I think it’s about time

sb158 | September 25, 2009

i-think-its-about-time

I updated. I keep meaning to update, but keep getting sidetracked by my kids on FB, playing The Beatles Rockband, or just life.

Totally OT, but The Beatles Rockband is a blast!

Anyway, things are looking up in the garden. We’ve finally gotten some substantial rain and somewhat cooler temps, and the plants are very appreciative (as is the gardener). The fall tomatoes, cukes, and melons are doing quite well so far, except for eaten leaves. I’m thinking snails or slugs, since I can’t find any other bugs. I mixed up a snail and slug bait I found on the Net, consisting of 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of yeast mixed into a quart of water. Put some out today in individual applesauce cups, so we’ll see what happens.

Got lots of flowers growing in all those lovely containers Hubby bought me a while ago, and more babies sprouting in the house under lights. Time to start the wildflowers pretty soon, too, but I need to make some free-draining soil mix for most of them. Plan to go get the ingredients this weekend, but if the stuff I have here doesn’t dry out, it may have to wait till it does. There’s no doubt it’ll stop raining soon; always does here! Found alot of cool containers on clearance at Dollar General, too. Shopping for that sort of stuff is MUCH cheaper this time of year than in the spring.

So here are a couple pics I took of the garden babies:

 

More later; I’ll try to be better about this…

 

-- Weather When Posted --

  • Temperature: 78°F;
  • Humidity: 84%;
  • Heat Index: 80°F;
  • Wind Chill: 78°F;
  • Pressure: 29.98 in.;

Still not much new

sb158 | August 23, 2009

still-not-much-new

Still too hot, dry, and windy for much to grow. The green beans I planted are toasting in the sun, only a few still hanging on. Still washing aphids by the herds off my peppers.

I did pull out the nasty cukes, since they were just infested with God-only knows what. I refreshed the dirt where the tomatoes and cukes were, and found some really big, ugly grubs in there. Threw them out into the lawn to fry in the sun, or be eaten by mockingbirds. Either way works.

Speaking of mockingbirds, I just barely managed to save some baby plants from that bugger the other day. I’d put some baby zinnias and dahlias on the picnic table to start hardening off, and just happened to glance out the window in time to see that bugger light on the table and start eying my babies as if deciding which buffet item to eat first. Ran out the door yelling at it, then set about finding something to protect them. Now I keep them covered when they’re out there, at least until they’re a bit bigger.

I had a bush bean plant starting to blossom the other day, and was getting all excited at the prospect of at least a few green beans. Went out the next day to find the blossoms and a good number of the leaves just gone. I put a cage around them, too, and haven’t seen any new violations. Then there were the lablab beans. They had a few nice blossoms on them one day, next day…nothing. Can’t put them in a cage, so am still trying to figure out what to do about that, aside from shooting me a mockingbird – and going to jail! This is war!

My baby tomatoes are just about ready to be planted in their new homes. I’ve left them out overnight and in direct sun for a couple days, despite the feeling that I’m torturing the poor babies. They’ve survived, so far, so I guess it’s time to plant them. I’ll get started on that tomorrow, I guess.

I mentioned that the green beans were frying; think I may have an idea to help. I’ve got all those nice containers, and some baby sunflower seeds, as well as a blue salvia almost ready to be planted. I decided to plant a few baby sunflowers and the salvia in a container on the windward side of the green bean planter. Maybe they’ll get just tall enough to be a bit of a windbreak and give a bit of shade. At this point, I’m desperate and liable to come up with any number of weird ideas.

Sigh…gardening in TX is not for the faint of heart.

-- Weather When Posted --

  • Temperature: 79°F;
  • Humidity: 87%;
  • Heat Index: 83°F;
  • Wind Chill: 79°F;
  • Pressure: 29.95 in.;

Not Much New…

sb158 | August 14, 2009

not-much-new

It’s still too hot; Hubby’s weather gizmo says 111 today. Much as I hated to, I had to go out there and spray the aphids off my peppers again; gotta keep up with it, as the little buggers multiple faster than tribbles(Trekkie reference, y’all). I got myself soaked in the process, which was a good thing. Cooled me off in that awful heat; probably kept me from dying of heatstroke.

Got all my SWC’s cleaned out and mixed some new dirt, getting ready for Round 2, which should commence shortly. Got tomatoes, peppers, and some broccoli, among other things, big enough to harden off. I put them on Hubby’s picnic table, in the shade, but am slowly exposing them to a bit more sun every day. Really gotta watch ‘em, though; this wind and heat will fry the poor little babies faster than I can blink.

Got some seeds sprouting to fill a couple off my new containers, and just got an idea for another one last nite while I should have been sleeping. I’ll start the seeds in a bit.

