On to the blanketflowers. Pics and more
I found a few blanketflower seeds (I hoped) in a wildflower mix from Wildseed Farms (see link on left bottom), and threw them in the container with my Ruttya shrub I bought last spring. Obviously, I was right, since I have blooming blanketflowers. Here’s a couple pics:

Mouseover the thumb to see the big picture. Click for the really big pic.

Always loved these colors.

Like the way the blanketflower picks up the yellow of the lantana, and contrasts with the salvia.

And last, but certainly not least, my red mini-rose is blooming. The others all have buds, but not quite blooming yet.

Such a pretty little thing.

Today I turned over the part of my raised bed into which I am going to plant all my nicely growing baby hot peppers. I’ve got jalapenos (Hubby’s fav), Joe Parker Numex peppers, Ancho chiles, and an heirloom called Pasilla Bajo. The babies are filling up the yogurt cups with roots, so in another day or two, into the garden they go.

Since you’re not really supposed to plant sweet peppers too close to hot peppers, I’m planting two sweet peppers called Fruit Basket, that are bred to grow in hanging baskets. The baskets are all ready, just waiting for the babies to get big enough. They are going to hang from my tree; we’ll see how they do.

Well, that covers blanketflowers and babies; all that’s left are the weird ideas. A while ago, on GardenGirlTV, I saw a vid about a 30 minute flower garden. She used these things called “Garden Socks” into which she planted her 30-minute flower garden. If you’re curious, I found it on her resources page. Anyway, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a “sock” out of landscape fabric, and try to plant something in it. I finally figured out how to work it; am almost done with it. When it’s done, I’ll show you what I did, and if it actually works. Figured, what the heck, it could be fun to try!

Well, that’s annoying. All day I’ve been thinking about things to blog about, and now that I’m in front of the computer, can’t remember what I wanted to say. Oh, well. That’s the way it goes. Ta-ta for now…

Pics and More

Here’s a pic of all my babies so far. Not much to see, yet, but they are growing.

So, after all the rain and cloudiness, I did a baking soda spray (1 Tbsp baking soda, 1 Tbsp Murphy’s Oil Soap in a gallon of water) just to be on the safe side. I’d prefer to prevent the diseases instead of treat them. After remembering all the aphids and spider mites last year, I have also decided to try a water spray-off of everything in the garden every 3 or 4 days, just to wash off as many potential problems as possible. If I keep it up, and the weather doesn’t get too miserable, I may actually get something this year.

Planting a bunch of flower seeds, as well, mostly annuals. I saw a butterfly/bird garden plan in the garden mag I bought, and decided to see what I could do in containers. If it works, cool! If not, oh well, live and learn. Not losing much but a few seeds and some sweat equity…

Meanwhile, here are some pics of the current state of the garden.

Time to let the California Poppies go to seed, I think. Been religiously deadheading so far, but they are looking a bit the worse for wear, so I’ll let them make seed to collect, then pull them out to make room for something else.

The Laura Bush petunias, on the other hand, are doing great. Love these plants!

The beans I planted a while ago are growing nicely. The pole beans are starting to run, and the half-runners are stretching out as well.

The baby beans I planted a couple weeks after that are up and growing, too. These are bush beans. There are melons planted around the trellis thing. The bottles are buried to provide efficient watering when summer really kicks in. Which it seems to have done today…

And last, but certainly not least, the tomatoes keep on keeping on, which makes me very happy…

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week…

I bet you know what comes next. The garden dept at Lowe’s. Yup. Almost as bad as a book store. I needed stuff to make Al’s container mix, and a little batch of gritty mix for the herbs. When all was said and done, I spent about $80.00, cuz I needed seed-starting mix, vermiculite, perlite, orchid bark mix and on and on. Then of course there was the new hose nozzle – old one died – and, oh yea, the creeping lemon thyme, Provence lavender, marjoram, and rosemary I just had to have. And the garden magazine. And the seeds. Only 3 packs, I swear…SIGH…

