week and the garden is really feeling the heat. Prior to that, the temps were in the upper 90s...a big cool down! Not!! We've had to up our watering just to keep the plants alive. I'm not too sure it's helping the zucchini, though! My poor zucchini plant has been suffering from incomplete pollination as well as getting very, very droopy in the middle of the day. We've been watering it daily. Everything else gets watered every other day. I don't know if the zuke will make it. I told my husband this morning I was just about ready to pull it up.

The watermelons have three almost ripe melons on them, but it looks like some kind of disease has attacked part of the vines. Not sure what has gotten them, but they've stopped producing flowers and the leaves are dying. Once we harvest the three melons, we're going to yank the vines.

The cantaloupes are doing well, but they wilt in the hot afternoon heat as well. There are currently 5 melons on the vines. I thought there were only 4, but I found another one this morning when I was perusing the garden.

The tomatoes have pretty much been wiped out by some disease or something. It could also be the heat. I'm babying my 50 cent heirlooms we got in May and hoping they produce in the fall. The others are still producing, but dying a slow death. I did see one cherry tomato plant that had new babies on it today. One of them was above the bird netting!!

Now remember, the beds are 18" high, the cage/frame on the bed for the tomatoes is approximately 3.5' high with bird netting draped over the top. The baby tomato in the last picture above is about 4" to 6" over the netting. I didn't think maters set fruit when it got to be this hot, but I guess this little (!) plant doesn't know this!

The okra is handling the heat very well. It's continuing to produce a harvest daily. The bell peppers are also doing well, but the fruit is suffering from sunscald on the yellow peppers. They still taste good, but look ugly. The bell peppers are even starting to produce flowers and more baby peppers!

The Harvest Basket

2009-07-08T21:11:00.004-05:00

Shortly after the garden started to take off, we figured out we needed something to put our harvest in. I found this basket, which I've had for eons, and decided it was the perfect basket to hold our "haul". It's had many uses in its life, so I knew it was up to the task. It's a hand-made wooden basket. I watched the basketmaker weave baskets similar to this one and I love it! It's easy to wash when it gets dirty. I just hang it in the shower and let the water run over it. When the water runs clear from the bottom of the basket, it's clean. Then I just leave it hanging in the shower to dry. We have another basket that is just a tad bit bigger that we sometimes use if we have lots to harvest. So far, the only thing this basket hasn't been able to hold is our watermelon! Here's today's harvest:

Just the cherry tomatoes:

Sunday Morning in the Garden

2009-06-28T11:13:00.009-05:00

Due to a flare up of my back problem, I've not been able to get out in the garden the past several days. DH's been doing a bang-up job tending the crops, harvesting, and watering when needed. He has managed to break the moisture meter, overlook the inception of two (yes TWO) muskmelons, declare the Straight Eight cucumber plant "retarded", and left several pods of okra on the plant for too long, though. Nothing's died (yet) under his care, so all is well and I haven't killed him yet.

This morning, I really needed to be out in the garden, though. It's been hard for me to stay inside away from all that's going on. It brings me such pleasure to be out among the growing things, watching their development. There's also something so very peaceful about being outside in the morning or late evening. The smell of the air and the dirt, feeling the warm (hot) sunshine on my face, and hearing all the sounds of the outside world invigorate me and lower my stress level. We went out well before 9 o'clock this morning, and it was already oppressive out. The thermometer read 86 degrees with absolutely NO breeze or hint of a breeze. It was very icky-sticky out there. Perfect for a swim in the pool, if we had one!

The cantaloupes I planted are really muskmelons, but we call them cantaloupes because that's what they're called here in the states. I planted 2 varieties, Hale's Best which has a normal orangey/salmony flesh of cantaloupes, and Israeli cantaloupe which has a pale green flesh. It'll be interesting to taste that Israeli melon! Here are the vines taking over the space between the back of their bed and the storage shed.
We discovered two new muskmelon babies this morning during our stroll, one of each variety. This one's a Hale's Best, poking out on the backside of the bed, resting on the frame of the bed.This one is another Israeli melon, hiding in plain sight on the top of the bed near the front. I don't know how either of us missed it!
The bush beans that didn't get taken out when the pole bean trellis fell on them during the last rain & wind storm we had are finally producing like they should. These beans are really quite tasty.
The pole beans that survived the fungal infection, overwatering by me, and the sunburn from being watered at the wrong time of day are looking quite lush and really taking off on the trellis DH engineered for them.These two okra plants have finally taken off! They were plagued incessantly by aphids during the spring; I thought they were going to bite the dust! Even after taking this pic, I had to spray some soap water on the okra to kill the aphids. Sheesh!! Anyway, there's two more pods of okra on these two plants that are ready for harvest. All of my okra's doing great during this heat.
I can see these red peppers from my bedroom window and it's been fun to watch them start to ripen. They are really putting on their red color and will be ready to harvest soon. The plant on the far right in this pic was the one tormented by the hornworm, so the peppers are sunburned on the other side. I'm happy to report that the plants are putting on new leaves and I even saw some baby buds on them, too!

We also set out the plants for the new flower bed DH dug for me. These poor plants have been waiting for 2 months to go in the ground! Under my direction, DH placed all the plants in their soon-to-be permanent homes. Maybe early in the morning (like at 5- or 6 o'clock), he can get out there and actually plant them without suffering from heat stroke. Of course, they'll definitely need to be babied until they're established, but thankfully this spot gets the early morning to early afternoon sun and then they're totally shaded by the late afternoon sun.

I was almost to the point where I needed to go back inside and sit down, but I had to see the flowers in the front bed. I so enjoy the blooms from these plants and seeing them grow and flower. I wasn't disappointed as the bed was alive with little butterflies and bees! I love the honey bees that come to feast on the pollen of my plants. Here's a bee on the Monarda (aka Horsemint, Lemon Mint, Bee Balm).
A Zexmenia bloom tangled in the Cigar Plant (Cuphea ignea).The delightful and cheerful California Poppies, white Sweet Alyssum, and the pink Scabiosa Daisy are doing well in the heat. I winter sowed a package of a low-growing mix and was delighted to discover the California poppies made the cut. I thought this Katie's Blue Ruellia had been destroyed by the slugs earlier this spring, so I'm so excited to finally see some blooms. These are the same color as the Tall Mexican Ruellia that bloom along side the garage. Lastly, the Blanket Flower (gaillardia aristata) has really taken off and bloomed like crazy over the past couple of weeks. I'm so happy with this plant!

It's Hot!

2009-06-27T21:21:00.004-05:00

We've had temps in the low 100s for the past 4 days. Today's high was 105º and now at almost 10pm, it's "only" 93º. The garden is suffering and our water bill is getting higher. We've had to water just about every other day or so.

The jalapenos are loving it, though! Go figure! LOL However, DH did some work in the bed near the jalapeno plant and I think that he must've gotten too close to the roots. The plant hasn't died by far, but it wilts very, very quickly and comes back to life when the hot sun cools off. Still producing, though, so I think it'll eventually be okay. We're trying to devise some kind of shade cover for it. The bell peppers also need some kind of shade. On a good note, the bell peppers are starting to ripen. That's been fun to watch!

The melons and cantaloupes are absolutely loving the heat! The cantaloupe vines are taking over the yard near their bed and really producing lots of little boy and girl flowers. We have at least 2 cantaloupes that I've found. One is a Hale's Best Jumbo and one's an Israeli cantaloupe. Never had an Israeli cantaloupe, so it'll be interesting to taste it.

Hale's Best Jumbo baby (Isn't it cute?)

Israeli Cantaloupe

The Sugar Baby watermelons are also loving this weather. I've learned that watermelons are a desert plant, so they don't really need a lot of water. A couple of weeks prior to harvest, withhold watering them excessively to sweeten them up. We've not been watering them very often, so they should be pretty sweet! LOL Here's the latest pic of the "Three Muskateers" as I've been calling them. They're about the size of bowling balls.

Our first pole bean, finally.

Some Things I've Learned So Far

2009-06-21T13:19:00.004-05:00

Since this is the first year we've had a vegetable garden, I knew that there were going to be lessons learned along the way. I was totally clueless when we decided to start this venture, but I had high hopes that we'd be overrun with vegetables to share with friends, neighbors, and co-workers. However, that hasn't happened, but I have learned a thing or two.

1. Start with good soil. This is absolutely crucial. We have horrible soil here, so we have added lots of good finished compost from our compost pile, mushroom compost, cotton burr compost, a little bit of horticultural cornmeal, a little bit of dried molasses, some lava sand, and some composted soil mix from a local company. We've found that the veggies from the beds with just the composted soil mix don't taste as good as the veggies that are grown in the beds with some native soil.

2. Mulch is absolutely necessary for your plants to survive and thrive in the HOT Texas weather. Not only does mulch keep the weed population down and help with water retention in the soil, it helps cool the soil and protect the roots of your plants from getting scorched. There are a variety of mulch alternatives, but my three favorites are shredded native cedar, grass clippings which can be turned into the soil at the end of the season, and straw.