A couple weird things, though. I was about to pull my cukes, as they just aren’t fruiting, and are infested with whiteflies, among other things. All of a sudden they have just started growing like gangbusters, so now I’m debating. The watermelons in the SWC’s are doing the same thing. For a while it’s looked like they were barely hanging on, so I was babying them along hoping the melons would ripen before they expired. Now they’ve started growing new vines and blossoms, too. We’ll see what happens.

Later…

Sometimes Hubby

sb158 | August 7, 2009

sometimes-hubby

is the sweetest guy. He was at the grocery store yesterday, and noticed they had a bunch of ceramic pots on clearance. Apparently they’re getting rid of summer stuff to replace it with…Christmas, maybe? He called and asked me if I wanted any; I’m sure you know my answer. He came home with 5 10.5″ pots, and asked me if I wanted any more. I told him I’d take all he wanted to buy; a gardener can always find something to plant in an empty pot, right?

So he came home today with 2 half-barrels and a bunch more ceramic pots. Pics and peppers within… (more…)

-- Weather When Posted --

  • Temperature: 88°F;
  • Humidity: 55%;
  • Heat Index: 93°F;
  • Wind Chill: 88°F;
  • Pressure: 29.91 in.;

Been putting this off, but

sb158 | July 26, 2009

been-putting-this-off-but

it’s time. (Cue scary music) I have to update my version of Wordpress. If I disappear for a while, you’ll know why. Went fine on my local copy, so I’m hoping…

I keep a copy of my blog running on my PC at home, and always try out new stuff there before I screw with the online version. Anything can happen, and I sure don’t want to kill my blog…

Also time to be making some more monster pots. Been putting this off because it makes a giant mess I have to clean…but it’s time to start the flowers I want, so I gotta do it. The pots I made back in April or so are holding up well so far, so it’s time to try again. I need a few 14″ pots, as well as a small trough in which to plant some creeping thyme and other herbs. I’m gonna use the top of a small BBQ grill as the form for that one. Wish me luck!

Later, time for Hubby’s birthday cake.

EDIT: Well, so far so good. I’ve updated and the blog hasn’t crashed. Now I’m trying a new toy, a video player… just a little e-card for Hubby.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

-- Weather When Posted --

  • Temperature: 84°F;
  • Humidity: 76%;
  • Heat Index: 93°F;
  • Wind Chill: 84°F;
  • Pressure: 29.97 in.;

Been A While, so…

sb158 | July 24, 2009

been-a-while-so

Not really much going on in my garden, other than the fact that it’s being slowly baked to death by 111 degree temperatures. Not every day, but it has hit at least 109 for the past several days. Yesterday it was 110. I had a few minor things to do out there, and by the time I came in, I had sweat pouring off me. Didn’t stop for the next hour. Felt all woozy, too. Had to come in and sit in front of the AC for a while just to keep from dying. Would have taken a shower, but had a load of laundry going. Can’t do both at the same time around here…LOL.

By the time Garden Blog Death Day rolls around, I’ll have plenty to share. All the Roma tomatoes have ripened, not that there were all that many. The plants are just hanging around until I pull them out. Got some replacement stuff growing now, but it’ll be a few weeks until it’s ready to plant. I let the sickly zucchini expire, too, so that’ll be in the Death Day post.

The Heatwave tomato plants look awful, too, but they at least have a bunch of tomatoes ripening, if I can get them before the mockingbirds decide they’re ready to eat. The only thing that doesn’t seem bothered at all by the heat is the Lablab bean I planted. It just keeps growing taller, and has finally reached the top of the arbor thingy. Getting some side shoots now too, so maybe the arbor will finally start serving it’s intended purpose by the time I plant Round Two in early September.

The biggest thing I’ve accomplished is finishing the Excel seed-starting chart I got at I Wet My Plants.com. It was fine for Canada, but, boy, did it need a lot of work for South TX. Took me quite some time, and lots of tedium, to enter all my seeds, correlate the planting dates to the Texas Gardener magazine Planning Calender, and get it all set up for my area. Now, however, it is tailored to my garden, and it is really cool. Just print and plant…eliminates alot of the mind-breaking co-ordination two (well, really, 3) garden seasons requires.

That’s about it for now. Got dinner cooking and gotta get back to it…

Picnic Tables and Garden Progress

sb158 | July 9, 2009

picnic-tables-and-garden-progress

I told my daughter I’d take a pic of Hubby’s (almost) finished picnic table, so here it is, Jen:

Mouseover to see bigger pic; click the thumb to see the really big pic.


Just needs to be stained and it’ll be done. Already had a couple offers to buy it, too!

