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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

That said, I am a little proud of myself for getting three trenches dug for the potatoes.^† I assure you, I battled with myself the entire time. After I finished the first one, I didn’t want to dig two more, so I really had to fight against every fiber of my being screaming at me to give up and let Lin finish the job. Smashing one of my fingers half way through the second trench didn’t help any either. The sight of blood coming out of one of my own appendages is usually enough to make me want to stop doing whatever it is I am doing and never do it again. But the whole finger smashing event made me angry.^†† Once I’m angry, my inner pit bull just latches onto whatever it is I need to get done and doesn’t let go until it’s finished (or I’m incapable of finishing).

Once I got the trenches dug and the potatoes in the ground and covered with a couple inches of dirt, I realized I had to move the large container, large wheelbarrow, and lawn tractor trailer which were all full of dirt somewhere away from the garden so I could water without getting it wet as well. I managed to pull the large container away from the area, and I very carefully got the broken old wheelbarrow out of my way as well. That left the lawn tractor trailer that wasn’t connected to the lawn tractor. Obviously, it was too heavy for me to move by just lifting the end and pulling it away, so my choices were to wait until Lin got home to drive the lawn tractor or … learn to drive the lawn tractor myself. I didn’t feel like waiting, so I hopped onto the thing and looked at the controls.

Seemed simple enough, so I made sure the brake was engaged, put it in neutral, checked that the mowing blades were in the up position, and turned the key. It roared to life, and I very, very slowly drove it over to the trailer, backed up, and connected the trailer to it. All by myself!!! Then I drove it all the way around the garden to find a good parking space … cackling loudly the whole time, because driving a lawn tractor is a blast! I can’t wait to find an excuse to drive it again, and next time, maybe I’ll take it out of the slow “turtle speed” setting and push it up a bit closer to “rabbit speed”. LOL!

Then I set up the sprinkler to give the garden a good deep watering, sat in the shade on the lawn tractor with my e-cig and a mug of ice water, and felt a pleasant sense of self-satisfaction and accomplishment. I also worried more than a little that I would wake up today and not be able to move at all. Mostly, I was worried about my on-going elbow problem. It’s been getting better (slowly) since I started sleeping with two pillows and keeping myself from sleeping on it all night, but it started complaining the moment I put shovel to earth. By the time I finished the second trench, it hurt as badly as it did the night I injured it. By the time I was done with everything, I was so tired and numb all over, I couldn’t tell how it felt. I figured I’d wake up today and it would be miserable.

Amazingly, my elbow feel better than it has in weeks. Oh sure, my arms in general feel fatigued and achy (as does my whole body), but that elbow pain is greatly diminished. I’m quite surprised. Pleased too! I guess digging some trenches was exactly the physical therapy it needed. Or maybe I’m just so tired all over I can’t tell my elbow is totally broken. Guess we’ll see once I’m not utterly fatigued and aching all over, but it does seem greatly improved. Here’s hoping it’s true that it’s getting better. I am so tired of having an achy elbow.

In other garden news, more tomato seedlings have popped up! Added to the list of this season’s potential tomatoes are Brown Cherry, Pineapple, and Unknown. The Pineapple tomato seeds I saved from the most beautiful heirloom tomato I’d ever seen that we bought at the farmers market three years ago. I’ve tried planting them every season since, and I have had no success getting the plants to survive and produce tomatoes. This is really the last year those seeds are going to be anything like viable, so I am so happy I have two that came up. All I really need is one tomato, so I can keep trying with them, but I do hope this is the year they thrive. And I have no idea what the Unknown Tomato seeds will end up being. They were some I saved, and I forgot to label them. By the time I got around to putting them away after fermentation, I forgot what they were. All I know is they are most likely another heirloom from the farmers market. I have two of those that came up as well, so I can’t wait to see what comes of them.

Today’s mission in the garden is to get the beans planted. That’s all. Then I’m taking the weekend off from the digging and crawling around on my hands and knees. I deserve a properly lazy weekend! Next Monday, I have to start clearing out useless lettuce plants that have decided the season is over and start getting that bed ready for the tomato plants to come. Aside from on-going watering, bug killing, and weeding, that’ll be it in the garden until those tomato seedlings are large enough to transplant into real soil.^††† It’s been a long freaking week of garden work, but it’s done, done, done! Yippee!

And I also have to go to the store to get pizza toppings and sodas. I wish I hadn’t forgotten to get these things when I was there on Wednesday, because I really don’t feel like going to the store today. I do feel like having pizza at some point (though maybe not tonight), so having toppings would be nice. I’m sure I’ll manage to drag myself over there, most likely during the time period when Sonic drinks are half-priced. I think I need a cherry limeade today. I might even need a hot dog. I deserve junk food!