3. Do NOT overwater and water at the appropriate time of day! This was a hard one for me to learn and came only after losing more than half of my pole beans to disease because I'd overwatered them. Most veggies don't require a lot of water. It's better to water deeply about once a week than to water daily at a shallow level. I marked my moisture meter at 2" from the tip of the probe. When it's on the moist side of the dry line, I water to a depth of about 1" or 1.5". This means I'm only watering about once a week.

I like to water late in the evening, just before dusk. (I figure if God can make it rain at night and my plants survive, then I can do it, too.) If you water during the day, any water left on the leaves is subject to burning the leaves. I also try not to get water on the leaves as this can cause burning and disease.

4. If you want enough to share with neighbors, friends, and family then plant accordingly. We never harvest enough of anything at one time for a complete serving. That's very frustrating for me. I now understand why people plant 5-10 squash plants, 40 tomato plants, 10-15 okra plants, and etc! It's the only way you can harvest enough at any one time to actually use for dinner that night!

5. Pay attention to optimal planting dates and varieties for your area. Here in Texas, we are fortunate to have an excellent agricultural program through Texas A&M University. Almost every county in Texas has some kind of AgriLife program carried out by Master Gardeners and the local county extension agency. There's tons of online resources that list appropriate planting dates and best varieties for the various areas of Texas.

6. Start thinking about the next season's crop now. I've already purchased seeds for my fall garden and am waiting for the appropriate time to plant various crops starting next month. I've even started thinking about where I want to plant various veggies once all the current veggies are harvested.

7. Be prepared to battle pests. It's inevitable and they will show up.

8. Even ants have a purpose in the garden. They're great pollinators!!

9. Some shade is good for some plants. Many plants can withstand the harsh blistering heat of the afternoon, but some shade is okay for them and for the fruit they produce. If peppers don't have proper leaf protection, they get sunburned, which starts rotting the fruit. Some plants wilt in the hot afternoon sun, but will perk back up in the evening and be fine.

10. Have fun and don't be too disappointed when you lose a few plants for whatever reason. Sometimes it's a disease or bug problem, but sometimes it's because the plants weren't planted at the appropriate time. Sometimes the variety planted isn't truly suited to the area in which you live. For example, we can't grow lettuce in the summer here. It's strictly a late fall and early spring crop. Long day type onions won't grow in Texas. We need the short day varieties like the 1015 (super, super sweet and HUGE), Yellow Granax, and Vidalia.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-17T18:29:00.000-05:00

What a Wild Week!

2009-06-14T08:19:00.009-05:00

We found another SVB in the zucchini earlier in the week. I look for frass on the stem of the plant during my daily inspection of the crops. Frass is "a sawdust-like substance made up of plant material and insect waste. Excreted by borers, it is a tell-tale sign of the presence of a pest in a tree, shrub, or other plant." (Definition compliments of Terry on Dave's Garden, http://davesgarden.com/guides/terms/go/1906/) This time, rather than yanking the plant out, my very dear husband, sliced the stem open, removed the borer, then closed the stem up with a piece of pantyhose tied to the incision site. The plant is looking great and we harvested our first zuke yesterday. Sweet!

See that yellow ooey gooey looking stuff? That's the frass.

Not exactly a pic of the zucchini plant, but it's there on the far left. This thing has really taken off in the past couple of weeks. It must love the hot temps we've been having.

Yesterday's harvest. That zucchini is really big! It's much bigger than any zucchini you'd find in the stores. I think I should make some zucchini bread with it since we're not big squash eaters here. I might end up taking it to my co-worker who loves zukes, though. We'll see!

This past Wednesday brought a powerful storm to our area. We had winds in excess of 40 mph, maybe even as high as 60 mph! The trellis on our small bed of pole beans blew over. DH went out during a break in the storm and propped it back up until he can make a more permanent support.
We lost a couple of pole bean plants and some bush bean plants. Losing the bush beans was tough. Some of them were loaded with buds and baby beans. While I'm thankful for the rain and thankful that we didn't suffer any damage to our home, pets or ourselves, it's disappointing to lose something that you've babied along and have been so looking forward to harvesting.
Some of the tops of the tomato plants got bent, too. They kinda look like they've got broken legs! I've clipped the tops off and stuck them in a bucket of water for the time being. I'm going to root them and plant them in the fall to have some more plants for fall harvest.
The zucchini that had the squash vine borer in it got blown around pretty good. We were afraid that we'd lose the plant to the harsh treatment of the wind since the plant was a bit delicate and recovering from surgery, but it survived. In this pic, it looks like it's been through a wind storm. We harvested the zuke on it yesterday.

Earlier in the week, I was on the hunt to find whatever pest left this evidence behind. If you can't figure it out, these are balls of poop from some little critter. I'm telling you, they were about the size of a pea, so whatever was chowing down on my peppers was pretty big. I diligently searched under the leaves, down the stems of the plant, and around the base, but I couldn't find anything.
The next morning, while doing my inspection of the gardens, I stumbled upon the culprit, a LARGE hornworm. Ewwww!! It was very well concealed on the underside of an eaten leaf. These things are like teenage boys. They're constantly hungry and eat all the time!!
Again, DH to the rescue! After proclaiming, "He's a big 'un!", he quickly discharged the pest to hornworm heaven.
Still, his damage has been done. Thankfully, the plant is okay, even if it looks a little nekkid. There's no harm done to the peppers, and the leaves should grow back. Tonight, I need to spray both the peppers and the tomatoes with Bt, an organic, good-bug friendly product that will kill the hornworms, but not destroy the plant, the good bugs, or the soil. I've been trying to do this for the past 3 nights, but rain has altered that course of action.

The jalapeno peppers have finally started setting fruit. Now we can start planning some serious Mexican cooking!! I'm thinking these would taste great as a topper on some nachos or on some homemade enchiladas. They'd even be great in some salsa or pico de gallo. This plant was just a wee seedling when I got it at the plant swap in early April. Now look at it. It's producing some great looking peppers!!

The two Sugar Baby watermelons we planted have started taking over the universe! Seriously, the vines have almost reached to the other end of the raised bed and that thing is 10' (that FEET) long!
Nestled amongst the twining vines going all over the yard, I found these three little babies.
In addition to these three babies, there's another one just down the vine from these. On the other side of the bed, there's at least one other baby and perhaps two. The first watermelon is still growing nice and fat and sweet. It's turned a very dark green, almost black. We're waiting for all the signs to show it's ready for harvest: a nice yellow spot on its underbelly and dry tendrils near the top of its stem. Maybe it'll ripen in time for 4th of July!

Also discovered in the garden this week:
Blooms on the pole beans. We should start harvesting in the coming weeks! I'm ready for some tasty green beans!
Another yellow squash. This guy got blown up into the bed with the strong winds the other night. He's resting peacefully near the edge of the bed and will be harvested today.
Our first burpless cuke. He's been growing steadily for the past couple of days. Not sure when he'll be ready to consume, so I need to do some research on that.

The flower beds didn't suffer the same damage as the vegetable beds, thank goodness! They actually have flourished under the bits of rain and cloud cover we've been having. The natives and the adapted plants are thriving in the hot temps we've had this past week.

My daylily 'Capernaum Cocktail' opened for the first time yesterday. Ain't she a beaut? Just a gorgeous color in the garden.

The Blanket Flower (gaillardia aristata) seeds I winter sowed are getting ready to bloom. I love these flowers and think every garden should have some!

My sole surviving Lemon Mint (aka horsemint or Monarda) has started blooming this week. I have a feeling this is going to be an invasive plant, but I love it anyway and will tolerate it spreading. Here, it's hiding behind the blue salvia and in front of the pink hummingbird sage. It's a very dainty flower head.
I know there are all kinds of colors of Monardas, but I'm a purist and love the original, old-fashioned variety.

I leave you with a pic of the girls watching me work out in the front yard and waiting for me to come back inside to feed them. It's all about the food with these two precious girls. The cat from outer space is my precious Callie and the other one not paying any attention to the camera is Hannah. Actually, I think she was paying attention to a bird in the yard, daydreaming of stalking him and pouncing on him for a delicious little treat.

A Loss, Recovery, and Beans, Baby!

2009-06-07T13:19:00.009-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, my DH and I discovered this little white caterpillar/worm on one of our puny tomato plants. Had no idea what it was and chalked it up to being a baby tomato hornworm.

Now, I think it was a squash vine borer larva. The SVB moth lays eggs on the stems and leaves of squash, and other members of the squash family like pumpkins. The eggs hatch and the little worm bores its way into the stem where it tunnels out the inside of the squash stem. The only evidence you see of damage on the outside is a little sawdust looking pile of stuff (excrement and gunk from the inside of the bug), followed by a dead plant. In most cases, it's fatal to the plant.

A few days ago, I noticed that one of our yellow squash plants had quit producing anything, had turned a very, very dark green, and had developed damaged leaves. I also noticed the tell-tale sawdust looking pile of stuff at the base and hanging off the stem itself.

