Murphy's Law for Gardeners

Over the last year I have had a few encounters with Murphy's law. Here are just a few.

1. No matter how much stuff you put in the compost pile, there will never be enough compost.

2. Spring weather will be warm and sunny and then temperature will drop into the 40's the week you put out your tomato seedlings

3. As soon as you make the perfect, nice, fluffy garden plot, the dog will decide it is a perfect doggie bed.

4. It will rain on the days you take off work to get the garden started in the spring.

5. Your puppy will think your veggie garden is a perfect place to jump up and down.

6. Your cat will believe the garden is a litter box and butterflies are toys.

7. The minute you set up your new rain barrel, the rain will stop.

8. Your non-gardening spouse will give erroneous gardening advice to the neighbors

9. You will try to grow a plant that has died on you year after year because 'This will be the year." Then you will be surprised when it dies yet again.

10. You will have a surprise encounter with a slug, toad, or some other critter that makes you run and scream.

Do y'all have any Murphy's law observations?

Here is a flower bed I had to fix after the clients dog decided to use it for a bed. I really like the little black fence.

This is a pretty bed, but all the roses are sick because of yo-yo rain and drought.

Another Way to Cook Zucchini

I know a lot of vegetable gardeners end up with too much zucchini or have family members who won't eat it. My boys will eat it stir fried with carrots and sprinkled with season salt. The whole family will eat coated in spicy cornmeal and fried. That is about the extent of their zucchini love.

Tonight I baked some pork chops with mushrooms, onions, olive oil, a little beef broth, and pepper. I had one good sized rhonde de nice zucchini. I sliced it really thin and added it to the pork chop bake for the last ten minutes in the oven. It was wonderful. I could make a meal of just the mushrooms and zucchini.

Monkey Haircut

They won't let him go to school looking like this. I cannot imagine why.

He looks a little worried.

Awww...look at that face.

Rainy Day Projects

It is raining and the forecast says we will have rain for several more days. We need this rain bad so I am happy, but housebound. Rain makes me sleepy and I want to take a nap. I don't want to waste the whole day though.

I should work on the quilt for Christann. The wedding is a month from today. Yikes!!! I better get moving. There is only one row finished. Maybe Mamala will help me when the boys go back to school next week.

Updates

I thought it might be time for a few updates

The carpenter finished the bridge over the bog garden. Isn't it pretty? Ignore the Monkey.

The pink containers are recycled cattle feed buckets. Some of the plants I want to use on this project can be invasive and we are hoping the containers will provide a barrier as well as holding more water around the plants roots.

I found a way to increase my rainwater harvesting capacity. It looks pretty redneck, but it works. This is another way to recycle those cattle feed buckets.

Remember our cute little pumpkin. Well, look at her now. There are a few spots that are beginning to turn orange. I don't think it will get really big, but I don't care. This is my first pumpkin success. I did not have to cull any of the other baby pumpkins. They shriveled up and turned yellow without any help from me.

Stupid Garden Center

Remember this morning when I was all excited about planning my fall garden. I even got out my handy dandy KCMG horticultural calendar and looked up what should be planted this month. The list included broccoli and cabbage among other things. I already have seeds for most of my fall plants. I also thought that this would be a good time to start some snap dragons and violas. With my nice list in hand, I go to the local nursery. I found no seeds and no vegetable bedding plants. All he had were mums and crotons. So here I go across the road to, horror of all horrors, a big box store. Not only had they gotten rid of all the seeds and had no veggies, but the rest of the plants were being allowed to die a slow horrible death without water. Why do some plant retailers think there is only one season of gardening? Our master gardener group spends hours sharing knowledge about gardening in our county only to have the poor gardeners go out and find not a single fall plant available when it is time to plant, or worse things that are not suitable for our zone. Fall is really the easiest time to garden here in north Texas. The weather is warm but not blistering or cool but not freezing. There is generally enough rain and if supplemental water has to be added it does not evaporate within minutes. The pest problems are minimal and the weather is much more comfortable for the gardener. I can even overwinter somethings like carrots, garlic, and onions. What gives with the retailers? Stupid garden centers.

Planning My Fall Garden

It is early Saturday morning and my family is asleep. I am all alone. This never happens. Shhh....don't wake them. I am not used to being alone and it turns out I am bored.

Boredom combined with nice cool weather has led me to begin planning my fall garden. A quick look at the seed stash revealed sugar snap peas, Swiss chard, lettuce, scarlet Nantes carrots, edamame, collards, pole beans, and broccoli raab. I will need to buy broccoli and cabbage plants. Hopefully, the nurseries have them already. I know I am really bored and I know I am going to regret this, but I am going to plant a sweet potato. I have just enough time to get it in the ground and maybe get some tubers. The morning glories are going crazy so certainly now would be a good time to plant their relative. Maybe I should put it in a container?

Oops, they woke up. Gotta go.