sb158’s Valley Garden

sb158 | June 26, 2010

We’ve had three weeks of temps in the mid-to-high nineties, with humidity to match, and heat advisories all the time. You can imagine what that does to a garden. I’m babying most things along until I can harvest whatever’s still surviving out there. Cukes and watermelon in the containers have just about had it. I do have several cantaloupes almost ready to harvest, and keep checking every day to see if any are ripe. The Gold Bar Melons do keep chugging along, but even they are looking a bit weather-worn. They better taste good, because they have set a bunch of fruit. My volunteer tomatoes still have a bunch of fruit ripening, even set a few new fruits.

Haven’t gotten so much as one zucchini; I think it’s a pollination problem, or the heat. I do hand pollinate, but still no fruit set. No green beans, either. They either get some dreadful disease and die, or something eats all the blossoms and half the leaves before I see green bean one. I did plant some Contender bush beans that are still looking good; I’m still holding out hope. Probably futile, but you have to be an optimist to try and garden, especially down here!

The jalapenos, on the other hand, seem to be enjoying the heat. Got several fruit, which is way more than I had last year! The Fruit Basket bells in the hanging baskets even have a few fruits.

So all is not lost, but it’s still very discouraging. I think that I’m done with self-watering containers. Haven’t had much luck at all to date. I’ll probably do like Annie’s Granny and use them in the raised beds like she has. They might work for a fall garden, but the summer heat is just too much for any plant to survive.

Still house-hunting, too, which kind of messes up fall garden plans. Don’t want to start fall veggies, only to have to either haul baby plants if we do find a house, or leave perfectly good veggies in the garden. What would you do?

Not much else to say, I guess. I’m pretty much in “Survive-Till-Cooler-Weather” mode myself. I have had quite enough summer already, even though it’s just barely started. Sigh…

Category: Square Foot Gardening, Veggies, containers | 2 Comments »
Tags: containers, Green Beans, Square Foot Gardening, Tomatoes, Veggies, weather

sb158 | June 8, 2010

I haven’t posted any pics in a while, so I guess it’s time for an update. Things are definitely going better than they did last year. We had a nice t-storm last night, and I think everything grew a foot overnight! More storms possibly tonight, too. Amazing what a little thunder, lightening, and rain can do for a garden.

A growing cantaloupe

Can’t wait to eat this!
And some cukes



More tomato & cuke salad in the very near future.

The laundry hamper volunteer tomatoes keep chugging along. I’ve gotten more than 7 lbs. of tomatoes from these guys so far. Picked all of the almost ripe ones yesterday, as I knew it might rain and didn’t want the tomatoes to split.



And the tomatoes to go with the cukes…

This is a chile pequin (wild bird pepper) bush. These are really hot little buggers; you can see a ripe one if you look hard enough.



Hot stuff
This bush has quite a story. DH’s dad had a bush in front of his house that he babied for years. He used the peppers to make some wicked salsa, among other things. When he died, we dug up his bush and put it in a 5 gal bucket that we hauled around for years! I knew the bush would die when we moved back up north, so we gave it to hubby’s brother. He’s not what you’d call a gardener; he killed the poor thing!

Hubby’s been looking for a replacement ever since we moved back down here. A few months ago, we went to a family birthday in Hebbronville, and hubby found a bush in the yard. He says “We’re taking this home” as he grabs it and just yanks the poor thing out of the ground. He hands it to me and says “You can plant this, right?” I’m like “WTH am I supposed to do now?” So I wrapped it up in damp paper towels, put it in a baggie, and took it home. I cut it way back, put it in a gritty soil mix in a gallon pot, and covered the pot with a plastic bag. Kept it under my florescent lights and babied that sucker along. Much to my surprise, it didn’t die, and eventually started growing. Uncovered it gradually, and put it outside when it got warm. This spring I put it in the container, and it has done quite well, so far. It’s going to need a bigger container come fall, I think. Fascinating, right? LOL!

Had enough yet, or should I go on? Okay, you asked for it. This is my pitiful-looking Side-of-the-Stairs container garden. Looking pretty sad, aren’t they? The annual blanketflowers have just about had it, as have the bachelor’s buttons. I’m letting both go to seed so I can save some for next year. The jasmine is dropping leaves in self-defense (normal, I’m told), but there are still things growing.

Getting too hot for the Side-of the-Stairs flowers, I think.

These are cinnamon basil and a Mini-Rose morning glory I think I got from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. It’s supposed to trail to about 3′; I like the variegated leaves, too. Very pretty little plant.

Cinnamon basil and MG

This has gotten long enough. I’ll leave the butterfly garden and hanging baskets for another time. TTYL…

Category: Veggies, containers | 1 Comment »
Tags: basil, containers, flowers, Tomatoes, Veggies, weather

sb158 | June 1, 2010

I know it’s been too long. I have been gardening – in the 90+ heat and humidity – which is why I haven’t been blogging. When I’m done for the day, all I want is a shower and a rest! Still house-hunting, too. We’ve seen some nice houses, just not “THE” house yet.

Lots going in in the garden, as you’d expect this time of year.

The volunteer tomatoes keep pumping out fruit; I’ve collected more than 4 3/4 lbs of tomatoes so far. And they taste so good! My under-the-shade lettuce is still hanging in there, but I doubt for much longer. Now that I’ve gotten rid of the stupid little green caterpillars and the snails, we actually get to eat some of it.

BTW, that Sluggo snail and slug stuff works. I’m finding dead snails all over the place.

I have a few cukes almost ready to pick, some zucchini getting there, and even a watermelon, some cantaloupes, and another kind of melon coming along. Would have had some green beans, but bean borers keep getting into them.

Oh, if you’re still wondering…in my previous two posts, I mentioned using Gold Bond medicated powder to dust the cucumber and melon leaves to keep the cucumber beetles from killing them. It sure seems to work. We had a couple of rains, which washed it off. If I forgot to reapply, I had holes in the leaves. This reminded me very quickly, for sure. I kept the plants dusted for about two weeks, then decided to stop and see what happened. They must have migrated to somebody else’s garden, because I haven’t found any new holes in several days.

I planted another succession square of bush beans recently. One day I noticed ants crawling up the stems from under the mulch, and the poor seedling looked nearly sucked dry and dead. Next day, I noticed the ants on the next bean seedling over. I happened to have the powder in my hand, so I just dumped some down around the stems of the affected plants. Figured it would annoy the ants, if nothing else. Let me tell you, they did not like that at all. Acted like I had dumped poison on them. So naturally I dumped some around the stems of the rest of the beans too. No more problems with ants in the beans. Cool, huh? Too late for the first two seedlings, but the rest are okay so far.

I still wander on over to Gardenweb every so often. Popped in on the Organic Gardening forum recently and saw a post titled One of the best recipe 2. I figured any topic that needed two threads had to be interesting, so started reading at the beginning. The Original Poster is a girl in Russia, who uses a traditional Russian drink she calls kvas to water her plants. It’s essentially 6 Tbsp rye flour, 2 Tbsp molasses mixed in a gallon of water from which you have let the nasty stuff evaporate for 24 hrs. You put it in a closed jug, shake it frequently, and do not open for 3 days. The stuff ferments into something that Russians swear is very healthy for you to drink. Apparently plants think so too.

I gave it a try, thinking it surely couldn’t hurt. Go read the thread(s) and decide for yourself, but I gotta tell you, my garden sure seems to love the stuff. I foliar feed it at 1 cup per gallon in my sprayer, sometimes combining with cornmeal tea, baking soda spray, or garlic/pepper tea as necessary, about twice a week so far. Plants looks so much greener, seem more able to handle the heat, and seem to be making more fruit than previously. All in all, the garden is doing much better (knock on wood) than it did last year.

In conjunction with our house-hunting, I’ve been doing lots of garden-related reading to help me decide what kind of a garden I want when we actually do get a house. Yes, I’m still daydreaming about it…

I’ve come across some very interesting ideas, about which I will post soon. Until then…

Category: Bugs, Veggies | 5 Comments »
Tags: Bugs, Gold Bond Powder, Green Beans, harvest, kvas, Lettuce, Veggies

sb158 | May 14, 2010

I’ve been trying to update all week, but things have been blowing around too much. We’ve had 35-40 mph winds all week, with occasional gusts even higher. It’s hard to get decent pics in all that wind. The wind finally “calmed down” to 20-25 mph today, so took quick pics between gusts…
Pics and more inside

Category: Bugs, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies, containers | No Comments »
Tags: Bugs, containers, Green Beans, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies, weather

sb158 | May 4, 2010

Woo hoo! I managed to save my first ripening tomato from marauding mockingbirds by the timely application of bird netting, and picked it yesterday. It’s not a real big tomato, but it’s the first this year, and it’s mine!

Pics and more inside

Category: Veggies, containers, flowers | 2 Comments »
Tags: containers, flowers, Green Beans, Tomatoes, Veggies

sb158 | April 29, 2010

Aside from the blooming blanketflowers, no earth-shaking developments today, unless you count the 4.0 earthquake in Alice, TX, the other day. From the Corpus Christi Caller-Times:
“ALICE, Texas (AP) – A small earthquake has rattled awake some residents in southeast Texas. A 4.0 magnitude earthquake hit an area near Alice, about 50 miles west of Corpus Christi, around 9:10 p.m. Saturday. No damage or injuries have been reported. But numerous residents felt the quake. A 3.8 magnitude quake was reported in Jim Wells County in March 1997.”
Still can’t figure this. Alice is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, and just about the last place one would expect an earthquake. I guess I don’t know enough about TX geology to say, but I wouldn’t think Alice would qualify as earthquake territory. Got a speeding ticket there once, more than 30 years ago. We were on our way from the Valley to San Antonio, in a new car DH hadn’t let me drive much. Wasn’t familiar with it, so I’m bopping along, and sure enough, they caught me. Everybody knows it’s a friggin’ speed trap up there, and I walked (drove) right into it. Really aggravated me. However, had DH been driving, he would have been going alot faster, and the fine would have been much bigger. First (and last) speeding ticket I ever got, though. Learned my lesson!

On to the blanketflowers. Pics and more inside

Category: Experimental, Seeds/Seed-starting, Veggies, containers, flowers | 4 Comments »
Tags: containers, flowers, roses

sb158 | April 23, 2010

Been busy all week with garden stuff, despite the lack of posts. Mostly just routine maintenance, watering, etc., but also seed starting and seedling babying. After a few really rainy days, it stopped raining and stayed cloudy and comparatively cool for a couple days. Today, however, is much more like our usual weather. Yukky hot and muggy…
Meanwhile, my daughter tells me that they had a whopper snowstorm in Colorado Springs, and her sons had a snow day. The boys enjoyed that, but the oldest one was not happy that now the last day of school won’t be until June 2.
Anyway. I’ve been germinating seeds using EG’s seed starting method, then planting them into yogurt cups and immediately putting them outside in a “nursery” spot. I figure they will start to grow in the conditions that they have to get used to, so the whole “hardening off” thing becomes a non-issue. So far, so good…

Pics and More Within

Category: Bugs, Seeds/Seed-starting, Veggies, containers, flowers | No Comments »
Tags: Bugs, containers, flowers, Veggies, weather

sb158 | April 17, 2010

I mentioned in my previous post that we’d had rain all week. Up until yesterday, it was nice gentle showers with some space between. Since yesterday, we’ve had some toad-stranglers and really loud boomers. Up to 3″ an hour; flash flood watches and warnings all over the place. I’m hoping it stops soon, before it drowns my entire garden. Feast or famine around here, I guess.
In between floods, I’ve been running out to check on things. My poor swiss chard is being consumed by snails and God-only-knows what else. I have to get some Sluggo, ASAP. I spotted what looked like a cucumber beetle (I think) before it flew away today. While I was snail-hunting, I spotted some icky-looking stuff on the backs of the chard leaves. Looks like eggs of some sort, but I have no idea what. I’m posting a few pics, in hopes that somebody knows what they are and how to fix it. Don’t want to kill them if they are eggs of some beneficial bug.

