Went out and watered, but that’s all I could really do. Much too windy for planting any seedlings, building a new bed, or pretty much anything else on my To Do List.

Speaking of watering, have any of you ever tried those Aquaglobe things for your containers? My eldest grandson got me some for Christmas, and I use them in a few of my smaller pots. Surprisingly, they actually work quite well. Two of them are in pots of thyme; they really do keep the moisture level just right.

On Tuesday (I think) when it was comparatively cooler, I built a new lasagna bed. This one came about because there is a “volunteer” vine of some sort in my big lantana container. Could be a cuke or a watermelon, still can’t tell. Anyway, I decided to let it grow just to see what it is, but had to trellis it somehow. Wind already broke one of the vines, and that’s before it got really windy. I decided to loosely wrap some green-painted weed-eater string around the tree and let it grow up the tree. Then I said…yeah, you guessed it. Why not put a 5 gallon bucket with a couple cukes I plant on the other side of the tree, and let them grow up it, too? However, last year I realized that things in containers don’t do well, because the heat bakes the poor roots and dirt. I figured, if I put a little lasagna bed around the container, then plant it with bushy stuff, maybe it’ll mitigate the heat somewhat, and the poor things will have a chance. So I did!

I planted 3 of the bright yellow Swiss Chard, in between which I put a couple dill babies. I thought the bright yellow chard would look good with the yellow lantana, as well as the yellow cuke blossoms. On the sides of the bed, I put a couple divisions of Greek Oregano. The container really needs repotting, so I cut out a couple chunks and planted them. Will do one more piece after the oregano recovers from the first butchery. Between that, I planted several cilantro seedlings. I doubt very much that the cilantro or dill will do much more than bolt to flower, but that’s okay, too. Beneficial bugs love dill and cilantro flowers! I’ll stick some bush bean seeds in there, too, once it’s just normally windy out there again. Still thinking about what to start to fill the space once the heat kills the cilantro and dill completely.

Speaking of containers, here’s a look at the container garden from street-side. Pardon the skewers; as I’ve mentioned before, I use them to keep the horde of feral cats out of the beds. Works pretty good! Still need to plant a few things on the right side of the bed to replace the Lilac Beauty pepper that expired. I think my daughter’s dog lifted his leg on the poor thing one too many times…

Did you notice the Red Sage blooming? Hummingbirds and bees are supposed to really like this plant, so I put some all over the place!

In the Blue Moon rose bed, I have the lavender rose planted with some Red Rubin and Dark Opal purple basil, so naturally, the first green beans I planted were some purple bush beans. They are beginning to bloom, and the colors do look nice together…

Be nice if I actually get some beans out of the deal, too. I’ve tried these beans several times, with no luck at all. Something eats them, or they die!

Well, that’s enough for now. Time to go start dinner…

I guess I finally listened. LOL!

Things are settling in and starting to really grow now. This is the Blue Moon rose bed as of March 29.

Since then, the rose has bloomed again. They smell soooo good.

The alyssum, winecup, and blue salvia make a pretty combination, I think. You can also see a few of the Contender bush beans and one of the Swiss Chards I planted in there. No reason edible can’t be pretty, and vice versa.

This is the Tomato Lasagna bed as of April 2. It’s grown noticeably in just the past few days. The Roma tomato (in the tripod cage) has at least 4 baby tomatoes. Hubby is already tasting every one of them, too. Told him it’d be a while yet, but he still keeps drooling! The TripLCrop tomato by the trellis has shot up significantly in the past few days. Looks like it is getting ready to bloom soon.
In the mid-far-right of the pic, you can barely make out another small tomato plant. This is a Sungold cherry; it’s grown in the past few days, too. It already has one baby tomato, and more blooms.

In the pic above, you can see some of the other plants in that bed. There are some peppers, basil, and some peanuts in there. I went to the grocery store and bought a bag of raw peanuts. Shelled a few of them and planted the seeds, just to see if they would actually grow. Much to my surprise, they actually did! Peanuts are a good nitrogen fixer, like beans, and supposed to be pretty plants, too. So far, I like them! They are pretty.

Since I took these pics, I’ve planted pink Bright Lights Swiss chard around the sides of the bed, then planted some pink Laura bush petunias between the chard. Above that, and to the left of the Sungold tomato, I put a borage seedling. Borage attracts bees and beneficials; you can use the leaves as mulch material or compost fodder; its roots are very good at breaking up compacted clay soil like mine. And it’ll look pretty with the pink chard and petunias!

In the last little bit of space, I’m going to plant a tithonia in the bed, and some Carpet Cosmos in the sides of the bed below the tithonia. The bell peppers in the bed ripen to gold, crimson, and orange, so the tithonia will pick up those colors, attract beneficials, and look pretty! Hummingbirds love tithonia, too. Carpet Cosmos are like the yellow and orange shorter cosmos, but they are only supposed to get about a foot tall.

I’m hoping I picked the right plants to both help the tomatoes and peppers grow, and look pretty. Like I said, no reason edible can’t be pretty!

More to talk about, but now I’m closer to over – done! That heat just wears me right out, and makes me smell bad. I hate the icky sticky feeling it leaves on my skin, too. Have I mentioned I hate hot and humid? Anyway, it’s time for a shower and bed…
G’nite, y’all!!!

I did the Tipsy Pot thing this year with a chile pequin in a 5 gallon bucket on the bottom. The second container has sage, with some nasturtium that will most likely die when it gets really hot. The next container up has marjoram and more nasturtiums. The top container has thyme. Other containers hold cleome, rosemary, ageratum, and other things.

Container Garden

My hanging baskets this year have Laura Bush Petunias (love the fragrance), more nasturtiums with some sweet alyssum and thunbergia to take over when the nasturtium fries in the heat, and one with Blue Daze evolvulus and a few left-over strawberry plants that didn’t fit in the other bed.

Hanging Baskets

In this area, I built a bed between the two windows, mostly for the Blue Moon Rose I found at Lowe’s while shopping for potting soil and stuff. I had a Blue Moon Rose years ago, and one bloom would scent the entire yard with the most delicious spicy fragrance…

Blue Moon Rose Bed “Before”

In this bed, I also put parsley, Swiss Chard, chamomile, blue salvia, red sage(the native perennial, not the bright red annual), strawberries around the edge, and some salad crops. I tried Ten Week Stock for the first time this year; they are a cool-weather annual that are supposed to have a lovely fragrance. Hope they actually manage to bloom! And, no, I’m not trying to grow bamboo skewers; they’re my attempt to keep the herd of feral cats in the park from using my beds as a litter box. So far, it seems to be working.

Blue Moon Rose Bed
Oh yeah, I also repotted my night-blooming jasmine into the bigger barrel, along with some mums that have managed to survive thus far.

This is my “Baby Nursery.” All my seedlings are hanging out here, where they get afternoon shade, until I have their new homes ready for occupancy. I really do need to hurry up and do that…

Baby Nursery

This is as far as I’ve gotten so far; got to keep on keepin’ on to get the rest done in a timely fashion. Especially in this climate, it’s best to take advantage of the “cooler” weather before the heat kills the garden – and the gardener!

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…

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…

So, Jen, I’m making Self-Watering Containers into which to plant 2 watermelon, a zucchini, and a cantaloupe. Should have taken a “Before” pic, but here’s the “After.”

I did manage to accomplish part of my To-Do List today. I planted 5 baby basil, a baby dill, and a baby sesame into the garden, as well as painting the ugly orange buckets. Doesn’t sound like much, until you consider the 97-feels-like-102 temperatures today. Considering I had to dig 7 holes and amend the dirt in the midst of that heat, it was a major exercise in self-discipline to get it done. Oh, I also potted up the hummingbird shrub into a pot that should hold it for a while, until I can get the beer cooler pot done.

Sure wish some of the rain flooding the rest of the country would come our way; we sure need it.

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

The other Monster Pot is for my rosemary. Here’s a pic of the finished pot and the rosemary for which I made it:

Here’s a pic of the baby peppers and basils sitting in their eventual garden homes, getting used to the sun. It took about an hour and a half, again, before they started looking wilty and I moved them back.

Apparently it’s easy to propagate by seeds or cuttings, so I may try that down the road some time. Got too much other stuff going on right now to deal with it.

Yesterday we went to brunch with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and his son and wife. We don’t get to see them as often as we’d like, so it was a nice visit. After we ate, we went to the BIL’s house for a “plant consult.” I answered my SIL’s questions, and took some cuttings from some of her plants.

Years ago, when they first built the house, my BIL planted some ordinary red geraniums in a little garden spot next to the shed, in memory of his grandmother who used to grow them. More than 10 yrs. later, the geraniums have grown into a huge geranium bush, as we have had no hard freezes to kill them. Unfortunately, they’ve also grown long woody stems that flop over and look very untidy. It does have new growth coming up from the roots, so I told her to just cut the woody stems down to the ground, and let the new growth have a chance.