We yanked the plant out this morning since it was too far gone. DH cut open the stem and found the little squash vine borer inside carrying out his destruction. We killed the worm and put the plant in the paper yard waste bag to go to the curb with the trash next week. We are watching the other squash plants carefully.

In better news, the sick pole beans are on the mend. I did end up yanking quite a few of the struggling plants, but several have made a great recovery and have started climbing the trellis.

I cut off the affected/diseased leaves and the rest of the plant has really greened up. It's fun to see them catch onto the trellis and start climbing it.

Different plant, but you can see it climbing the string trellis. Everytime I see the beans climbing the trellises, I think of the kid's song, "We are Climbing Jacob's Ladder". LOL

The pole beans in the small bed have taken off like crazy! Still not setting pods, but growing up the trellis, adding lots of leaves, and just looking good in general.

They've gone over the top and made a little arch for themselves! Too cute!

Meanwhile, the Blue Lake bush beans in the small bed continue to bloom and set pods. I love seeing the little bitty pods, just about 1/4" in length still fuzzy from birth. On most of the plants, there are flowers and pods in various stages of development.

Here are the biggest pods we have. They're about 3" long. Sorry for the not so great pic. The pea vines in front were moving in the breeze and I couldn't get a good shot without the tendrils from the pea vines.

Some Views from the Garden

2009-06-06T06:11:00.006-05:00

First Female Zucchini Flower
Bean pod on Blue Lake Bush Beans
Moon and Stars Watermelon Starting to Take Off
Cantaloupe Vining out of the Bed
Sugar Baby Watermelon Flower
Sugar Baby Watermelon after the Rain
Alaska Peas
Tomato Patch
Bunch of Tomatoes
Raindrop on a Yellow Pepper
Cluster of Red Peppers
First Cigar Plant Blooms
Clump on NOID Daylilies
Daylily 'Torrid Tango' FFO
Daylily 'Silver Ripples'

Trouble and Triumph in Bean Town

2009-06-04T06:04:00.005-05:00

No, not Boston, but the mass of bean plants in my backyard! The trouble is from a common mistake newbie gardeners make: over watering and watering at the wrong times. I was watering my veggies too often and, as a result, the ground wasn't drying out enough. I was also watering in the heat of the day or before the day heated up, but not enough that any water that splashes onto the leaves would dry before the heat of the sun got to them. As a result, the plants got burned and also developed rust.

To combat the rust, I sprayed a product called Plant Wash on the leaves, then I put down horticultural cornmeal and dry powdered garlic (from the kitchen) on the ground under the plants. Both the cornmeal and the garlic help curtail fungal infections. Garlic also helps deter pests, too. The following evening, I sprayed the leaves with a concoction of Garrett Juice (compost tea, apple cider vinegar, liquid molasses, and liquid seaweed). While doing this, I found a cabbage looper (ick!) and quickly sent it to worm heaven. I also quit watering them, but tested the soil daily with my water meter to check moisture level. I went for about a week before God sent some rain my way to take care of my watering needs. I really didn't need to water, but apparently God thought it was time, so He watered everything for me. Despite the rain, they seem to be doing well.

During the week with no watering, I checked the plants daily for more infection. I finally made the difficult decision to cut off affected leaves on plants that I felt would make it and yank the ones that were way past gone. The ones with new leaves made the cut. The ones with no new leaves got pulled. In the picture above, the plant at the bottom got yanked, the plant in the middle became a "maybe" and was watched, and the plant at the top got to stay. Because I didn't really know what the problem was with the beans, the ones that were pulled got put in the yard waste bag that goes to the curb rather than thrown in my compost pile. I lost almost all of my pole beans in the big bean bed!

A survivor of the great bean tragedy. Fortunately, I was able to save some of the pole beans from total ruin.

The Front Flower Bed

2009-05-26T10:33:00.006-05:00

This in "no man's land" in our front yard. It's on the other side of our driveway, receives the harsh western sun and is a pain to water since it's a sorta lopsided pie-shaped area. When my husband and I moved in, we immediately decided to gut it of all the grass and make it a flower bed. I plant many low-maintenance perennials and self-sowing annuals in there. This is also where most of my daylilies are planted. I know they're not necessarily low maintenance, but they do well over there. I thoroughly enjoy roaming through the plants and seeing what's growing besides the weeds. My goal is to eventually to have plants mature enough that the mulch can't be seen. That might happen in about 5 years! Here are some of my favorites that are blooming now.

Sweet Alyssum~Came in a mix of low-growing wildflower seeds. The white really stands out in the garden and the smell is lovely.

Mealy Blue Sage~This was a tagalong plant in a container of Frogfruit. This is a Texas native and I'm so excited that I got a "two-fer".

Blue Sage~Different than the Mealy Blue Sage above, but similarly colored flowers. This one is shorter and spreads more prolifically.

Part of the front bed. The butterfly bush (bright purple bloom on the left.) was a rescue from the nearly dead table at Wal-Mart several years ago. The blooms smell wonderfully! There's Silver Ripples daylily, yellow Four Nerve Daisy, and another purple salvia, May Night in this pic.

Balloon Flower~This is a self-sowing annual. It dies back in the winter, but it's come back every year I've had it. Just mulch it well in the fall and wait patiently for it's first leaves to poke through in the spring. I have a problem with that waiting thing, though!

Pink Skullcap~Another native that I'm excited about. This came to me last fall as a trade. I couldn't get it in the ground before it got cold, but it had set seeds, so I harvested the seeds and put the plant in my sunroom to overwinter. The plant survived and when I winter sowed the seeds, almost every single one germinated! I have these spread along the borders of this bed.

Daylily 'Hawaiian Nights'~first flower opening on this one and it's a beaut! Well worth the wait!

Pinks, purples, and blues. They will nicely accentuate the yellows and goldens I'm waiting to bloom.

Lastly, I leave you with a view of the bed from this morning's shade looking toward the street.

Today's Garden Stroll

2009-05-24T13:47:00.009-05:00

It was a bit overcast this morning when I first went out to the gardens, so it was quite pleasant. The recent steady warm temps have really helped everything take off.

Red California Wonder pepper (sweet)

Baby yellow peppers (sweet). These plants are smaller than the red peppers. Interesting!

Yellow squash

Watermelon flower (male)

Cantaloupe flower (male)

Burpless cucumber (again...male flower)

Pole beans going crazy.

New trellis system for the pole beans, designed by the Handy Man himself!

Buds on my bush beans. Exciting!

Almost ripe Christa Merced tomato

The Sugar Baby watermelon baby is still about the size of a softball, but it's turned a deeper shade of green this week.

Another yellow straight neck squash

More strawberries!!

In the next post, we'll stroll through the flower beds. Lots of pretties showing off! :)

Last Minute Veggie Bed #5

2009-05-22T06:03:00.004-05:00

In order to plant the tomatoes my husband purchased over the weekend, he had to construct another bed. We also planted an edible kale that was given to us at the plant swap we attended in April. Don't know anything about growing kale. Don't think I've ever eaten kale, but the husband wanted it so we have kale.

Here's our last minute veggie bed, full of heirloom maters and kale. Two of the tomato plants had been at the nursery so long that their stems were fragile (top heavy) and crooked. We planted them sideways to help them build a better root system and grow nice and strong. We simply cut off almost all of the leaves, dug a trench-like hole, sprinkled in some earthworm castings and tomato food, then laid the plant sideways in the hole and filled it back up with our dirt-compost-planting medium misture. You really can't see them in this picture, but they're there! I'll try to snap a pic of them today. We also planted the last of the tomato seedlings we had from when we did the first tomato planting. Some were too tiny to plant then, but we had one that was a wee little seedling in with one we were planting, so we separated them, stuck the baby in a 4" pot and have been nursing it along until it was big enough to plant.

I peeked out the window at them this morning and they're all still there. Definitely a good sign! We just need to mulch and then they'll be set for the season.

The pole beans in the small bed at the back of the yard (#4) have finally gotten tall enough to send out tendrils. They're ready to climb! The husband needs to get the trellis system in place for them soon, like today!

Blooming Today 05.20.09 & Vegetable Garden Update

2009-05-20T15:34:00.008-05:00

May is a great beginning time for most of the blooms in my garden. I really need to work on some earlier blooming flowers to keep things interesting earlier in the season. Here's a few from my jaunt around the flower beds this morning.

Siloam Double Classic, a beautiful pink

Here she is from the side

Balloon Flower. I don't remember this many blooms on it last year, but I could be suffering from CRS.

Veronica "Sunny Border Blue"

Daylily 'Golden Girl'

Tall Coreopsis gone wild and floppy

Some kind of butterfly enjoying one of the coreopsis flowers

Onto the veggies!!

"The" Sugar Baby watermelon. Look how he's grown! Awwwww!!

Clemson Spineless okra~Haven't decided if this is a flower bud or an actual okra fruit. I know this plant flowers, but I've not seen one.

The maters...I just love the smell of tomato plants! (Except for yesterday when they smelled like sheep poop after I applied the fertilizer! LOL)

Moving onto the peppers (sweet). California Wonder (red)

Yellow straight-neck squash. Will be part of tonight's dinner.

Second flush of strawberries. Too bad I only have one plant!

Lastly, my lone little Straight Eight cucumber. He's looking a bit like a pickle already! LOL

Now then, I know that many of you are still waiting for ground to thaw so you can get plants in the ground, but I'm already thinking about planting my fall garden. Contrary to popular belief, Texas has two shorter growing seasons when it comes to vegetables, late winter - early summer and then late summer -early winter. I need to start my seeds in about 6 weeks or so if I'm going to have a good crop for the fall. Today I spent some time looking at seed catalogs online and this is what I ordered. I'll have enough for the fall and the early spring next year. All of these are heirloom vegetables or open pollinated vegetables, too.

Tomatoes (ordered with DH's help)~
Rutgers
Amish Paste
Brandywine
Blondkopfchen (yellow cherry)
Box Car Willie
Chalk's Early Jewel
Cherokee Purple
Cherrygal Cherry (we'll see if it reseeds itself down here!)
Eva's Purple Ball
Italian
Mortgage Lifter
Ponderosa Red
Sioux
Zuckerklumpen
Sweet Pea
Black Cherry

Lettuces (again, ordered with DH's help)~
Parris Island
Black Seeded Simpson
Red Rapids
Tango
Buttercrunch
Craquerelle Du Midi
Grandpa Admire's
Lollo Rossa
Kentucky Limestone

Cukes~
Lemon
White Wonder
Miniature White
Straight Eight

Carrots~Imperator 58, Little Fingers, James Scarlet, Danvers Half Long
Cabbage~January King
Peas~Tom Thumb
Radish~Early Scarlet Globe
Pumpkin~Small Sugar
Peppers (Sweet)~Mini Bells, Bullnose
Spinach-Monnopa

We'll also plant some Alaska peas, bush beans (Blue Lake), pole beans (Kentucky Wonder), and Cherry Belle radishes.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Anticipation

2009-05-15T06:21:00.004-05:00

One of the most beneficial aspects of gardening is hope. When you plant seeds or young transplants there's such hope in the waiting and prospect of fully grown plants that produce lovely flowers or fruit. I love watching plants grow and mature. I love seeing the plant's first offerings of flowers or fruit. I love the anticipation of knowing at just the right time, the plant will send out its flower or fruit. When talking about vegetables, after the fruit has set on the plant, there's the joy of watching it grow daily and then reach maturity so it can be plucked and eaten. I traipse out every day and walk the gardens just to see what's going on, to look for damage, but also to check on how things are growing and maturing. I take pictures to document the journey so I can remind myself how far we've come. Watching things grow brings such a sense of satisfaction for me, such joy, and such fulfillment. Take this for example:

This was Wednesday:

This was Thursday:

Anticipation.

Lift Off!!

2009-05-13T20:36:00.010-05:00

With all the crazy weather we've had in the past couple of weeks, I thought the garden was doomed. However, I've harvested my first crop...radishes! These are 'Cherry Belle' radishes. If I'm not mistaken, these are open pollinated, meaning I can let a couple go to seed, save them, then plant them in the fall and these will come true to the parent. Seeds of hybrids don't always come true to the parent.

This past week, I also discovered that crops such as squash, cucumbers, and melons often need to be hand pollinated. So, I've been helping the boys out early in the mornings. ;) I think it's worked! This is what I found on my journey through the gardens this morning.

Sugar Baby Watermelon

This one's hanging over the side of the bed and will most likely need to be supported in some way. I'm thinking either some netting or pantyhose.

Right at the edge, near the end of the bed. This will be fun to watch grow, too!

Straight Eight cucumber

It's so tiny and prickly!!

Straight Neck yellow squash

This pretty baby is about 4" long already. I think it grew to that length overnight.

There's lots of blooms on my pepper plants. The okra has buds on it. The strawberry plant is even putting out flowers again! The beans are growing, but some are covered in aphids. Ugh! The maters continue to flower and some are starting to set fruit.

The cantaloupe have taken root and are starting to spread. This one is an Israel cantaloupe. I'm also growing Hale's Best Jumbo.

I planted my Moon & Stars watermelon seedlings last week. They've taken hold in the bean bed. This is an old Amish variety of watermelon that supposedly has a dark skin with yellow 'spots', hence the name Moon & Stars.

The herbs are doing well, too.

The basil has really taken off. It's flowered, but I've been cutting off the flowerheads to promote more leaves. I might move this out by the veggie beds to invite the bees. Thyme has established and is starting to spread. My aloe vera has come back from the dead, after I almost killed it by overwatering it. I stuck it in this pot, then didn't water it. When it was supposed to rain, I put it under our carport. Now it's looking good! Today, I also planted some pineapple mint and regular mint...in containers!! LOL

On the flower front, San Antonio Firecracker is still crankin' out the beautiful flowers. (Click the pic to see the collage larger.)

It does throw up an ugly bloom once in a great while.

Lastly, Pure & Simple bloomed for the first time for me yesterday. Isn't she purdy?

Daylily 'San Antonio Firecracker' Has Made an Appearance!

2009-05-08T21:05:00.003-05:00

San Antonio Firecracker made an appearance in my garden this week. She's a beauty and has been very well worth the wait!! The first flower that opened wasn't quite perfect, but it was good enough. The picture below shows the profile and the color in it is much truer to the color above. In the picture below you can see the scape's buds and branching! At the base of this clump, there's another flower scape coming up. There's also a baby fan peeking out.

The Flowers are Starting to Bloom!

2009-04-26T16:29:00.007-05:00

While I've been obsessed with the veggie beds and getting them good and going, my flowers have been sulking from attention. They've gotten watered and I've been checking on their progress daily, but I've not been pampering them as much or obsessing over them too much. This afternoon, since it's a nice cloudy day, I went out and really checked on them to see what they were up to and how much they'd grown.

In my preoccupation with the veggies, much has been going on in the flower beds. All of the plants that I got at the beginning of April and that I planted a couple of weeks ago are establishing and doing well. This is a really crummy picture, but you can see the entire bed in it and I don't feel like going outside and trying to shoot another one at the moment.

The white "markers" you see in the pic are plastic forks indicating new transplants to watch out for when walking around in the bed. Forks are easy to write on with a Sharpie marker, too. We're using them in the veggie beds, too. They are cheap if you have to buy them, but you can save them from fast-food restaurants when you go to the drive through.

This daylily, San Antonio Firecracker, put out its first scapes EVER! There are 2 scapes and they are loaded with buds. One has EIGHT baby buds that I can count. I so cannot wait for this one to flower! I have another little daylily in the front yard that's put out its first scape as well. Pure & Simple was a gift to me last summer from a lady on Dave's Garden. I can't wait to see that one bloom either.

This little guy is Rudbeckia "Goldstrum". I planted it very late last fall and it barely survived the winter. Then, after our first good rainfall, the aphids attacked it and the slugs began eating on it. I gave it up for a goner, but when I went to plant another plant in that spot, I discovered one little leaf coming up. That's been about 2 weeks ago, and it's grown a week each week! I think I might have a winner on my hands!

This is the little piece of ground outside my backdoor and under my kitchen window. Last summer, I planted Texas Sage and 2 different kinds of Coreopsis seeds in half of the bed. This is what it looks like now. On the left towards the back is a pink Texas Sage. That big huge thing on the right is a Tall Coreopsis. It is loaded with buds! I can't wait to see it in all its glory. I'm going to save seeds and see if I can't get a few more for other places in the yard. There's actually a smaller coreopsis to the left of it, but it's totally overcome by the Tall Coreopsis. There's also a yellow daylily in the front left corner.

A close-up of the flower on the Tall Coreopsis. It's easily 3" across and they last for several days.

A red Texas Sage is hiding under the big pink Texas Sage. I noticed this little guy sticking his head out this afternoon when I walked out the door. I really think the red is very striking. I winter sowed some of these seeds and have several to plant out in the front bed.

This little scabiosa daily (Pincushion Daisy) was planted last fall. It started blooming late winter and has been going strong ever since. It's a butterfly and bee magnet, too. I love inviting bees and butterflies into my garden. It's good for them since I don't use chemicals and it's good for the plants.

Lastly, because I'm still totally enthralled with the veggie garden, here's a flower on our Straight Eight cucumber plant.

:o)

This One....

2009-04-23T19:30:00.008-05:00

Looks like this.

First thing in the morning, just waking up.

Mid-day after a little water

Late in the day with a little bug friend

Ahhhh....Tall Coreopsis (Coreopsis grandiflora)

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/169080

What a Difference a Day Makes!

2009-04-22T18:34:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, the bean patch looked like this:

Today (picture from the other end of the bed):

I'm thinkin' these beans are likin' our upper 80s and near 90º weather!

I noticed this red bell pepper ready to burst forth in bud this morning.

One of the squash is getting ready to put out blooms, too.