To make things even worse, I had to lug all that potting soil, etc, to the truck cuz the helper lady was helping a lady even older than me. So I’m trying to manhandle that cart thing in the vague direction of my truck, and I wandered off without the bag with the dog chain in it. The whole reason (so I told myself) I went in the first place. Naturally I didn’t remember until I was pulling in the driveway, so I had to turn right around and go back after it. Was still there, no problem, but…

Oh well. Once I got home, I made a small batch of gritty mix and planted the herbs. I put the marjoram, lemon thyme, and creeping thyme I already had in one of the ceramic pots Hubby got me on clearance last fall, but I also took a little piece off each to try another experiment. Hubby bought one of those cheap little charcoal grills for something or other, but I think he only used it once. The top (pretty red) was just taking up space in the laundry room, so I took off the handles and grill supports, lined it with a piece of coco fiber mat to keep the soil marginally cooler, and filled that with gritty mix, too. I put the little pieces from the other herbs in it, and will plant the common thyme seeds I bought today, maybe tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.

Once I got done with all that, it was getting dark, and I was starving. Forgot to eat lunch today, and breakfast was a long time ago. Called it quits for today, and made a left-over roasted chicken sandwich.

I know it ’s way late, but one little corner of my raised bed is close enough to the house that it gets some shade even in summer. I had a foot or so of space once I pulled out the borage, so I decided to take a chance and plant some lettuce and spinach. Between the house and the swiss chard next to it, the spot may get enough shade to let them grow, at least for a while. Some of it’s already sprouting – so far, so good. Also planted some carrots. May not do well, but all it cost to try was a few seeds.

Just a couple flowers:

Blue Larkspur

Blue Bachelor Button

Tired and gotta get up early to ride to McAllen and have breakfast with Hubby’s nephew and his wife. That’s all she wrote, for now…

I have a cookbook that used to belong to my mom’s mom; was printed in 1920-something. It’s got a lot of old-fashioned recipes, and sometimes I find just what I’m looking for. Wanted to use some navy beans and leftover ham tonight, so went recipe hunting. Finally looked in Grandma’s cookbook. Imagine my surprise when I found a baked bean recipe that had been quantity-adjusted in Grandma’s handwriting. Made me tear up a minute, then I smiled. And used the recipe…

Had to go hunting for a good cornbread recipe to go with the beans; none of the ones I have turned out especially good. Found one on About.com that sounded good. It has to be the best cornbread I have ever made. I used 2 Tablespoons of honey, and it was still very sweet. If you don’t like sweet cornbread, adjust the amount, or leave it out altogether. But it came out moist and light; not at all dry or heavy like cornbread can be.

The beans were good, too; least, I thought so…

Honey Buttermilk Cornbread

Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:

* 2 cups stone ground cornmeal
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 cup buttermilk
* 3/4 cup milk
* 3 tablespoons honey
* 1/4 cup melted butter, cooled

Preparation:
Heat oven to 400°. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan or spray with nonstick baking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, milk, honey, and melted butter.

Stir the liquid mixture into the dry mixture until blended. Spread in the prepared baking pan.

Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

In garden news, yesterday the beans I planted with the repotted mums weren’t sprouting yet. Today they are starting to sprout. Got dill and cilantro sprouting, too. Probably already to hot to get much out of either, but the flowers will attract beneficials, so it’s all good. All the cukes and watermelons still looking good, so I really have to thin pretty soon.

Not much else new in the garden; just trying to keep up with the watering due to the hot wind…as usual…Supposed to get a cool front some time tonight with possible showers. Surely do hope so.

