sb158’s Valley Garden

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 | 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 4, 2009

I mentioned once before that I have an idea for a way to shade the tomatoes in the SWC’s. I decided to get started on it this weekend. Best laid plans, and all that… (more…)

Category: containers, herbs | 1 Comment »
Tags: basil, containers, Monster Mud, personal, shrubs, whining

sb158 | March 26, 2009

Been really involved in getting this blog ready for public consumption. I used Wordpress, about which I knew nothing, and I wanted to make it “gardeny.” Learned alot, mostly by trial and alot of error, but here ya go. Finally got it looking, and working, mostly like I want it. A few minor fixes, but good to go. (more…)

Category: Experimental, Garden Stuff, Personal Stuff | 2 Comments »
Tags: Experimental, garden, personal