In the flower beds, I'm waiting for this to burst out in flowers. It's absolutely loaded with buds!

It's some kind of coreopsis and it's going to look stunning with the pink salvia next to it. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! (I think I must have some kind of mental condition if I get this excited about watching plants flower.)

I'm also waiting on this to bloom.

This is one of my daylilies, "San Antonio Firecracker". It's the first year it's produced buds for me. Again, I can't wait to see what it looks like when it finally flowers.

Liftoff for the Veggie Beds!

2009-04-21T10:51:00.010-05:00

The veggie beds are complete, but we've run out of room for the few things we have left to plant!! DH took a break from farming and fled town to visit his people in Tennessee. That's left me with the added responsibility of tending the crops. Since he's been gone, I've harvested fresh lettuce leaves for a salad and a nice, ripe, juicy strawberry that I didn't have to wash the chemicals off before plopping into my mouth. I've decided we're going to have oodles of strawberry plants next year! Once DH returns (with his mom in tow) he plans on expanding one of the small beds he built and/or just making a garden plot in the ground. I told him if he contained it with a 2x6 that would be fine.

Our overflow last-minute bed. This one has beans and peas in it. There were potato starts in the little black pots on top, but they got toasted in yesterday's 80 degree temps. (I told DH that for our region you start taters on Valentine's Day, but he didn't listen!)

The picture above shows bed #1. In it, we have red & yellow bell peppers (with tee-tiny little buds on them today), a strawberry plant, okra (Crimson Spineless), onions (1015Y & Yellow Granex), a cluster of garlic chives, and 2 very young jalapeno plants. We don't eat jalapenos on a regular basis, so I'm not real sure what we're going to do with our harvest of those.

Tee-tiny jalapeno seedling.

Bed #2 is half tomatoes and half various other veggies. We have planted some okra, squash, radishes, and watermelon in the other half of the bed. The radishes are a quick crop. They sprouted in about 3 days, with the help of the rain I'm sure, and will be ready for harvest in about 20-30 days. Talk about almost immediate gratification! I have some bright pink petunias and marigolds to add to it, too. Supposedly, the radishes, petunias, and the marigolds will deter the squash bugs from attacking the squash. We'll see if it works.

Radish "Cherry Belle" seedlings just sprouted. I will need to thin them in a few days.

Veggie bed #3 was planted with pole beans (Kentucky Wonder), bush (or snap) beans (Blue Lake), and peas (Alaska). We also put in 2 cucumber plants. Once the beans and peas sprout, I'm going to pull some out and plant the cantaloupe I have.

Here's what bed #3 looks like today.

And a better close up pics of the bean sprouts. They're only about 2" tall! LOL

When DH returns from back east (LOL) he'll build the bean trellises and the supports for the tomatoes.

Plant Identification, Part II

2009-04-12T08:48:00.005-05:00

I started planting my little babies a couple of days ago. I decided to put the bulbine in the bed in the front yard out by the street. One of the little bulbine plants has a flower on it, so we'll soon be able to see what it looks like. It seems like I've planted TONS of stuff, but when I look at all the plants I've got left to plant, it doesn't look like I've made much of a dent!

My husband has a "thing" for aloe vera plants. He loves them; I kill them. I don't know what it is, but every single aloe vera plant I've had I've killed. As you can see by the picture above, he picked up an aloe vera for us. :) I think I'll put it in a pot and move it to the far recesses of the yard. Maybe it'll survive! We also have more tomatoes, too. Don't they look lovely? There's also another Cutleaf Rudbeckia in this bunch. It'll go in the backyard in our new bed. I'm really excited about that new bed!

This is a bigger pot of Mexican Mint Marigold. It will also go in the backyard flower bed. MMM is an herb, did you know that? It produces bright yellow flowers on moderate sized stems. I can't wait for this to start blooming.

Obedient Plant. I'm really torn on whether to plant these in the ground, or pot them up. They're supposedly invasive, but that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing right now. Next year and future years, however, that could be a problem. This one will bloom with delicate little pink flowers.

Next up we have some purple oxalis (purple shamrocks) that bloom with light pink, almost whitish little flowers. I'm starting a little patch of them in the corner of one of my beds. I planted some last year from corms and thought I'd lost them all, but they've started showing up again just this week. I'm so happy! We also have some jalapeno pepper seedlings for the veggie garden, a blackfoot daisy (sweet!), and a John Fannick Phlox. John Fannick was a long-time nurseryman in San Antonio. I remember visiting his nursery often, especially to buy roses and trees. What a wonderful nostalgic plant to have in my garden. Lastly, I think that's a bat face cuphea seedling in the upper right hand corner.

Lots more babies in this group, too. There's some Red Texas Star Hibiscus seedlings in one of the egg cartons as well as some Blue Pea Vine seedlings in the other egg carton. Not sure what I'm going to do with that vine as my husband has always been very anti-vines in the garden. There's also some of the plants I took and some tomato seedlings and tomatillo seedlings (green tomatoes).

This lovely tangle of stuff is Turkey Tangle Frogfruit. Doesn't that just make you want this plant?!? It's a groundcover that tolerates our soil, temps, and weather. It also is a host food for some kind of butterfly larvae. It produces these cute little white flowers, too.

In this grouping, there's another purple oxalis, yellow yarrow, a cowpen daisy that I'm very excited about, 6 Brazos Penstemon plants that will go in the front flower bed among the columbines, 2 small Mexican Mint Marigolds that I've planted in the driveway flower bed, and a sad looking poppy that probably won't make it. That's okay, though, because I also got some seeds for this particular poppy. I'm addicted to poppies now!

In the final group of plants, we have an Oriental poppy that's bloomed. Normally they turn their flower heads up to the sun, but this guy was a bit pouty, so he kept his head down. LOL There's a little baby red shrimp plant, a lavender obedient plant, an edible kale plant that my DH is super excited about, some garlic chives, and an Indigo Spires salvia that will go in the backyard flower bed.

In addition to all of this, I got some Golden Carpet sedum cuttings. They were in paper towels in a Wal-Mart bag, so I couldn't get a good picture of them. I planted them yesterday evening and here they are in their repurposed planter.

I'll be back with the progress of the veggie beds and more pics of the stuff I've planted next time.

What are all Those Plants--Part I

2009-04-08T08:33:00.009-05:00

Old Man Winter finally left after yesterday morning's almost freeze, so I once again pulled all the plants out of the sunroom into the gorgeous sunshine and fresh air. I had to sort out the plants that need shade, the ones that are still wee little seedlings that need all kinds of protection, and the sun loving plants. As I was sorting and cataloging what I had and who I received it from, I snapped a few pics to share. I am starting a spreadsheet with the names of the plants & seeds I've received in trades and swaps so that I can give proper credit to that person when the plant reaches maturity and blooms.

Everything in this pic loves shade. Most of these will go in the front flower bed among the Texas Gold Columbines already there. Toad lilies on the left in the aluminum pan, Tricyrtis lasiocarpa, and Alternanera on the right. I think the alternanthera is going to go in the back yard by my back door, or over on the side of the house that gets all shade. I haven't decided yet and I've had that plant since last fall!

This is another shade loving plant, Lyreleaf Sage. It's a native plant, so it should do well in our almost drought like conditions with little supplemental water. It's also going outside my back door.

Bulbine is a sun loving succulent. I'm torn on whether or not to plant in the ground or put in a pot. These little ones were a test to see how winter hardy this plant is in our region. The purple or brown looking leaves are some frost burn, but they've already started coming back to their normal rich green color. They put off beautiful orangey-yellow flowers.

This is an unknown salvia that will bloom with red flowers. After it blooms, I'll have to find an ID for it. The person who brought it to the swap had tons of these! I think everyone went home with one!

This is Hillary's Sweet Lemon Mint. I'm sure that like all mints, it needs to be contained so that it doesn't take over the universe. It has a delightful smell and unique leaves for a mint.

In this little grouping, we have in the back L-R, Zexmenia, a lovely little daisy-like flowering bush that puts out sweet little golden yellow flowers that look like small sunflowers or daisies. I got one last fall at the RU, but it didn't survive the winter. Also back there are some tomato plants that my DH scored for us. I have no idea what variety they are or if they are heirlooms or not. In the front, we have Red Firespike, that unknown salvia, Pineapple mint, and the Hillary's Sweet Lemon Mint.

That will do it for this post as I've got to get ready for a couple of appointments and I have a cat begging for a bit of attention (like she never gets any attention!) and is walking all over the keyboard as I'm trying to type. Until next time!!

:o)

North Texas Spring Round-Up

2009-04-06T11:18:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was the annual spring round up for my area through the Dave's Garden website. It was tons of fun, even if it was a bit chilly and extremely windy. It was nice to meet fellow gardeners, trade tips and ideas, and PLANTS!!

Here's some of what I took to trade (give away):

From my winter sowing seedlings, I took Texas Sage/Hummingbird Sage (salvia coccinea) in red and pink and Blanket Flower/Indian Blanket (Gaillardia aristata). They were big enough to transplant from the milk jugs, but still need to be babied for a few weeks while their root systems get established in their new 4" pots. I watered them with a watered down organic feeder at transplant time, so they should do just great. I also took some Texas Gold Columbine that I sowed last October, a couple of NOID daylilies that are in too much shade in my yard to do anything, and a couple of Shasta Daisy "Becky" plants that I thought I'd taken care of last fall when I dug them all out.

Fellow gardeners, like fellow stitchers, are extremely generous. This is some of what I brought home. Some of these plants I'd traded for (from my stash above) and some were extras folks had brought along to get rid of. There were exchanges for some, but most people just wanted to get rid of so they wouldn't have to haul them home! LOL

Birth of the Veggie Beds

2009-04-05T19:54:00.005-05:00

*Please note: These pictures were taken over a series of weeks and use a variety of the 3 veggie beds Mark's building for me...oops...us.*

First, find a sunny (or mostly sunny) spot in your weed-infested yard. Lay the boards cut to the desired length in the approximate place you'd like your bed to be.

(FYI, this is Veggie Coffin #3)

Start assembling cut and marked boards as they are laid out. Leave spare pieces of wood laying all over the yard.

Take a break. (DH is sitting on the wood for veggie beds #2 & #3 piled atop the frame for veggie bed #1)

Complete framing beds. This is veggie bed #1 and #2. Two isn't really completely finished. DH has to take out the support stakes in the middle and then he's going to put some kind of 2x4 in there for added support. (Not sure what all that means exactly, but he knows what he's doing...I think!)

Line bottom of bed with cardboard salvaged from work. Cut to fit the bottom and completely cover. Water thoroughly. Fill garden cart with leaves that have been blown under the covered outside work area, decomposing all fall and winter. Back cart up to bed and scoop leaves out into the veggie bed. Repeat until leaves are approximately 4"-6" deep. Water again.

Go to Silver Creek Materials, , (where they spray their compost piles with Cokes and Dr. Peppers and other carbonated and malt-based liquid drinks) in Trusty Steed. Purchase 1 cubic yard of premium soil mix that smells faintly of carbonated and alcoholic beverages (what a combination!) and haul it home. Using trusty garden cart, unload sweet smelling soil into bed, filling partway. Water thoroughly about half-way through the process.

*Note the wood chips still on the ground.

Continue unloading soil from Trusty Steed using trusty garden cart until veggie coffin is full to the rim.

Water again, thoroughly. Then, because you miscalculated how much soil you needed for one bed and still have more soil in the bed of Trusty Steed, you make TWO more trips to unload soil into the new flower bed in the backyard. Sorry, I don't have pics yet because it was just about dark when DH was doing this, but he wanted to get all the soil out of the bed of the truck before nightfall.

While DH is doing all the hard work, I was doing this:

These are most of the plants I'm taking to the swap this afternoon. I had to transplant all those little seedlings in the 4" pots, label them (with plastic forks!), and then make sure that the ones already promised to others had their new owners' names on them. I also dug up a couple of daylilies, which is very hard work! I watered the flowerbed in the front yard and did some weeding as well.

This ends my Saturday and the first half-day of my vacation. I worked Saturday until 3 and then came home to all this activity!!

The Raised Veggie Bed

2009-03-25T09:36:00.015-05:00

This has also been dubbed the "veggie coffin" by my husband, due to its narrow width and long length!! LOL

This is the first of 2, maybe 3 raised vegetable gardens we're building this year. I use the word "we" very loosely. I'm supervising and helping to hold boards, lay the level on the boards to see if it's level and square (which apparently is more important than I thought), and handing the screws to my handy man. Boy! Is he ever handy!! LOL This one, we built out of wood left here by the previous owners of our home. Most of these boards were warped and twisted, so getting them screwed in straight to make the thing level and square was quite a chore. My HM (handy man) did most of the grunt work while I stood around looking at the birds. This particular bed is 30" wide x 9.25' long x 18" high. We used 3 2"x6"x10' boards on each side and the ends. HM used some kind of scraps to make the support stakes. (I was busy during that portion of the building, so I missed how he did it and what he used.) Did you know that 2"x6" boards are actually 2"x5.25"? Yep! HM told me that. Not sure why they're called 2"x6"s if they're not actually 6" wide, but I didn't make the rules so leave it to a man (probably) to round it off.

The next one we build we'll use new UNtreated lumber, white pine in variety because it doesn't rot as fast as other woods. The boards are all nice and straight, cut not from the center of the tree, but from at least one ring from the center and out to the edge. Didn't know this was so important until I took a trip to Lowe's with the HM to buy lumber for veggie coffin #2 (and potentially #3). Apparently, the center portion of the tree will also make the board rot, so you want to avoid those pieces. Knots in the wood pieces and splitting boards should also be avoided. Lowe's was a very educational place!

First of all, you want to situate your bed in a sunny location. Most veggies need LOTS of sun. Here in Texas, we have plenty of that for more hours a day than you want. We chose a location just outside our enclosed sunroom, free of overhanging branches from the nearby oak tree, but not free from the overhanging cable, telephone, and electric lines. I don't plan on getting near those, so we should be okay.

Then, determine how big you want your beds to be. We went with this width because you can easily reach across the width of the bed from either side without straining or walking to the other side. We chose this height because it would be deep enough for the veggies that like more than 12" of dirt and it wouldn't require us to bend over so far. We decided on this length (actually, HM made this decision) because that's how long the boards were and he had to cut something off the end of one.

Next assemble your supplies: wood (UNtreated), saw, sawhorses, screwdriver with the appropriate size bit, exterior screws (they don't rust), level, tape measure, pencil, square (one of those "L" shaped things or something similar that's at a 90º angle), and a small sledge hammer or mallet. This gave HM an excuse to use his power tools, something he needs to do more of. HM has this really cool DeWalt power screwdriver thing that has a built in level on it so he knows if he's drilling straight into the board or at an angle. Straight is mucho better than angled.

The level on the power screwdriver/drill:

BTW, that white cord you see hanging from the handle of the drill holds the key to lock/unlock the bit in place. The bit is the metal attachment you put in it to drill or screw in screws. They come in various sizes, kinds, and various other things. NEVER go to a home improvement store or specialty tool shop with a man looking for bits unless you take reading material along. Trust me. I spent 3 (THREE) hours in the Grizzly tool showroom with HM one day. He spent 2.99 hours looking at various bits. BORING!!!

Some tools:

That thingie to the left of the scrap piece of wood is a square, a level, and a ruler all in one. Pretty nifty little gadget! I've used it a time or two myself on my craft projects. HM shares his nice tools with me. :=)

Once you've figured out the dimensions of your bed, it's time to start the fun stuff! With all building projects the most important rule of thumb is to measure TWICE and cut ONCE. (This applies to both wood and fabric, by the way, so all you stitchers pay attention!)

Measuring...(Check out those muscles in HM's forearms *swoon*)

Cutting... (man with power tools!!)

While your HM is doing all the hard work, do something frivolous like this:

Tell him how much you appreciate all his hard work! And if you don't have a handy man or a man handy, I'm sorry. It's so much more fun when someone else gets to do all the muscle work!

On your end pieces, mark the drill holes (approximately) and then drill the holes for your screws.

Now the fun really starts!! Pick your spot and place your boards near it. Measure against any standing structure to be sure the bed is square to the structure. (I would not have done this. I would've just started building the doggone thing, but HM is a bit anal about his building projects.)

The boards are not secured yet and the stake is barely in the ground.

Once again, measure....

Once you've determined the bed is square to the structure, start pounding the stakes in and screwing it all together.

Sometimes you have to push on the stake to get the board secured tightly.

See the warping we had to deal with??? Both boards were screwed in at the bottom. We really had to work to get that warped board secured tightly.

As you go along and add boards, make sure it's level or else your water will run off to the lowest point. Not a good thing.

While HM is doing all the grunt work, observe spring springing in the great outdoors.

Also take time to check out what's sprung up in the abandoned pots sitting on your back porch.

When it's all said and done and the sun has begun setting on your workday and you've had to run inside to get a sweatshirt because it's turned chilly, step back and admire the work you've accomplished.

Then, 2 or 3 days later, after the project is completed admire your handiwork again. Be sure to take lots of pics to share on your blog, too!!

Next time, we'll discuss filling the bed.

:o)

Rain!

2009-03-13T19:33:00.007-05:00

We've had almost 4.5" of rain since Wednesday. Can I tell you how happy that makes me? We've been so dry this winter and had begun to be in drought conditions. We had rain most of Wednesday, the light, gently kind that really soaks into the ground and waters it deeply. Today, we picked up almost another inch of the glorious wet stuff. Again, it was the nice, gentle kind of rain. Hopefully, this is just the beginning on the spring rains in Texas.

This was my rain gauge yesterday morning. (Happy, happy, joy, joy!)

