I Should Have Seen This Coming

It appears that I have created a playground/water bowl for Tisha and Trixie. I hope the fish can stay out of their way. Any bets on how soon one of them falls in?

Wildflower of the Week or Debbi In Ditches

I went for a ride in my truck today looking for my wild flower of the week. The trip started in Combine and went through Warsaw, Scurry, Cottonwood, Peel Town, Styx, and ended in Lively. I went into the Lively Store and bought myself a Mountain Dew. This was turning out to be a great day.

Several times during this trip, I pulled over on the side of the road, careful to avoid any flowers, and took pictures. Three different ranchers pulled over to make sure I did not need any help. Apparently, it is not quite normal for a woman to wander around in the ditches in Styx, Lively, or Scurry. I would think that with town names such as those they would have their share of characters. The folks along the way were friendly and helpful. Farmers waved from tractors and each truck I passed gave the two-fingered Texas Wave. The radio even played ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan for me.

I guess I should get to the point now. So here it is my wild flower of the week.

Indian paintbrush or Castilleja indivisa.




















This flower has a wonderful story. Legend has it that a young brave became frustrated when he tried to paint a sunset with his war paints. He asked the Great Spirit for guidance. The Great Spirit gave him paintbrushes laden with the colors he wanted. He painted a beautiful sunset and left the paintbrushes in the fields. The paintbrushes sprouted the flowers we see today. The flowers are actually white . The red/orange we see are leaf like bracts.

If you would like to share a wild flower, leave me a message and I will link the post. It doesn't have to be a wild flower. Last time I linked a raccoon. Why not, lets do it again. I like to see wild flowers, wild life, and general wildness.

I didn't get any players this week, so I went out and found a wild flower post on Blotanica. From Digging are Hill Country Wildflowers right here in Texas. Check it out.

$100 Tadpoles

Yesterday, Baby Monkey and I went to the greenhouse. Miss Nancy took him to show him the tadpoles that were swimming around in her pool. Baby monkey went to the truck and came back to us with his soccer water jug. He begged for tadpoles to take home. I caved in and we had a bowl of baby frogs on your front porch all night.

This morning I went with Mamala to the quilt store. On the way back I asked to stop at the water garden store in Mesquite. Well, three fan tailed goldfish, five mosquito fish or Gambusia affinis, a bag of something called water grass, a plastic half whiskey barrel, a little pump, and a shaker of fish food later I now have the equipment to raise these tadpoles in a way tadpoles were never supposed to be raised. If you spoil a tadpole will it leave when it becomes a frog? This happens to every parent. There is no such thing as a free puppy. Apparently, in my world there is no such thing as a free tadpole.

I was assured that the goldfish would not eat the tadpoles and that the mosquito fish would eat the mosquitoes. I was also educated in the use of water plants for oxygen in the water vs. the need for a pump or fountain to move the water. I was told that in my half whiskey barrel, the water grass would take care of everything. I bought the little pump anyway. I’m glad I did. I like the way the water moves.

I brought all the stuff home and went to get Baby Monkey from school. We set up the whole system together. The pictures above are the boys putting their fish in the newly set up water garden. They named them. Let me see if you can figure out which fish belongs to which Monkey. There is Ketchup, Yang, and Ozzy Osbourne. Any guesses? Anyone?

To top off the experience, Baby Monkey and Teenage Monkey got into an argument and Teenage Monkey held the door closed so Baby Monkey could not get inside. I was outside with Baby Monkey. I yelled at Teenage Monkey and told Baby Monkey to move out of my way so I could open the door and put the fear of Mom into Teenage Monkey. Baby Monkey tripped and fell in the new water garden. It only took thirty minutes for one of them to fall in it. I think that might be a new record.

Guess what? I now want all the water plants they have at the water garden store. This is going to be bad, very very bad.

My Mexican Bird of Paradise is in Bloom

My three year old Mexican Bird of Paradise tree is in bloom for the first time. I guess she finally grew up. The flowers are beautiful. I showed the pictures to Manly Man and he asked, "Is that in our yard?" Yes that is in our yard right here in tiny town Texas.

It is Caesalpinia pulcherrima. Another common name is peacock flower. I can see why. It is the national flower of Barbados and is depicted on the Queen's personal flag.

