I've Got Nothin

I've got nothin garden blogging wise.

I do have the following

Brain overload
Aching muscles
Tears for a baby
Frustration over Baby Monkey's school
A fence jumping German shepherd
Drought
About 100 pounds of laundry
A sink full of dishes to wash
Ants inside and in the compost pile
A Manx cat with a bad attitude
A teenager recovering from the flu
The rest of us avoiding the plague infected Teenage Monkey (someone here in north Texas died from this)
An email box full of stuff I really need to take care of
A MIA state conference delegate alternate or alternate delegate, whatever.

I also have confidence this will all work itself out.

I am so going to garden tomorrow. The rest of this crap can just bite me.

Another Great Lost Episode

Yeah, Jin is alive. Will he be time traveling with everyone else or will he be stuck in time with Danielle? Is Michael alive too? I thought Ben was trying to use Erin to get Kate to go back to the island - Dirty Rat. What is up with the people trying to shoot Sayid with tranquilizer darts? Any ideas how Locke will get off the island? Jack, beard or no beard?

What a Mess

 

Today was the day to finish planting potatoes and I do intend to finish it before dark. The potato row needs to be amended with compost. No problem, we compost. Just need to turn the pile and harvest some black gold. Number one thing you do not want to do on a beautiful day is discover fire ants in your compost pile. This big finishing pile is completely infested. So I spent about thirty minutes pissing off fire ants. They don't like to be disturbed. For the next few days or as long as it takes, I have got to disturb this compost pile until they move on. With my luck, they will probably move on to the collection pile.

The little water garden was looking kind of funny. On closer inspection some Monkey or another had decided to feed the fish during the winter time. Second thing you do not was to do on a glorious winter day, find that the container water garden must have the water changed out. Bust out the fish tank syphon and begin cleaning out the pond. The water at the bottom of that thing was YYUUCCKY. The garden got a healthy dose of fish water fertilizer. I think I need to do this about once a week to keep the set up a little cleaner. The garden will get fertilized and the fish will have a cleaner home.

Now back out there to dig in the worm bin and try to find uninfested (I know not a word, but I like it) worm castings/compost for the potato row.

The picture above is me looking up through the peach tree. Notice the mistletoe in the hackberry tree. We lose about one of these trees a year. I am going to replace them with better trees. Any new hackberries that come up are disposed of without any regrets.

Hope your day was pretty and not infested.

Tomatoes, Potatoes, and Daffodils

 

The weather is beautiful. It was the perfect day to start my first row of potatoes. Potatoes don't grow very well for me. Usually, I plant them too late and then there is the soil acidity problem. This time, I planted on time and used cider vinegar and rain water to help lower the soils pH. The variety is Yukon Gold. Only the small seed potatoes went into the ground today. The larger individuals were cut in half and will be planted after they have time to scar over. They will probably be planted Tuesday.

Today was tomato starting day. They will germinate on the dryer and then I will either make a little temporary cold frame or take them to the greenhouse. The old reliable varieties started were Early Girl, Better Boy, and San Marzano. Thanks to Monica at Faire Garden Musings, I am trying two new to me heirloom varieties for the first time. These are Ladino di Panacchio and Avivvi. She describe Ladino di Panacchio as ribberd red fruiit and very productive. Avivvi was described as red fruit with yellow stripes and high yielding. Can't wait to see how they do here in Texas. I still need to acquire the seeds for green zebra and yellow pear. The tomato production last summer was so pitiful that there were no seeds to save from the heirlooms.

The daffodils are definitely on their way to full bloom. The little Minnows are putting on a show. I don't know what the other larger daffodil pictured in the collage is. Anybody have a guess?

If you take a look at the collage, my cardoon is coming back and the Mexican Bird of Paradise tree is putting out leaves. Looks like spring is coming early. We will have to see what the ground hog has to say about it tomorrow. If he sees his shadow, this is the shortest and warmest winter I can ever remember.

Fresh Homemade Yogurt

I have made bread since my grandfather taught me as a youngster. A little over a year ago I started using a sour dough starter gifted to us from a lovely neighbor. Back about three months ago, I put out whole wheat flour mixed with filtered water to created my own "Aunt Debbi's Kitchen Sour Dough Starter" This was colonized completely by the yeast that was already hanging around my kitchen. Several loaves of whole wheat bread have been made with this starter and have been well received.

Last winter, my kitchen was turned into an incubator to allow cabbage to become sauerkraut. The results were yuummy.

About a week ago, I decided to try to make homemade yogurt. This is the easiest kitchen creation ever. Much like sauerkraut, I can't call this cooking. All I did was put about two tablespoons of a higher quality yogurt into about a pint of skim milk, placed it in a warm spot (over the food dehydrator, but any warm place will work) and wait. Eight hours later, I had yogurt. It was not as thick as store bought yogurt, but it tasted amazing.

Most people do not eat plain yogurt. I love it. I have been making dressings for salads and just eating it. Tonight, I bought some frozen fruit (we don't have much fresh fruit around these parts right now) and made the Monkey's some smoothies with the homemade yogurt. Yogurt smoothies turned out to be a big hit around here. I am out of yogurt, but there is a new batch brewing on the food dehydrator.

French Hollyhock

 

Because I am crazy a really good garden blogger friend. I went out into the dark and took this picture of my French hollyhock for Brenda to compare to her hollyhock. I know, I know, I have linked to her twice today. I am not a blog stalker, seriously. We won't know if we have the same thing until hers blooms. Can't wait to see what it is.

Ignore the orange under the hollyhock. We will remain calm and not question the actions of Monkeys. We do not need to know why there is an orange outside on the ground. There should only be one meltdown a week and I had mine yesterday.

Here is a picture of a French hollyhock from last summer.

 

Plant facts - French hollyhock or Malva sylvestris "Zebrina" In my zone (8a) it is a biennial. It grows to about four feet and is covered with those pretty striped flowers. It reseeds like crazy, but is easy to transplant and thin. We will have plenty to share at the spring seminar plant sale.

The Birds are Back

 

I was getting really worried. Brenda and Linda both had birds at their places. We live in the same region and no birds were coming to my garden. There was even homemade suet, but nobody showed up for dinner. Today, they came in mass. I don't know what these little birds are, but they are cute, aren't they? I saw a male and female cardinal, but they flew off while I was getting the camera. Forgive the quality of the photo. I have a good excuse this time. The picture was shot through a glass door. If I had opened it, they all would have flown away.

This winter, with your help, I hope to learn what types are birds are visiting my garden. Be encouraged to school me on my birds just like y'all did when the Carolina wren flew into my mother's living room.

What birds do you have visiting?