Starting the Fall Garden

My summer garden essentially burned up. I put in the spring garden late again because I cannot seem to make myself pull up the winter veggies when they are not quite done yet. After more than thirty years as a gardener, you would think I would be made of tougher stuff. I still have way to much hope for half producing plants. Maybe this year, I will get over myself.

There are a few corn plants still alive, but the only thriving plants are the peppers, okra, black eyed peas and yard long beans. I started a few tomato plants from seed about three weeks ago. Many of the seedlings were killed off by the 100+ weather and extreme sunlight on our deck. There are four Ladino di Panacchio, one Avivvi and one Mr Stripey still among the living. There are a few stragling survivor tomatoes in the garden. I will clean them up, give them compost and mulch. If they live great.

Today, I am going to start tomato seeds again. I have packets of Avivvi, San Marzano, yellow pear and Ladino di Panacchio. I am going to place the flats in full shade, shift them to morning sun and gradually move them to full sun as they get bigger and stronger. On September 1st, I will put them in the garden and try again. These are going to be the most spoiled tomato plants in the history of Aunt Debbi's Garden. They are going to be diva tomatoes. They will be fed a special diet of worm poo and fish water. Come November, I should be begging for green tomato recipes again. Get ready.

Claire's Quilt

 

I finally finished Baby Claire's quilt. She was born last winter and is the youngest daughter of my youngest brother.

We believe that the nine patch squares were pieced by our great grandmother, but nobody knows for sure. It took me months to get back to work on this. I quilted hearts and butterflies into this quilt because I like them and think they are nice in a baby girl's quilt.

I Have a Gallon of Figs, Now What?

I managed to get the computer working. I had to do this restore thing. It took a long time, but it worked. I haven't tried to use the printer yet, but having the internet back is a relief. What in the world was I going to do with a gallon of figs and no instructions from the webiphere?

If you had a gallon of figs, what would you do with them? Really, I need to know. I've got no clue.

I Joined a CSA

So here I am in the library. My puter still won't get the interweb, stupid puter. You'd think after several non blogging days I would have something very important to blog about, but no. Seems like I have the heat of summer doldrums.

We did get a little rain and the weather has dropped from a bazillion back into the 90's. Several people in the area of have had serious heat related health issues. I don't go outside after lunch time anymore.

I did join a local CSA farm with a working share membership. What this means is I will work a few hours ever week on the farm for my share of the produce. The farm is Eden's Garden in Balch Springs Texas. They also run a Saturday market. CSA (community supported agriculture) are farms that are supported by the local community. This one is run to provide a living wage for the farmer and provide organically grown produce to members. They also have meat, eggs, and dairy available from other area farmers and ranchers on the market days. I am looking forward to this as our little garden just doesn't give us enough food and I want to concentrate on herbs and cut flowers in it from here on out.

Modem Death Blog Interruption

My blogging will be temporarily interrupted because of modem death. Will be back as soon as I get another one. I will visit y'all blogs during my breaks at the library.

Happy blogging everyone.

Bogs and Pop Tarts

I gave my bog presentation this morning. Have I ever mentioned that public speaking makes me turn red. I've known these people for six years and I still get nervous speaking in front of them.

The lecture went too quickly and I didn't follow my notes. Basically, I convinced 20 people to avoid bog gardening at all costs. I even had a hard time giving the plants I brought as examples away at the end. The woman who won them in the drawing didn't want them.

Here are things you should not ever do when creating a bog garden.

1. Go find good researched based information and ignore it.

2. Enlist the "help" of three specialists and implement all of their conflicting suggestions. Pots float, mosquitoes have a home, crawdads move in, bog is alkaline, extension agent is unhappy.

3. Put a liner in it with no drainage at all. This creates flooding. Also makes a perfect mosquito and crawdad habitat.

4. Use alkaline compost. This kills plants. (FYI cotton bur compost is alkaline big time)

5. Sink large containers in the bog to hold invasive plants. They will float.

6. Put down flagstone before spreading sand, remove the sandstone repeat.

7. Put in river rock before the bog settles, take all river rock out and add more soil and compost. Repeat.

8. Plant all the plants on the hottest day in September and don't water for two days. This kills plants.

It is actually pretty right now. The hardy hibiscus are blooming. We still need to tweak the plant selections, but it is on its way.

While I gave this little program I received a voice mail. The phone says, "You have one new voicemail. Message marked URGENT." Baby Monkey, "Mom, can I have a pop tart?"

Somebody help me.

Some People Can Sleep Anywhere

 
 
 
 

Baby Monkey and our friend Frank were falling asleep all over the place yesterday afternoon. Camping in 107 degree heat will do that to you. I even left Abby at home. She is an almost completely black German shepherd and I was afraid she would run herself to hard in the sun and overheat. We had a good time, but I did have to take a nap this afternoon to recover. Hope y'all had a great weekend.

I guess I should have warned you about that snake. Sorry. I think it was just a rat snake. There was only mild freaking out. I didn't let the men kill it.