I received this plant three years ago in a Dixie cup. It was a tiny tree started from seed by an wonderful gardener/friend/member of my MG group. I still see her garden in my mind's eye when I plan my future garden in a larger space.

This tree is about eight feet tall and fern like in appearance. At first, I was afraid it would either die on me or never bloom. Turns out that it has naturalized here in Texas. Zone 9 or above it is an evergreen shrub. Here in zone 8a it is a deciduous perennial. I just love it and I am very grateful to the gardener who shared it with me.

Great Tomato Trick for Trench Planting

I learned a neat trick to help out when trench planting tomatoes. I always plant my tomatoes sideways in a trench in order to get as much of the stem underground as possible. This allows the plant to produce roots along the buried stem increasing the root system and keeping it from being too leggy in the beginning. This is also a good way to handle a seedling that has stretched too far while growing in the pot. I have accidentally broken off the top of plants while handling them this way. Never again. All you have to do is lay the tomato plant on its side in its pot the day before you plan to plant it. The little tomato plant will reach for the sun therefore creating a curved plant. Aren't vines amazing. The little plants on the right and left above were turned on their sides yesterday afternoon. This afternoon they have a nice little crook to them. When I plant them that little bit turned up will be what is sticking out of the ground. No problem having to try to carefully keep them from breaking off at ground level.

Do y'all have any other tomato tricks I might try this year?

2008 TMGA Convention

Here are a couple of pot people in a master gardener demonstration garden.

We arrived in Conroe Thursday in the early afternoon for registration and went to a great lecture by Dr. Neil Odenwald on landscaping. I have heard him speak a few times before and love it every time. His sense of style and design is amazing.

Friday we went to five classes during the day. Our group split up a little so we would have more information to bring back to our own county group. I took classes on southern kitchen gardens, gardening for butterflies, growing tomatoes, organic gardening. and the ten most frequent mistakes made by Texas "Yardeners." Each lecture was interesting. My favorite was the organic gardening lecture. Skip Richter was the speaker and entitled it "Gardening Au Naturel: The Naked Truth About Organic Gardening. He said we would be disappointed if we actually came there expecting nekidness. I anticipated this class might be another university bashing of the organic movement in general. I was pleasantly surprised. He encouraged organic or natural approaches whenever possible, but admitted to using a couple of chemicals during real gardening emergencies. He also talked at length about biodiversity regarding garden pests and beneficial insects. Very interesting stuff.

The tomato class was also very good. The speaker was Tom LeRoy. He gave us a good plant list and information about how to grow tomatoes and maximize the crop yield. It turns out that hybrid tomatoes can take more fertilizer without becoming all vine and no fruit. In the test garden, one variety, Bush Celebrity, produced 61 lbs of fruit per plant. Another variety, Champion, produced 73 lbs of fruit per plant. The tomatoes were planted in well prepared soil in a trench with one and a half cups of slow released fertilizer. When planting in a trench lay the tomato plant on its side and cover most of the stem leaving a few leaves and a little stem above ground. The plant can grow roots all the way up the stem. This provides for a better root system and therefore healthier plant. He said if you are going organic to triple the amount of fertilizer at planting. Every week following planting the tomatoes were foliar fed with a liquid fertilizer. He said any liquid would do from the common blue chemical concoction to organics like fish emulsion or Hasta Grow (my favorite). Someone asked him his opinion regarding the best flavored variety. He then admitted that he did not eat tomatoes. He only grows them for his family. Very funny for a tomato expert.

Our little Master Gardener club here in little ol' Kaufman County received four state awards for small groups. Our association took second place, our horticultural calendar took first place in publications, our newsletter "The Prairie Planter" took second place in the newsletter category, and our rainwater harvesting project took fist place in the projects category. I am particularly proud of the calendar as it was a project I worked on. I actually wrote a couple of the articles. This may surprise you considering how poorly I articulate myself on this blog, but I can actually put thoughts down on paper when I know it will be judged. Please don't judge me.

My Favorite Sister

Look what she did again. My favorite sister made me a new header. I just love it. Isn't she crazy creative. I am playing around with the template a little to pick a background color. Let me know what you think of this color or if you have an suggestions that you think might look good.

Favorite sister also changed Just Jack, and his site looks pretty cool too.