We've finally warmed up to 39º, a big improvement over the 38º we've had for most of the day! LOL I'm happy with the rain, but not so happy with the temps. I drug in all my tender plants that are waiting to be planted and all my winter sown jugs. They probably would've been okay, but some have sprouted and I didn't want to chance the young sprouts.

After the rain ended, I went and checked out the flower beds. The pincushion flower (scabiosa) I planted last fall has bloomed. It's a very delicate pink and very cute!

The pink Texas salvia that survived the winter put out its first blooms, too!

Here's a different view, but not as easy to see the blooms.

My Autumn Joy sedum is taking off again! It's already bigger this year than it was last year. This is really easy to grow, too. You just take a piece and stick it in the ground and it grows.

Lastly, the first buds on my poppies!!

This afternoon, my husband and I planted 8 more jugs of seeds. This time, I planted:

a Butterfly/Hummingbird mix
Sunset Coneflowers
Purple Coneflowers
Butterfly Weed (orange)
Drummond Phlox (old seed, so I doubt any will germinate)
Dill
White Rock Rose
and something else that I can't remember

I'm hoping that this planting is as successful as the first one!! Next year, I'm going to buy seeds in the fall and plant early January.

An Evening Stoll through My Garden

2009-03-12T18:51:00.000-05:00

The past week, we've had awesome temps, so things are really starting to green up (including the weeds) and I've been itching to get outside and get some dirt on my hands. I'm also gearing up for the spring plant swap. Hope to be able to get some great things as well as give several things away.

The Texas Gold Columbines are really taking off. Starting in February, they start putting out lots of new, green growth in preparation for their annual profusion of blooms. Found my first buds almost ready to pop today! Sorry for the blurry pic, but I was so excited to find the buds!

Among the leaves of covering among the columbines, Pigeonberry is starting to show its leaves.

As always, the Four Nerve Daisies are strutting their stuff.

The daylilies have really leafed out! They look so mature this year, like real clumps! LOL

The poppies are growing. Can't wait for these to set buds and bloom. I threw these out late fall last year. Not even sure how big they get or when they bloom, so it'll be interesting with them. Sometimes the best gardening is trial & error.

This Hummingbird Sage (aka Texas Sage, aka Salvia coccinea) survived the winter and has buds on it. They're about to pop!

This is a very prolific bloomer and seeder, so I got TONS of seeds leftover from last year's harvest. If you're interested, I'm happy to share.

Lastly, my winter sowing project has been a hit! At the beginning of February, I started about 13 milk jugs of seeds outside. I wrote about it on my gardening blog if you want the blow-by-blow description. Out of the 13, only about 4 or 5 don't have anything peeking out yet. I'm most excited about the one pink skullcap seedling I saw today. Here's a peek into a few of the jugs today.

I think these are one of the salvias I planted. These will definitely need to be thinned!

This is a low growing mix from Wildseed Farm. I have no idea what's sprouted in there! LOL

Here's the container of Gaillardia, better known as Blanket Flower.

My Winter Sowing Project

2009-03-01T19:43:00.004-06:00

Starting seeds for your gardens is a lot cheaper than buying seedlings or more mature plants. However, starting seeds indoors is a pain in the patootie. You have to provide consistent water, light, heat, and hope that the gnats and spider mites don't take up residence in your soil and on your seedlings. Mold starts growing on the soil, which kills the seeds. Last fall, at the plant swap I attended, a couple of the ladies were talking about winter sowing. It sounded simple enough, so I decided to give it a go.

In winter sowing, you start your seeds after the winter solstice in the dead of winter. You leave your seeds in milk jugs (or whatever type of container you choose) outside, so that the natural life cycle of sowing seeds in your climate is mimicked. You can fill your entire landscape with plants you've winter sown. Winter sowing allows your seeds to start growing earlier, thus producing flowers earlier. For some perennials that normally don't bloom until their second growing season, you'll often get them the first season if you winter sow.

I chose to use milk jugs, rinsed of course. I asked my husband to drill some drain holes in the bottom and some air holes in the top of the jugs. Then we cut the jug on three of the four sides so that I could fill with dirt and seeds. I used old metal blinds, cut, to label the plants. If you use a plain #2 pencil to write on the blinds, it won't fade and you'll know what seeds you have in the spring.

Here's how I did it.

Step One: Drill drain holes in the bottom of your milk jug.

Mark used his drill and drilled 7 or 8 small holes in the bottoms.

Step Two: Drill vent holes in the top of the jug to allow in air and water. Discard the lids.

Steps Three & Four: Draw a cutting line about 1/4" below the bottom of the jug's handle. Cut it three-fourths of the way around the jug. Fill with about 3" of potting soil.

Step Five: Water the soil and sow your seeds. Cover with about 1/4" of soil and tamp down. Insert label on the INSIDE of the jug. If you label on the outside, use a paint pen as everything else will fade and you'll be stuck with a bunch of unknown seedlings.

Step Six: Tape the sides closed. I used duct tape and cut it into small strips. I placed one strip on each corner and one or two pieces on each side.

Step Seven: Water and place on the east side of your home or yard. This allows the jugs to get morning sun and afternoon shade. When things start heating up, you don't want the seeds to fry. Make sure you place them in the open so they can get any rain that falls. If you put them under the eaves of your house, they'll not get any rain. If you're in a drought like we are, you'll have to water them about once a week.

Step Eight: Wait and watch!!

I started these a week ago, and I noticed some seeds sprouting when I checked on them today!! Oh joy!

Things are Waking Up!!

2009-02-17T08:14:00.010-06:00

It doesn't seem like we've had much winter this year, which is a bummer as the cold weather is needed for some seeds, but it also helps kill off some of the pests. We've also had a dry winter which will affect the amount of wildflowers we have bloom later on the spring.

Things are beginning to pop up around here, though, which is always so exciting. I didn't do much to my beds before the cold weather set in, so it'll be interesting to see what survived the winter. I haven't taken any pics recently, but here are some from late January.

The poppies are starting to come up.

My dormant daylilies are starting to pop up with nice adult-looking leaves.

Out in the front flower bed, the Autumn Joy Sedum is starting to show its little rosettes of new growth.

The Four-Nerve Daisy has been strutting its stuff all winter long!!

The Columbines are putting off lots of new growth and greening up.

The plants I left outside over the winter, crammed up against our sunroom wall, have all survived and are now putting out new growth.

Lastly, almost all of the small plants I overwintered in my sunroom have survived!

Columbine seedlings. Some have been destroyed by spider mites. :(

My frostweed is coming back!! I'm really excited about this!

Various small seedlings and plants leftover from last year's fall round up.

Something for the Birds

2008-11-13T09:51:00.003-06:00

And the squirrels!! The Possum-haw Holly is decked out in all its finery for winter. The bright red berries attract the blue jays and the squirrels. The berries will provide nourishment for the beasts throughout the winter.

Here it was about a month ago. The berries were still a bit green.

Here it was yesterday in the bright sunshine.

Possum-Haw Holly is a native Texas plant. It can be a shrub or small tree. It's great for winter interest, requires little to no care once established. This one is planted in a bad location (came with the house when we moved in) so we do have to trim it a couple of times a year.

My Big Plans Petered Out

2008-10-25T21:10:00.000-05:00

Or, maybe I should say I petered out! I had big plans out in the garden today. It was a perfect gardening day. There was a light breeze, the temps weren't dreadfully cold or hot, and there was lots of bright sunshine. I was going to weed, put down fresh compost, throw out some seeds, then top off with new mulch. The only thing that got accomplished was going to buy mulch, ten...yes, TEN (10) bags of mulch. I also got some pics of what's going on in my flower bed right now. The cool weather has really put a stop to most of my bloomers. So, let's talk mulch.

This is such a beautiful picture. Not only because of the bags of mulch, but because it's in the bed of my truck. My truck that's been out of commission for about 2 months because I thought it was the battery that needed to be replaced. My husband, the mechanic, said it was the fuel something or other. Two months later, turns out it was the battery. Need I say more?!?

I digress.

Mulch is essential in every garden. The two most important functions of mulch are water retention and weed control. A proper layer of mulch, approximately 4", helps the soil retain water, thus cutting down on the amount of water you need to use to keep your plants flourishing. Less water usage equals a lower water bill during those hot summer months. If you live in an area prone to drought and have water rationing, mulching will help your plants stay healthy when you can't water. My favorite kind of mulch to use is a native Texas shredded red cedar mulch. The finely shredded cedar smells GREAT when you take it out of the bag, deters pests, and doesn't usually float away in the rain. The neighbor's cats, however, love to dig in it! LOL

This is what we use in our beds, Texas Native Cedar Mulch from Austin Wood Recycling in Cedar Park, TX. We get it at our local Lowe's. It costs us $3.08/bag. We buy the busted bags for $1 each. What a bargain! I don't like the chunkier mulch as it's a pain in the patootie to use and the bigger chunks float. I used it my first year in a small bed in the back and decided never again! I was sweeping mulch off the patio all the time. Also, you want to avoid the fake-looking colored mulch. It might look pretty, but it's full of chemical coloring. Chemicals are not good for plants and the soil. If I wasn't using shredded cedar, I'd use native hardwood tree mulch, but that's more attractive to nasty bugs, and my goal is to keep the bug population out of my garden. I hate bugs. I'll take bees, birds, hummers, butterflies, anoles, lizards, and ladybugs, though. They're all good bugs to have in the garden. :o)

You can see in the following picture how finely it's shredded. If we had smell computers, you'd be able to smell the wonderful aroma. Too bad we're not that advanced.

