sb158′s Valley Garden

admin | March 31, 2010

Just a quick note on what I did today. Couldn’t do as much as planned cuz the water in the park was off until after 1 PM today – major PITA, and it happens with great frequency around here. Hard to garden without water…

Anyway, yesterday I posted a pic of the pot of Gazania. Decided it was overcrowding the pot. I bought a 6 pk at the nursery last year for $1.00, cuz it was darn near dead. They survived the horrible summer, and the freezes this winter. Seemed to like it, actually. There’s also a verbena in that pot, but the gazania were crowding it out. So today, after the water came on, I took out three of the gazania, moved two of them to balance the pot, and trimmed back the verbena. Hated to do it, cuz the gazania was already blooming, and the verbena had buds. Have to give the roots time to establish before they bloom, though.

Here’s a pic of the repotted and separated babies…

Hubby decided that we are definitely moving out of this park and into a house. Told me to start looking. He got thoroughly fed up with the high electric bills – a mobile home is like living in a solar-powered oven, especially down here in S. TX, and the AC bills get outrageous. Besides that, the town we’re in charges the park the commercial rate for water, which is very high. On top of that, they charge the park sewage rates for every lot in the park, occupied of not. The occupiers (i.e., us) get assessed a share of that every month, too. So, yea, the rent sounds great, until you add in all the rest of it. DH finally figured out we could be in a much nicer house for the total of what we’re paying here.

Upshot of all that is, I’m going to be house-hunting, packing (YUK), and moving, which means not much gardening’s gonna get done. I’m glad he decided now, instead of a month from now, before I put too much into the garden. Containers are much more portable!

No telling when I’ll be updating again. Try to make it sooner rather than later; can’t promise, though.

Category: containers, flowers, Personal Stuff | 1 Comment »
Tags: containers, flowers, personal

admin | March 30, 2010

It sure has been a while. I’m not dead yet, but you probably thought so! Lots of reasons, but the worst was the arthritis. Really got bad this winter; hurt to move at all most of the time. Finally got that under control, with the help of Joint Juice, Schiff MoveFree, and finding an arthritis prescription that actually works.

So…when last I posted, the Winter Garden was looking promising. Didn’t last long, for sure. Something started eating the leaves on all my cukes and melons, then the changing sun angle made the bed too shady. Ended up just pulling it all in disgust.

Still had tomatoes in containers and basil for a while, till we got an almost-unheard-of early frost. Even though I covered them, poor things just got too cold and expired. I did manage to save most of my flowers in containers, though I lost a few. Nothing special, though, just annuals. The lettuce, peas, spinach, and swiss chard did quite well, though, despite my neglect. We had substantial rain, for a change, and enough cold to discourage most of the buggies.

We’re also sort-of-looking for a bigger place, so was undecided about starting seeds for spring. In the end, I decided to use mostly containers, in case we actually do move. Still starting too late, but, now that I can actually move without pain, I’m gonna give it a try.

Some things are blooming, new stuff is growing, and the volunteer tomato plants in the compost are already flowering and fruiting. Found them in there a while ago, in the foot or so of compost left in the bin. Moved them into the sun, and have been adding a couple inches of potting soil at a time, as they grow. Kind of like potatoes, I guess, and the tomatoes seem to be thriving so far!

So here are a few pics of my poor neglected garden thus far. Working on it, though; it should get better soon!

So that’s a peek into my garden thus far. Got seeds starting and plans to be implemented, so I hope I can manage to keep updating with some frequency…

Category: containers, flowers, Veggies | 4 Comments »
Tags: containers, flowers, Veggies