Weird thing is, most of the geranium is red, but there is one stem that produced a mutation and grows pink geraniums. Anyway, I took cuttings from both stems, which I hope will grow. Any geranium that will survive 10 yrs. with minimal care is one tough plant!

I also took cuttings from two shrubs she has. One has pretty dark blue flowers that butterflies and bees just love; I just saw one at Home Depot the other day. Name starts with a “D” but I can’t remember the rest of it. Hers gets huge, and they have to cut it back every year to keep it from eating the house and garden. I’m going to keep mine in a container, assuming the cuttings take.

The other one only blooms in spring, with tight bunches of tiny white flowers that have the most heavenly spicy scent. Have no idea what it is, and she doesn’t remember, but I will find out eventually. Just have to do some googling. I took softwood tip cuttings and some from more mature wood, so we’ll see if they take.

Other than watering baby basils and peppers, and checking on flower seeds, that’s all I did in the garden yesterday. I did play with Monster Mud yesterday; the rosemary pot is finished, I think, with the exception of leveling the bottom so it stands up straight, and touching up the rim to make it look smooth. After it dries about 24 hrs, I’ll waterproof again. When that dries, I guess I have to decide what color to paint it, or maybe just leave it as is.

I also put another layer of Monster Mud on the styrofoam thingy, as it was still too light. Wind’s blowing today at 20 + mph, as it has been for the past day or so and will be for the next couple of days. If I put a beer cooler outside in this wind, they’d find it in the next county very shortly! I think it may be heavy enough now, especially after I fill it with soil and a shrub…

That’s it for now. Got laundry to do, a house to clean, and dinner to think about. No clue what to cook yet. Anybody got any ideas?

Here’s a couple pics of the baby basils and peppers…

This is 2/3 of the baby basils, and a couple of creeping sedum. When I went to Lowe’s the other day, they had the almost-dead plants on clearance for $2. I picked up a 4″ pot of the creeping sedum that looked like it just needed some TLC, and repotted it into two pots. I think it’ll make it. Hope so; it’s cute! I also got a gal. pot with 3 penta for the same price. One of them was obviously dead, but the other two looked like they could make it. I threw the dead one in the compost pile, and potted the other two into separate pots. I trimmed the foliage back by like half; though it pained me greatly, I cut off every single flower bud, too. I want them to make roots and start growing before they bloom. It was for their own good, much as it hurt.



Here are the rest of the basil and the peppers.

And here are the bush beans just sprouting. The green mini-milk crates are rabbit and bird protection until they get too big for it; I’ll make one of Mel’s cages in the next few days. Pardon the toes…

Oh, yea, the night-blooming jasmine…it started to bloom last night, and again tonight. I wish there was some way to transmit that heavenly aroma across cyber-space so you could smell it, too. The fragrance is every bit as heavenly as I’d heard.

Gotta go; got some flower seeds I soaked overnight to get planted, then I’m going to bed…

This is the leaves and some blooms. The black stuff that looks like tar is part of the bloom. It’s a really cool-looking flower, and I’d really like to learn more about it.



This is a close-up of the bloom, which is my current desktop wallpaper.

Now on to the “Etc…” I hauled the transplanted basils and chamomile babies outside into the shade today, but I had to move them to the other side of the stairs. The sun is high enough now that it peeks into the back of the holding bed about 5pm or so. The chamomile seemed okay, but the basil didn’t seem to like it much at all. Fortunately, the other side of the stairs still has some shade. Once I moved them, the basil perked right back up again.

Built a small planting box, about 2′ long x 1′ wide, under my hose faucet today. I have some lemon balm babies, too, and that seems like the perfect place for them. They won’t get too invasive, because aside from some damp from the faucet, the rest of the area is full HOT sun and concrete clay. That ought to hold them in check!

Made about 20 gal of Al’s 5-1-1 mix today, to fill the lettuce window box and the lemon balm box.

Oh, and Annie’s Granny said she planted some nasturtium seeds outside in the ground at the same time she sowed some indoors. Like me, she hasn’t had much luck with the indoors seeds. I soaked a few overnight, and sowed them right in the container with the moonflower and other plants. We’ll see if they sprout any better.

That’s it for tonight, as I had to actually do some housecleaning today, and I still have alot of baby basils to transplant. Not to mention the rest of my ever-expanding Garden To-Do List…