sb158’s Valley Garden

sb158 | July 9, 2010

While Alex made landfall about 100 miles south of us, we didn’t escape unscathed, by any means. We got some wind and plenty of rain, but it poured on the Rio Grande and Falcon Lake watersheds. So now, we have this…

This is still well upstream to us, but it’s getting closer. They released some water from Falcon Lake into the flood-ways, which has made its way here. On top of that, we had “Tropical Depression 2,” which didn’t get strong enough for a name, but is still dumping rain on us. The mosquitoes are as big as B-52s, and really vicious, and there is water all over the place. Not to mention the disgusting humidity…

Alex shredded the zucchini, broke the cantaloupe vines, and gave the Gold Bar Melon a terminal case of powdery mildew. I saved 3 cantaloupe; the rest either fell off and splattered, or split because of all the water. Got lots of Gold Bar Melons, though I still haven’t tasted them. Been eating the cantaloupe…

My arbor blew over, as I expected, and pulled some plants out by the roots. I have one surviving cucumber, which seems to have been resurrected by either the rain or the compost I put on it. The tomatoes all have blight, I think. And tomato fruit-worms…I’ve had to throw away at least 2 dozen tomatoes with icky worms eating the insides out. I’ll let what fruit remains ripen, then pull them out. I’ve got some more volunteer babies coming up in the compost I put on the containers, so I’ll transplant them and see what happens.

The jalapenos and Fruit Basket bells are doing great; The pole beans I planted a bit ago seem okay so far, too. For now!

So, not a complete loss, but annoying still! Gotta tell ya, though, it is no fun trying to garden wearing long sleeved shirts to protect against mosquitoes in this heat (in between rain storms). I’ve been using the Off clip-on thingy, but it’s pretty ineffective against the hordes of evil beasties out there now. I need to spray for aphids and icky diseases, too, but it just keeps raining. Maybe by Monday or so the rain will be gone…I hope.

So, that’s the state of the garden for now. More later…

Category: Garden Stuff, Personal Stuff | 4 Comments »
Tags: Alex, garden, weather, whining

sb158 | June 28, 2010

As if I didn’t have enough to worry about, right? Now we’re gonna get hurricaned on. That can’t be good for gardens. Alex is gonna come along and kill the almost-ripe cantaloupes I have been babying along and salivating over for weeks. Mother Nature is a b*&ch! No fair at all!

Seriously, I have no idea what to do with all my containers and the arbor thingy. If I leave them there, they will probably end up in the next county, or maybe in the neighbor’s living room, but I really have no secure place to put them. No room in the house at all. I guess I’ll stick the ones that fit under the picnic table, as that thing is so heavy it may be okay. The rest, I guess I’ll put behind the lattice. Not gonna be of much use, but at least I’ll know I tried. Don’t really want my containers flying through somebody’s window at all.

I just hope ole Alex politely fizzles out and goes away. Hurricanes are no fun when you have to go to your BIL’s house and sit in the dark with no AC and nothing to do until it goes away. This time, I’m bringing beer (even if it will get warm!) and my bottle of rum. If I have to be miserable, I’d prefer oblivious!

If you’ve got an in with MN, would you mind asking her nicely to be gentle?

Category: Garden Stuff, Personal Stuff | 2 Comments »
Tags: Alex, garden, weather

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: Personal Stuff, containers, flowers | No Comments »
Tags: containers, flowers, personal

sb158 | September 12, 2009

Happy Birthday Nick! I know I missed your birthday, technically, but I did get this posted while it was still your birthday in MY time zone…

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Category: Personal Stuff | No Comments »
Tags: Happy Birthday

sb158 | July 31, 2009

This is just a Happy Birthday to my second grandson. As of today, I now have 2 teenaged grandsons. Can’t be right; I can’t possibly be THAT old. Sigh…
In any case, Happy Birthday, Kyle. Love Ya! Hope you’re having a great day.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Category: Personal Stuff | No Comments »
Tags: Happy Birthday

sb158 | July 26, 2009

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.

Category: Experimental, Personal Stuff, containers | 2 Comments »
Tags: Monster Mud, updating Wordpress

sb158 | July 9, 2009

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

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!

Category: Personal Stuff, Seeds/Seed-starting, Veggies, containers | 2 Comments »
Tags: containers, Green Beans, personal, shade arbor, Veggies

sb158 | June 16, 2009

Been home about 10 days. Spent a couple days getting readjusted to the (much) lower altitude and (MUCH) higher temps and humidity. Then I had a bunch of catch up to do in the garden. Surprisingly, I only lost a few plants, and they were the ones I half expected to expire, anyway. Then there were the ones the dog ate, but that happens…

Thoroughly enjoyed my trip. Colorado Springs is an amazingly beautiful place, and there is so much to see in the area. We went up Pike’s Peak, visited the Garden of the Gods, saw the Air Force Academy, and went to Seven Falls. Saw lots of other stuff, too. Spent a lot of time with my wonderful, adorable grandsons, which was the best part of the whole deal, apart from watching Jen graduate.

I took more than 200 pictures, which I will be posting in a gallery eventually. I took one of them and made the wallpaper below:

Click the thumbnail to see full-size and download.

Jen and her boys: very proud of all of you! Luv U very much.

 

Now, back to the garden. (more…)

Category: Garden Stuff, Personal Stuff | 2 Comments »
Tags: art, Colorado, garden, Jen's graduation, personal

sb158 | May 14, 2009

Only about an hour away from leaving for the airport. I left Hubby with (I hope) complete instructions for plant care. I have every confidence that he’ll do the best he can to make sure I still have a garden about which to blog when I get back.
Jen says that things are just beginning to bloom up there. If I spot any pretties and have the camera handy, I’ll take pics. Don’t know how much access I’ll have, but will post if I can.

Category: Personal Stuff | No Comments »
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sb158 | May 4, 2009

Much better day today, since the guy fixed the AC first thing this morning. Good thing, too, cuz hubby bought this gadget that collects weather information. The gadget said the high today was 101. Felt that hot, for sure.

So I finished my two Monster Pots, as I mentioned. Here’s a pic of the jasmine pot: (more…)

Category: Garden Stuff, Personal Stuff, Planning, Recipes and Cooking, Square Foot Gardening, containers, design/build, flowers, herbs | 11 Comments »
Tags: basil, containers, herbs, shrubs, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies