Category Archives: Gardening

Tis the Season

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Yesterday brought the arrival of the first of the spring gardening catalogs. Therefore, I spent the afternoon, evening, and most of the night organizing and inventorying my seed collection and contemplating this year’s vegetable garden.

The last few years, my goal had been to create enough of a few vegetables to put some back for winter eating. Thanks to the worst and longest drought in Texas history, I have failed to achieve this goal. I am not at all certain this drought is done with us yet, so this year, my gardening goal will be a little different.

This year, I will plant a larger variety of vegetable in smaller quantities. My goal is merely to supply my kitchen with tasty fresh veggies for as long as the season lasts. I’ve successfully managed to do this every year since I started gardening, so all I am really doing is releasing myself from the stress of trying to stockpile food and the disappointed that comes when that doesn’t happen. I love gardening, and I want to continue to love gardening.

Years ago when we started our mission to eat as locally, organically, and ethically as possible, sources for such foodstuffs were few and far between. Working toward stockpiling things grown in my own garden was a worthy goal. But now, there are so many places I can go all year ’round to buy healthy, in season, local produce at reasonable prices. Also, our financial situation has improved slightly, so if I want to buy organic produce, and it costs a little more than the non-organic options, I can without feeling like I’m breaking the bank.

I know that someday, our very own backyard will be capable of producing much of our dietary needs, but until such time as the weather cooperates with me, it seems silly to keep being so ambitious. Last year was awful. There has never been a more awful summer in my life. The extreme heat, the lack of rain, the fires (and constant threat of fire). The day I finally realized there was no hope for my garden was a sad, sad day. It was supposed to have been my best year yet, and it turned into the worst. The experience of working so hard for so little return almost killed my desire to garden at all.

But then the first gardening catalogs arrived, and apparently, I am still addicted to gardening. I just need to change gears. Less focus of production output … more focus on fun and relaxation! I’m looking forward to this year’s garden. Who knows what the weather will be like. Maybe better. Maybe the same. It could even get worse (though I shudder to imagine worse). I’m just going to do the best I can to get something for my work, but mostly, I’ll be doing the best I can to enjoy myself and my garden and spending time outside doing something interesting and heathy.

Let the garden planning begin!

We Have Lettuce!

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Since it’s been raining lately, there’s been some green things popping up in the now long-neglected garden area of the back yard. I wandered out there this morning to have a look-see. Most of the green is weeds, but lo and behold, there are a number of tiny Black Seeded Simpson lettuce plants sprinkled throughout both raised beds!

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The walking onions have also made an appearance! Go Mother Nature! Now it’ll be up to me to get rid of the weeds and protect the tiny things from any nasty cold fronts.

Home Grown Cooking

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Home Grown Cooking

Tonight was another locally grown dinner! In fact, except for the pork, it was all right from my back yard! Yippee!

First up is the breaded pork cutlet … pork supplied by the Richardsons. I love their pork cutlets. Since I dug up potatoes today, there had to be potatoes. I roasted them in a foil package with a few stray carrots that needed pulling up, some rosemary olive oil, some basil, and a head of garlic. And I had just enough tiny pear tomatoes for a little salad with some cucumber, carrots, and the last of the winter scallions.

NOM NOM NOM!

I don’t think I have the words to express how good the potatoes tasted. When I buy potatoes, I spend good money getting local, organic, tasty potatoes. These potatoes blew those potatoes away. Sweet and earthy with a texture like warm butter. I wish my harvest was going to be larger, but I am going to be thankful for every single bite of these potatoes I get to eat. LOL!

Tomorrow … garlic mashed potatoes with butter and sour cream. Can’t wait!

3D: Dustbowl, Drought, Depression

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It’s hot. I don’t even mean a little hot. I mean a LOT hot. Triple digit temperatures for days, and none of us can remember the last time we got enough precipitation to really call it rain. Central Texas is crispy, and so is my garden. They are saying this is the worst drought in a hundred years. Just my luck, right? Expand the garden expecting the normal drought levels we’ve had the last few years and WHAM, instead I get the worst drought in two lifetimes. The last time I checked the count, we’d already had eleven days over one hundred degrees. I’m pretty sure that was before this latest insane heatwave rolled into town.

Thanks, Mother Nature!

As you may imagine, my garden is suffering. I’ve done the best I can with what I’ve been given and the resources available to me, but it’s suffering, and it’s dying. The only things in the garden that don’t look like they are on death’s door are the carrots and a couple tomato plants, and the tomato plants don’t look do great. It’s really pretty damn depressing to see so much death out in my garden and not be able to do anything about it.

Since the bush beans were pretty much done producing anyway, I’ve been pulling them out and plucking off the last few beans dangling here and there. I’d intended to replant beans as soon as I pulled these up, but it seems way too hot and dry to bother. Seedlings would never make it! So I’m going to hold off on planting more beans until I see some change in the weather. Meanwhile, the dead bean bushes are being used to shield the dirt over the potato mounds in the hopes it will keep the soil just a little cooler.

Now let me tell you about the potatoes. You know I had high hopes this year, and everything looked to be going fabulous until this heat set in so badly. Well, now the potatoes look like hell. The heat has stressed them out, and there’s some evidence of wilt and other diseases. If I manage to get any potatoes at all, it’ll be lucky. The Yukon Golds started to die back last week, and I can’t tell if they are dying back because it’s time for them to die back (they are an early potato, ready in 70-90 days, and it’s been over 70 days) or because they are just dying. This leaves me in a bit of a quandary. Potatoes that are almost ready to harvest shouldn’t be watered. Potatoes that are dying from the heat and dryness should. I’m not sure what to do. The Norland Reds are also dying back, and while they too are an early potato, they really shouldn’t be ready quite this early. The long season potatoes (names I can’t recall) aren’t looking great, but at least they don’t look completely dead, so I’m going to think positive and assume the early ones are almost ready to harvest. At least thinking that way will put off the pain I will feel when I dig them up and find nothing at all edible beneath them.

The tomatoes have stopped producing. No surprise there. Tomatoes only set if the temperature drops into the 70′s at some point during the day. Usually, we don’t have this problem until later in the summer, but it’s come early. Aside from the fact I miss having fresh tomatoes (and we have had some), I’m worried about how long I can keep them alive waiting for cooler weather to get here. During a standard summer, one month of this heat is hard enough. If it doesn’t get at least a little cooler –and for heaven’s sake RAIN– keeping them going for a few months may be impossible. I’m going to move the ones in pots to the front porch so they aren’t out in the sun quite as long every day and just keep watering the ones stuck in the ground. This week, I’ll be starting more tomato seedlings for a fall crop. Then it’ll just be a game of waiting for Mother Nature to have pity on us.

The garlic? It’s ready to harvest. About time, right? I pulled one up last week, and it was a dismal sight. One single large clove. Well, large is an overstatement. Large for a clove of garlic. Small for a head of garlic. Had an incredible smell and mildly sweet flavor, but so very small. I’ll be pulling those up this week too, and braiding them together to hang up a while and dry a bit. After all the waiting (since last fall), I’d hoped there’d be twelve awesome heads of garlic, but now I suspect they are all going to be pathetic. Oh well, at least they taste good.

Don’t ask about the corn. If I tell you about the corn, I’d break down and cry. My corn has done as well as the corn grown by farmers all across the state. In other words … the corn is one big fat fail. I’m not even going to bother with corn ever again.

The squash and cucumbers are hanging onto life but just barely. We have gotten quite a lot of tasty goodness out of them, and they have more than paid for themselves, but there won’t be enough to put back for winter and there won’t be any pickles. Still, I can’t complain too much. Those plants have been doing the best they could, and I’ve been thankful for every bite of summery goodness. When my path of plant destruction leads me to that end of the garden later this week, if they haven’t set any new fruit, I’ll likely pull them out too. These I will replant immediately, because squash and cucumbers can stand some heat. Maybe I’ll have better luck with the second batch and have fresh veggies into late fall. These plants though are not going to survive that long.

What does that leave? Oh yes, the basil. There are a few plants that have been doing well, but the whole lot of it has an off flavor. Not terrible, but more bitter than in past years. I imagine this is also do to the heat and dryness. Watering may keep plants alive, but when there’s an almost non-stop hot and dry wind blasting them every day, all watering really does IS keep them alive. This has a tendency to lead to very condensed flavors in fruits and leaves. In some things this is good (cucumbers, for example). In other things, like basil, it’s not so good. Just too bitter to eat much of it. A lot of the plants are already going to seed, and I’m OK with that. I’ll let it reseed itself, and I’ll probably get more later in the year again.

Bottom line? I’m totally depressed about the garden, and there isn’t anything I can do about it except start planning the next garden. I am, of course, doing just that. More carrots are going to be planted soon for winter harvest (the carrots are growing slowly, but they are tasty and alive), and my new plan for the fall/winter garden is to plant summer things alongside the usual winter stuff. The experimentation goes on! You didn’t think I was going to give up did you? I can’t. I’m addicted to growing things and to trying to reach some level of self-sufficiency. Since we haven’t had a normal growing season since I started with the garden project, going forward, I’m just going to have to plan on never again having a normal growing season. That means pushing further into the cooler seasons with my summer crops and only planting short growth winter and spring things. Maybe next year will surprise me and be absolutely perfect for gardening, but I’m not going to hold my breath. I think Central Texas is becoming less of an oasis and more of a desert.

With all that said, I need to get some household chores done, and then I think I’ll work on some artwork. I’ve got a few pieces going that are turning out interesting, and at least the artwork isn’t depressing me (and can be done inside where it isn’t in the triple digits).

They keep saying we may get rain this week. Not holding my breath for that either. By this time of year, we’d have normally had about a foot of rain at my house. This year? Less than half that and none of it recently. I do hope for rain, but I certainly don’t expect any.

Home Grown Dinner

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Last night’s dinner was one of those really special ones that lived up to my stated goal of eating nothing but locally grown –or even better, home grown– foods. The only things on the plate not grown in my own back yard mini-farm were the lettuce and the pig (and the egg/flour used), and those were both sourced within 100 miles of my house. On top of it being so much locally grown goodness, it was also very damn tasty. Fresh and local really does taste better. There’s no way veggies from the store can compare to veggies picked in a back yard and tossed in a pot ten minutes later.

Home Grown Dinner

Farmer Orb

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Went out and did some needed work in the garden. It’s so hot out there, I really didn’t want to, but things have to be done when they have to be done! Also, I’m going to be pulling all-nighters and going crazy trying to meet that deadline this week, so if it didn’t get done today, it wasn’t getting done until next week.

Two of the potato varieties have come up so far: the Norland and the Yukon Gold. The Norland were ready to have dirt added to their trench, so I did that and pulled a bunch of nasty weeds (mostly grass). Then I replaced the cucumber plant that got munched off by something with a new seed. I’ll just keep doing that every time something befalls one of my cucumber plants. I will have cucumbers this year, dammit! Also planted some more radishes here and there and tossed the last of my scallion seeds around just to get rid of them. No idea if any of these things will come up though, as the seeds are getting old.

Once I was done with all that, I checked on all the baby tomato plants I transplanted this week, and they all seem to be OK. That left but one task on my urban farming list for the day: adding compost to everything that needed it. I drug my squeaky old wagon around with the bag of compost on it and side-dressed the new tomato plants and the things I just planted today, as well as adding some to the potted plants (tomatoes and snow peas). Since the soil was still a little moist from yesterday’s watering, I’ll wait until evening to water the compost in. By evening, there will probably be nothing moist about the dirt anymore. I may have to start watering every day. It’s just so dry this season.

Lin’s out there now trimming some low hanging branches off the trees in the front, and then he’s going to mow the weeds in the front yard. There’s almost no grass at all left out there, but at least it’s green! We really need to do something about that at some point in the future. Having a yard made of some kind of grass would be nice. LOL!

I have so many things I need to do and should be doing today, but it’s Sunday, and my body and mind just don’t want to do things on Sunday. Especially not Easter Sunday when no one anywhere is doing anything much of anything but eating and hanging out with friends and family. I think I’ll get the dishes done and maybe do a load of laundry and plan dinner, and then … goof off. Tonight, once the house is quiet and Lin and the cats have gone to bed, I’ll be getting started on that art project I have totally NOT gotten started on yet. OK, I have gotten started on it, but I am moving so slowly. Too slowly. This has to be done and in by Sunday. I’m sure I’ll make it. I always do.

Right this minute though, I need to make some phone calls, because while I don’t celebrate Easter, the rest of my family does. They will be expecting phone calls.

Also … Happy Easter to those who celebrate! And Happy Whatever Else Is Being Celebrated! LOL!

It Rained … and Hailed

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Oh, Texas weather … you vex me so.

Late last night, I developed the sort of headache I recognize as the sort informing me there’s a storm nearby. I took some aspirin and hoped it would rain to make my head pain worth it. In short order, I heard the first few drops of water hitting the screen of the open kitchen window as well as the sounds of cats feeling the presence of tiny drops of water. I closed the window, stepped out onto the front porch, and proceeded to stand in the rain to experience the fat drops landing directly on my still-nearly-hairless head.

Standing in the rain wasn’t quite the awesome experience I’d hoped it would be, mostly because a) the rain was really, really cold and b) there really wasn’t much of it. Before my head was even properly moist, it stopped raining. I went inside, opened the kitchen window, and toddled off to bed to catch a couple hours of sleep before the alarm clocks started going off and Monday would officially arrive.

I was blissfully in the land of dreams when I was abruptly awakened by the sounds of freaked out cats … and hail. HAIL! Somehow, I stumbled from the bed to the kitchen to close the window yet again. I then poked my head out the front door and watched a few pieces of ice bounce off the truck. The wind was coming from the back of the house, so the plants on the porch were protected, and there really wasn’t anything to do about the seedlings out back in the garden. I stumbled back to bed and promptly reentered deep sleep.

As soon as the usual Monday morning insanity was over and Lin was off to work, I waited impatiently for the first light of day to arrive. When it did, off to the garden I went to inspect for any damage. One tomato plant lost a leaf, but otherwise, everything in the garden was fine. Phew! I can protect my garden from a great many things, but hail? There really isn’t anything to be done about it but cross one’s fingers and hope for the best. Sometimes, you get lucky. Sometimes, you don’t.

I got lucky. This time.

Even though I certainly could have done without the hail, I’m glad we finally had a storm blow through that saw fit to dump some water on our speck of earth. I’d watered fairly thoroughly Sunday evening, but rain makes the plants far happier than any amount of water from the city water supply ever could. I expect to see an impressive spurt of growth in the seedlings already out there and the sprouting of things that haven’t yet broken the soil surface. Rain is like a little miracle, especially coming right after seeds have been planted.

Thank you, universe! We really needed the rain. Send more! My garden would love it! So would I.

The corn grew an inch overnight. Not kidding. An inch!