So, any ideas?
Pics and More Within

Category: Bugs, Veggies | 2 Comments »
Tags: Bugs, Green Beans, Veggies, weather

sb158 | April 14, 2010

Started on Sunday night and hasn’t stopped yet; we’ve had a lovely little storm system move through, and we sorely needed the rain. Monday it rained almost all day; yesterday, there was some space between showers. Today, too. Yesterday was my future DIL’s birthday, so spent most of the day cooking and stuff, but been out between showers putzing a bit today.
Decided it was time to put up bird netting; was looking out the kitchen window and watched one of those brassy mockingbirds fly right down and take a chunk out of a cucumber leaf. Those buggers think that just because they are the state bird, they can get away with anything. I went out to chase it; bugger kept flying just far enough away, until I ran at it with my arms waving and shouting at it. Can’t (don’t want to, really) imagine what the neighbors must have thought.
I’m glad I had the sense to put up a small bird netting cover over the pot with the green beans, or they’d probably have eaten them all by now. But, what with all the rain, the beans are growing like crazy, so I have to put up a permanent one ASAP. Put up a piece of it along the back of the trellis, and have to go out when it stops raining again to measure the circumference of the pot and height, so I can make the rest of it. Problem is, I can’t figure out a way to keep the net off the plants far enough to allow them to grow without getting all tangled in it. Doesn’t do much good if the beans grow through the net and let the birds eat them anyway. The peas did that; was a pain to take down; the net will probably have pea tendrils in it forever! Anybody’s got any ideas, I’m all ears. Still have to do the second cucumber container, too.

What else? Oh, yeah, The little pieces of herbs I planted the other day are doing well, thanks, no doubt, to the rain. I even cut off a small stem of the lavender I bought and stuck it in there, just to see what would happen. So far, it looks good. hasn’t wilted at all. I planted some common thyme seeds in there today; I hope it grows.

Here’s a pic of the “BBQ container”:

Herbs planted in a BBQ cover
Also wanted to show you how much the volunteer tomatoes have grown since the first pic I posted. Rain does some amazing things. No matter how much you water…
If you remember when I divided the mums and gazania, you’ll notice that they are looking great so far. Guess I didn’t kill them (yet!).

My, how you’ve grown.

I planted a pot of Unwin’s dwarf dahlias a while ago; planted a few seeds in each spot, not knowing how well they would germinate. I think they all came up, so I had to move 5 baby dahlias to individual pots (for now) as the container’s only big enough for three. I may use them, may try to sell them on craigslist. We’ll see.

Went out after dinner and between rain showers and got the bird netting on the beans enough, I think, to keep the birds off. Still need to do some adjusting and fine-tuning, but, for tonight, at least, I think they are okay. Would’ve finished, but it started raining again, and got dark…

Category: Veggies, containers, flowers, herbs | 2 Comments »
Tags: containers, herbs, mockingbirds, Veggies, weather

sb158 | April 7, 2010

Dang, I hate those evil cats that hang around the dumpster by our place. Went out to water earlier, and one jumped right out of my side-of-the-stairs garden. It apparently parked itself in the big pot with a nicely-growing baby cosmos; needless to say, gotta replant now…
On top of that, it decided to torment the dog so much that she broke her brand-new tie-out line. We found her out on the highway dodging cars. Thankfully before she was road pizza!

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.

Category: Recipes and Cooking, Seeds/Seed-starting, Veggies, containers, flowers | 1 Comment »
Tags: containers, cornbread, evil cats, flowers, seeds, Veggies