Flood Watches, T-Storms, and Bug Issues

sb158 | April 17, 2010

flood-watches-t-storms-and-bug-issues

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

Rainy Days and Mondays…

sb158 | April 14, 2010

rainy-days-and-mondays

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…

So hard

sb158 | August 26, 2009

so-hard

not to get discouraged. I see all the pretty pics of other people’s beautiful gardens with all they produce, then look out the window. Dry, brown, dead vegetation, tons of bugs, and no produce. Sigh…

Thank goodness for those pics, though, and for garden magazines. They help motivate when thinking about planting seeds and nurturing the babies seems like an exercise in futility. Sooner or later (most likely MUCH later), it will stop being well over 100 degrees every d&*m day, and we will get some rain. Then when other people are shoveling snow, I’ll be picking tomatoes and eating garden suppers.

Gardeners have to be either eternal optimists or masochists. Haven’t decided which yet.

Not Much New…

sb158 | August 14, 2009

not-much-new

It’s still too hot; Hubby’s weather gizmo says 111 today. Much as I hated to, I had to go out there and spray the aphids off my peppers again; gotta keep up with it, as the little buggers multiple faster than tribbles(Trekkie reference, y’all). I got myself soaked in the process, which was a good thing. Cooled me off in that awful heat; probably kept me from dying of heatstroke.

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…

Sometimes Hubby

sb158 | August 7, 2009

sometimes-hubby

is the sweetest guy. He was at the grocery store yesterday, and noticed they had a bunch of ceramic pots on clearance. Apparently they’re getting rid of summer stuff to replace it with…Christmas, maybe? He called and asked me if I wanted any; I’m sure you know my answer. He came home with 5 10.5″ pots, and asked me if I wanted any more. I told him I’d take all he wanted to buy; a gardener can always find something to plant in an empty pot, right?

So he came home today with 2 half-barrels and a bunch more ceramic pots. Pics and peppers within… (more…)

Garden Bloggers Death Day

sb158 | July 31, 2009

garden-bloggers-death-day

I thought it would be fun to join in Garden Bloggers Death Day, hosted by the crew over at Gardening Without Skills.

Here’s my contribution this month…try not to laugh at me too loudly…

 

[media id=3 width=544 height=408]

 

On a brighter note, upon which I will expand later, I do have lots of things growing to prepare for Round 2.

Later…

Been A While, so…

sb158 | July 24, 2009

been-a-while-so

Not really much going on in my garden, other than the fact that it’s being slowly baked to death by 111 degree temperatures. Not every day, but it has hit at least 109 for the past several days. Yesterday it was 110. I had a few minor things to do out there, and by the time I came in, I had sweat pouring off me. Didn’t stop for the next hour. Felt all woozy, too. Had to come in and sit in front of the AC for a while just to keep from dying. Would have taken a shower, but had a load of laundry going. Can’t do both at the same time around here…LOL.

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…

Garden Update

sb158 | June 27, 2009

garden-update

I took some new pics today, as promised, to see what a difference some rain makes. I gotta say, I need to take more macro photos, as I did not see all the bugs on the plants with my old, half-blind eyes. It’s a good thing the garden is scheduled for a bath tonight, anyway, unless it stays too hot.

Pics within: (more…)

Hallelujah and Thank You

sb158 | June 23, 2009

hallelujah-and-thank-you

We’re finally getting some rain and (slightly) cooler temperatures! Not nearly as much as we need, but, at this point, I’m thankful for whatever we get. I expect my plants will grow a foot overnight!

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 (more…)

Trying to Keep It Alive

sb158 | April 30, 2009

trying-to-keep-it-alive

This Valley is gonna look like the icon here pretty quick if the heat doesn’t break and we don’t get some rain.

With temps in the 90′s and the wind blowing from the south at 20+ mph (more…)