 

As for the garden, just been keeping up with the routine chores. It’s been hot, so watering is critical, and been cleaning aphids off my peppers every other day. Been cleaning them off everything, actually, but they seem to really like the peppers.

Got a few more cukes coming along, one will probably be ready tomorrow, the other the next day, and more shortly thereafter. I did harvest an actual ripe Heatwave tomato, too, and more are starting to ripen. The Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes are a major disappointment. The tomatoes are tiny, and split every time we get a little rain shower. Admittedly, that’s all too rare, but still…

As soon as the few tomatoes left on the plants ripen, I’m pulling them out and replacing them with another variety of bush tomato I started a few days ago. They haven’t even sprouted yet, and won’t be ready for a while, but I’m hoping they’ll do better than the others.

And now a few pics of garden progress since my last post:

 

The Kentucky Wonder pole beans I planted to grow up the arbor thingy are finally doing so. The french filet pole beans are not doing well at all, and the bush beans are even worse. The Contender beans bit the dust a while ago. They look like they have some sort of disease, and something still keeps eating just the leaves. KY Wonder have some disease resistance, so that may be why they are doing better. I bought some bush beans that have good disease resistance, and have them germinating in paper towels at the moment. I’ll put them out soon as they sprout. The other ones will probably end up being my post for Garden Blogger’s Death Day this month.

As if keeping up with the watering, harvesting, and debugging weren’t enough, it’s already time to be planning my fall garden. I’m supposed to have planted tomato and pepper seeds to put out come late August for my fall garden. I did start the tomato seeds, but am undecided on the peppers. Mine are just now starting to blossom and fruit, and should last until frost, if we ever actually ever get one. Unless, of course, the aphids eat them before then! If I start more, I may have to pull producing plants; if I don’t and the aphids kill them I’m SOL. What would you do?

I have to be thinking about all the cool season crops, like lettuce, parsley, potatoes, etc, and still find room for the fall hot weather crops. Gonna be a tricky juggling act, for sure. Then there are all the perennials I want to start, too…and the herbs…Oy, giving myself a headache thinking about it!

That’s about all the garden news, so here’s a personal note…

Today is my middle daughter’s birthday, so Happy Birthday, Chrissy!

My son and his girlfriend were here from the Thursday before the 4th until yesterday. He’s moving back here, as he’s applying to a local police force. My brother-in-law’s son has a relation on his wife’s side who is already a cop there, and he says they really need people. So I guess Mike will be staying until he actually gets hired, goes to the police academy, and actually starts working. Be nice having him here; he’s my “baby” and I like having him around – most of the time!

Whew! Think that’s just about enough for this post. Didn’t start out to write a novel; hope you didn’t get too bored!

-- Weather When Posted --

  • Temperature: 82°F;
  • Humidity: 81%;
  • Heat Index: 89°F;
  • Wind Chill: 82°F;
  • Pressure: 29.98 in.;

Garden Update

sb158 | June 27, 2009

garden-update

I took some new pics today, as promised, to see what a difference some rain makes. I gotta say, I need to take more macro photos, as I did not see all the bugs on the plants with my old, half-blind eyes. It’s a good thing the garden is scheduled for a bath tonight, anyway, unless it stays too hot.

Pics within: (more…)

-- Weather When Posted --

  • Temperature: 91°F;
  • Humidity: 55%;
  • Heat Index: 99°F;
  • Wind Chill: 91°F;
  • Pressure: 29.8 in.;

Hallelujah and Thank You

sb158 | June 23, 2009

hallelujah-and-thank-you

We’re finally getting some rain and (slightly) cooler temperatures! Not nearly as much as we need, but, at this point, I’m thankful for whatever we get. I expect my plants will grow a foot overnight!

Here are some pics I took about a week ago that show how much the garden had grown while I was in Colorado. Compare them to these pics.

Pics within (more…)

-- Weather When Posted --

  • Temperature: 78°F;
  • Humidity: 90%;
  • Heat Index: 80°F;
  • Wind Chill: 78°F;
  • Pressure: 29.86 in.;

Squeaking In Under The Wire

sb158 | May 12, 2009

squeaking-in-under-the-wire

Whew! Can’t believe it, but I’ve worked my tush off and just about finished everything I needed to do before I leave for Colorado. Darn near killed myself out there working in that ridiculous heat, but I did get a nice tan out of it…

My shade arbor is done, SWCs filled and planted, including the pole bean seeds that are supposed to grow up the poles and shade my tomatoes.
Here’s a pic, (more…)

-- Weather When Posted --

  • Temperature: 80°F;
  • Humidity: 76%;
  • Heat Index: 84°F;
  • Wind Chill: 80°F;
  • Pressure: 29.83 in.;