Gardening
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The Fall Crops
Our new place doesn’t really offer us any place to grow anything, though our landlord, who lives next door, offered to till up some space for us. Since we are only hoping to stay six months before finding a place to buy we didn’t want to mess up his yard for that short period of time. So, Chris did some research and found the local community garden, Helping Hands. We are set up with two of our own personal plots and will be taking care of three additional plots until someone else gets those. In addition to growing our own vegetables and fruits, leftovers and extras will go to the…
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Pumpkin Beginnings
Chris planted pumpkins seeds at my mom and dad’s house before we moved. Here’s a bit of the chronology of the first few weeks. We’re guessing they will be ready around Thanksgiving. I’ve never had luck with pumpkins in Florida, bugs got to them fast and even if they lived long enough to bloom, nothing was pollinated. I’m interested to see what kind of luck with have with these. Casper and Big Max were the seeds of choice. Anyone had luck with pumpkins? I’m interested in organic methods, too. Please share!
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July in the Garden Plot
Not much is dealing with the heat here in Texas. We’re on a triple digit heat streak right now. I realize it is now August but I took these photos a week ago at the end of July and am just now getting around to posting them. Walking around the plot you can tell who is and isn’t doing well in the garden…or I should way, what is and isn’t doing well in addition to who…because most of it depends on water! After our disastrous round of spring crops, when we realized a bit too many coffee grounds had made the soil too acidic, some of that has leeched out…
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Heirloom Seeds and Bookish Thoughts
+Chris has been ordering a lot of seeds lately, mostly for later on. Today he planted these two crops at his mom’s house in lieu of the tomatillo plants that had bit the Texas dust. +We’re moving at the end of the week for the NW Houston area where we will be setting up house again. We’re taking two large potting containers with us—maybe we’ll plant some of these seeds there. +I’m dreaming of a real garden—some day. This time around we’re renting, again, with hopes of finding something of our own once Chris gets a job. Hopefully in time for spring crops! +Been reading lately. A lot of non-fiction,…
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Birthday Blooms for Mom
Craig at Ellis Hollow always has beautiful flower scans and I’ve been wanting to try it for years. I finally got around to it. After scanning twice and realizing I needed to clean the glass on the scanner, I finally got one! This could be a new addiction! It’s my mom’s birthday and the flowers are from her garden. There’s a mini-rose in there, yellow milkweed, and mom says the other yellow ones are yellow echinacea/coneflower. Happy Birthday Moosie! 🙂
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June in the Garden
I had to go home a few weeks ago for an interview so I snagged a few photos of my parent’s backyard while I was at it. The tomatoes were doing great and had a ‘doh’ moment and forgot to take any back with me to Beaumont. Anyway here’s a mini-tour. Hoping some are still on the vines when I get home at the end of next week. A tiny little spider hanging with the four o’clocks I started from seed. The corner bed has become a jungle so I wanted to see how it felt looking up. Part of the tomatoes… Moss rose that reseeded itself in one of…
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Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve | Part I
A few weekends ago, on our Sunday off, Chris and I went to the Watson Preserve. It’s about an hour from Beaumont and well worth the drive. In fact, it has such a diversity and beat the Sundew Trail at the Big Thicket that day for having more blooms and plants worth seeing. I’d love to meet Geraldine Watson sometime (you must watch the video that is the link!). If you are ever in the area I highly recommend stopping by this place and checking it out. I’m breaking the trip down into several posts as I took a zillion photos. The photos on this post are with three areas…
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Silent Sunday | Clematis crispa seed pod
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Growing | Flowers
Here’s some eye candy, full of colors, of what was blooming two weeks ago in my parents’ yard. Verbena on the left and two kinds of spiderwort, Tridescantia, on the right. The amaryllis blooms were on their way out, but a few lingered. Clockwise: Oxalis, snapdragons, good question with a fly, phlox. Nicotiana, honeysuckle, columbine. I think the one on top is a coneflower that is getting ready to bloom but mom, if you’re reading, feel free to correct me! We’ve worked hard on getting the side garden going, adding new plants and seeds and I spent a few evenings pulling weeds. Chris has brought his variegated obsession (ok, I…
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Edible in the garden
Since planting a lot of the vegetables in early March (mom planted some in February, too) here’s a follow-up on how things are going. Right now the garden in the backyard is great but at the plot—not so much! We’re not sure what the culprit is, too many coffee grounds, too much water, who knows, but everything is fairly stunted. The onions are just now starting to bulb whereas my brother’s plot has well bulbing onions. The potatoes withered and are basically dead, something ate the tops of the okra, and whereas everything else is alive and doing ok, they aren’t growing and seem to be stunted. It’s very strange.…