Weeds are every gardener's nemesis. I wish we didn't have to deal with weeds. I hate weeds, but they exist. I keep waiting for the weed eradicating fairy to arrive at my house, but I think she got lost along the way. This year, the weeds have been especially bad in my front bed. I think it's because the compost I put in this past spring wasn't really ready and hadn't heated long enough and decomposed properly. I was in a hurry and was still dealing with my back problem.

My plan before the dead of winter sets in is to try to pull the weeds by hand or to dig them out. Then, I'm going to apply some horticultural cornmeal which acts as an anti-fungal and pre-emergent weed killer. On top of that, I'm going to put a layer of newspaper with little slits or cut out areas in which I'll put the various seeds I'm going to sow now for next year. Then, I'll top with some compost from the compost pile and a nice thick layer of mulch. I doubt I'll need all 10 bags. I need to add some to a long narrow bed along the garage and a small bed in the back.

I'll let you know in the spring if my plan worked. I don't want a repeat of this next spring, weeds encroaching upon my Autumn Joy Sedum.

Lastly, there is one other type of mulch we use. It's in ready supply and free. We have a small bed in the front of our house that gets total shade from a huge oak tree. It also gets lots of acorns from said tree, but that's another story for another time, maybe this winter when it's absolutely dead in the garden. Once again, I digress.

So, in this little bed, I have native columbine, pigeonberry, and some daylilies. When we moved in, there was nothing planted in this bed. It was covered in a thick layer of leaves, since the house had been vacant for over a year and the yard had been neglected. When we planted last spring, we dug out all the leaves and hauled them to the compost pile in the backyard. It took us about 4 trips to the compost pile to get all the leaves. We ammended the soil with cottonseed hulls, mushroom compost, and compost from our compost pile, planted our new plants, then put down our cedar mulch. The first good spring rain came, and our mulch washed down the driveway! We decided to put the leaves back in the bed as mulch until we get gutters and a downspout to redirect the rain from the roof. They've worked extremely well and they don't float away.

Here's a pic I took this afternoon of the leaves with some ripe pigeonberries.

Here's what the Columbine bed looks like in early spring when the Columbines are at their growth peak.

Until next time, happy gardening!

Plant Swap! (AKA "Free Plants")

2008-10-19T09:59:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, my husband and I drove over to Arlington to participate in the North Central Texas Plant Swap hosted by the Texas Gardeners group on the Dave's Garden website. What an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon! The weather was absolutely perfect, not too hot and not too cool, a light breeze, and lots of sunshine. There were about 50 of us, give or take a few, and TONS of plants to be traded and given away. Almost all of the plants were from individual's gardens, either from volunteers, dividing clumps, rooting cuttings, or plants people didn't want any longer.

Here's what I took:

I had some Rock Rose (pavonia), Ruellia "Katie's Pink", a couple of Shasta Daisy "Becky", and May Night Salvia. Yesterday, I dug up several starts of Pigeonberry that I discovered out by the compost pile and took those along as well.

This is what I came home with:

I don't know what half of these things are, but thankfully they're all labeled!

More plants.

My husband scored a tomato plant with little flowers on it as well as some seed starting trays.

Here's a picture of the trade tables. Every member was assigned a spot at the tables and it was marked with each person's board name. Plants brought for pre-arranged trades were put under the table at each person's place. Extras were put on top of the tables.

I am already making plans for the spring swap!! Now all I have to do is get all this stuff planted before the first freeze!

May's Been a Busy Month in the Garden!

2008-05-31T09:20:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been a month since I posted. I've been incredibly busy, my back has been bothering me again (& that means limited time to sit much less bend and work in the garden), and my DH's started physical therapy for his back which means he's sore and tired and I'm doing more household chores. Having said that, let's venture out to the garden.

The Veronicas are blooming! I love these because they do well in our heat, the bees love them, the butterflies love them, and they require little water once established.

The two pics above show Veronica "Red Fox Speedwell". I've actually had it in this bed for 3 years, but it wasn't in the best of locations, so it never bloomed and it almost died each year. Earlier this spring, I moved it to a spot where it gets lots of sun and isn't being crowded out by other plants and it's loving it! I've had blooms on it continuously for a month now. I love the bright pink color.

Lookie What BloomedToday!

2008-04-29T18:08:00.000-05:00

My self-sown from I don't know where bloomed out today. It's a gorgeous coreopsis of some kind.

The salvia in the backyard are now blooming. When we first moved into this house, DH would mow it down eventho I told him it was a good plant, not a weed. It dies back in the winter, but comes back every spring for me. I think this year, I'm going to try to root some cuttings from it.

More Spring in the Garden

2008-04-18T10:20:00.000-05:00

Four Nerve Daisy is one of my favorite plants. It blooms from early March until the first frost in November. It's a happy little thing and spreads easily. I haven't figured out how to propagate it from seed yet, but I'm testing rooting cuttings. It produces a plethora of blooms that open in the light of day and close at day's end.

This is what I started with in 2006. The Four Nerve Daisy is the clump of green at the top of this pic.

Here's what it looks like now, 2 years later.

It looks great in the landscape, especially with purples.

Spring Has Sprung!

2008-04-17T17:29:00.000-05:00

It's been slow going around here as both my husband and I have been suffering from back problems for the past six months. Nothing was done out in the flower beds last fall and I didn't start any seeds over the winter months. I did bring in some plants from outside, mainly daylilies, but a couple of other things had survived the summer so they rode out the winter in our unheated sunroom. Those have all been moved outside and are thriving. I do have a serious infestation of aphids and tomorrow plan on taking a trip to the feed store to buy ladybugs.

Here's what's blooming in my yard right now.

Texas Gold Columbine is blooming like crazy! They've been blooming continuously for about the past month and I'm so pleased with them.

It's hard to believe, but the plants are even loaded down with more blooms than in this last picture! Now I'm waiting for them to put out seeds so I can harvest them.

The May Night Salvia in the full sun bed in the front is growing and blooming like mad! I just love the rich purple blooms. The bees like them, too, and are all over it!

I'll be back with more later, but right now, dinner calls!!

Colors in the Garden

2007-06-06T20:11:00.000-05:00

Hosted on Fotki

A close-up view of some of the colors in my garden. In the front is Veronica Spicata (pink & white), Yellow & Orange Cosmos, and Coreopsis "Early Sunrise".

Hosted on Fotki

One of my unknown daylilies that was here when we moved into the house. I was sooo excited when it put out a scape. (A scape is the thing that shoots up with the buds on it.)

Hosted on Fotki

Another unknown daylily from the backyard. I love this one better than yellow! It looks great with the salvia planted near it. Again, this was here when we moved in.

One more view of the daylily from the top.

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Lots of "Firsts" to Share

2007-05-24T08:44:00.000-05:00

As the season progresses, things continue to grow and flower. It's so exciting to see my plants from last year shape up and then flower!

Here are the first blooms on some volunteer French Hollyhocks I transplanted to the side of our driveway.

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These are doing well in their new home also. I actually transplanted 3, but 2 are crowding out the 1 planted in between them, so I might pull out the 3rd plant and just let the 2 have the space.

Here's the first bloom on the Tall Mexican Petunia (ruellia) volunteers I planted.

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These are along the driveway where they get the hot west sun late in the day, so I'm hoping they'll thrive and flourish there.

First buds on some of the assorted daylilies I planted. I can't wait for these to open so I can see what color they are!

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Then finally, the mystery plant from the backyard has turned out to be a daylily!! I have about 5 of these and this one finally put out a bloom! We've lived here for 3 years and have never seen these things bloom. These plants came with the house. I was beginning to think it was some kind of grass. LOL

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I'm thinking this didn't open all the way because it was being crowded out by the powdery mildew infested crape myrtle growing above it. It also may have been because we've been having some very overcast days this past week.

View of the Front Flower Bed

2007-05-10T17:59:00.000-05:00

This is the 2nd year for this bed. We are in the process of expanding it. What fun!! Get to plant more stuff!!

White Gaura in bloom (I just LOVE this plant!! Such delicate flowers)

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Coreopsis, "Early Sunrise" Blooming like crazy. I think it's 4 times the size it was when I planted it last year. This is my all-time favorite wildflower.

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Cosmos, reseeded from last year's plants. There are some with itty bitty buds on them. Can't wait to see them bloom! There are LOTS of volunteers of these throughout the bed.

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Pink & White Veronica I love this plant, but don't know much about it. Last year it was blue! LOL

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Rock Rose loaded with buds! I enjoy the happy pink flowers this produces. Lasts all summer and looks great!

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View from the street

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