Then I decided I’d divide the mums (yea, I know, should’ve been done ’round about February) while I was taking advantage of the clouds. I bought two cushion mums last fall (clearance is a wonderful thing); they bloomed themselves out and grew all winter. Pretty much took over the container. Hate do do this, but to divide, you gotta massacre all those pretty mums-to-be. It actually hurt… Here’s a couple “before” pics:

And then (Guh! Feel like Norman Bates here) I took the pruners to all those buds. Still wincing. Here’s an after:

Dug out the plants; divided the yellow mum into 2 plants, but the burgundy mum seems more vigorous. Divided that one into 4 little plants. Now they look like this:

Thought about this last night when I should have been sleeping. Decided the mums would look nice in a 24″ window box with the extra gazanias I transplanted a few days ago. So here they are in the new home:

I put the other two new mums in gallon pots, then moved pots and box to a shady spot and started praying I didn’t kill anything.

Meanwhile, I put one of each back in the original pot. See, plenty of room for more plants now:

So, more it is. I planted a couple Scarlet Runner, French Filet, and KY Wonder pole beans in the back. Put a couple Hestia half-runner beans in front to (hopefully) trail nicely down the pot, then stuck in a few Medinah bush beans behind the mums. No idea if mums make good companions for beans. We shall see what we shall see.

The red Nikki Mix nicotiana is blooming. While I’m talking about annuals, I’d recommend you try the pink Laura Bush petunia (pics here) I got from Wildseed Farms. The catalog description says “Very low maintenance and forgives neglect.” and “Flowers are delightfully fragrant.” Both are true. They grew all winter with no help from me, and they smell absolutely wonderful. If I’d known they were such great flowers, I’d have planted a bunch more. You better believe I will come fall.

I think I’ve rambled on long enough for one day. TTYL…

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…

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…

Later, after it cooled off a bit, I decided to pull everything out of the little storage area behind my trellis. The lawn guy can’t really weed-eat in there, so I figured I’d pull the weeds and put plastic down. I’m down on my hands and knees, trying to tuck some plastic under the lawn mower (which is wrapped in a tarp and stored there, since we got the lawn guy), when….

Yea, you guessed it. Here come the little _________ again. This time they were all over both hands, crawling up the legs of my jeans, and in my shirt. I ran inside, and immediately sprayed WD 40 all over my hands. Believe it or not, that stuff stops mosquito bites from itching and swelling, makes burns stop burning, and takes the sting out of even fire ant bites. Then I ran to the laundry room, started the washer, and stripped. Threw the clothes all in the washer, then stopped it after they were sufficiently covered. Next stop, the shower, after which I put more WD 40 all over my hands and feet where I’d been bitten. Had to apply it once more about an hour later, but the bites haven’t bothered me since then. They still all blistered up, but don’t bother me at all.

So, yea, I hate the little _______.

In my last post, I’d been debating whether or not to start new pepper plants. In thinking about it, I realized that, with all the aphid damage, the ones I have might survive and produce, but they won’t be at peak performance after all the heat and bugs. I have enough room for a few, so I’m gonna go ahead and start new ones.

I’m going to pull the Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes, cracked fruit and all, in a day or two, empty the dirt out and refurbish it, then plant some new tomatoes in that container soon as they’re big enough. I think I’m going to yank the Roma tomatoes pretty soon, too, as they haven’t set much fruit and look like they have some disease. I’ll let the current fruit ripen, but unless they have a miraculous recovery, they’re gone, too. Got some new paste tomatoes started to replace them, anyway. Probably would have had more luck if I’d started the garden in a more timely manner, but that’s life…

We’re actually getting some nice, sorely needed, rain showers today. Very happy about that. Came at a good time, too, cuz it was time to give the garden a fertilizer booster today, anyway. The rain just makes it that much more effective. Hubby’s weather gizmo said the high today was 109! It’s at least 20 degrees cooler now, after the rain started moving through. So thanks, Mother Nature. Appreciate it…

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!

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

Heatwave tomatoes living up their name, setting lots of fruit even in this heat

Hubby’s picnic table, WIP

Hubby’s picnic table, another angle

As I said, these pics are about a week old. In a couple days, after it stops raining, I’ll take some more, just to see how they grew after the rain. You can water all you want, but even a little bit of rain does so much more…