But first, more coffee. Lin bought me a French press, which I am dying to try, but I think I’ll finish up the last of the old coffee with the espresso machine today and start using the press in the morning with the nice new bag of San Francisco blend beans. It’s going to be nice being able to make enough coffee for everyone all at one go. Love the espresso machine (and will continue using it too), but one cup at a time is a bit of a drag when there’s more than one person wanting coffee. Can’t wait to try the French press though! I just know it’s going to be awesome.

And I also have to pay attention to the cats that will NOT leave me alone this morning. Apparently, they did not get enough attention yesterday, so I better dish out the head scritches and belly rubs in bountiful doses today. My masters command it!

1. † In the grand scheme of things, moving 10 cubic feet of dirt with a shovel isn’t really a lot of dirt moving, but it’s the most digging I have ever done EVER. I reserve the right to be proud of my minor accomplishment.
2. †† And hopefully, I didn’t disturb any of the neighbors with my little temper tantrum in the back yard. There may have been some loudish cussing, and there most certainly was the loud sound of me whacking a tree with some dry bamboo. Sorry, but busting my finger required a temper tantrum.
3. ††† Well, I also have to get back to clearing out the front flower bed, but that has never been a huge priority. I hate that flower bed and wish it didn’t exist.

Been busy in the garden sticking seeds in the ground. Yesterday, I planted the red onions, and on a lark decided to plant some of my older pepper seeds. NO idea if the peppers will come up or not, but if not, that section will be used for scallions and maybe some radishes (and a tomato plant or two). I don’t really need 15 pepper plants of any sort, but I thought I should plant that many seeds (older, so germination success rates will be lower) in hopes of getting one or two out of it. Today the first round of bush beans are getting planted and the one tomato plant still in its nursery pot will probably find a new home in the garden. That leaves the planting of potatoes for Friday … and then … the garden will be planted!

Carrots are coming up like crazy everywhere in what I am now calling the Carrot Bed. I’d planted one of the bought tomato plants in that bed, but I think before it gets much larger, I’ll be moving it elsewhere. Bed One is seriously going to be wall-to-wall carrots. If you aren’t anal about plants being in perfect rows and don’t mind them doing their own thing, allowing plants to self-seed works remarkably well. Even more exciting than the presence of many baby carrot plants is the presence of new blooms on the parent plants. It looks to me like they are going to drop seed at just the right time for winter carrots. I love nature! It really knows what it’s doing!

The Black Seeded Simpson lettuce is beginning to want to go to seed. It’s always sad when that time of the year rolls around, but it does. Like clockwork, it starts going to seed in April. The days just start getting too hot. We still have a few weeks of salads left, and then whatever is left gets thinned out to the strongest and latest to bolt plants. The rest goes onto my new compost heap (so glad it’s now right in the garden), and the empty area in that bed gets reseeded with basil and other herbs.

The Genovese Basil didn’t reseed itself so well this year. Actually, it did, but the wacky weather we’ve had this spring lead to it sprouting right before that very last massive cold front, and most of the baby plants died. I have three plants that were in a pot and are now a good seedling size and a couple new ones in the bed with the lettuce. This would be enough for general use, but I want enough to put away some pesto in the freezer for winter (and to share with others). I did plant some new basil varieties recently, and those have begun to come up as well. I love basil. Can never have too much of it!

What hasn’t been coming up is dill. I had such poor success with the variety of dill my grandfather used to grow (don’t even ask me the name), so I bought a different variety this year (it’s more of a bush type). It is as hard to get started as all dill plants seem to be. The biggest problem is the seeds need light to germinate … as in, they need to be merely pressed into the surface of the dirt and not, you know, actually planted under the dirt. Outside, this often leads to things like birds and ants having a nice snack or the rain burying them before they sprout. There is something that has come up where I put those seeds, but it doesn’t look like dill. I’ll give it a week or so to see if it is dill or not, but I’m afraid it’s just more stupid weeds.

Another depressing thing in the garden at the moment is the Jet Set tomato plant. I planted it in the lettuce bed, and it looks like hell. I specifically bought this hybrid I’ve never tried before because it’s supposed to be resistant to all the major tomato diseases, but it looks diseased. It could just be the shock of being transplanted … or being unaccustomed to being treated properly (seriously, what is up with the people at Lowe’s – they do not know anything about plants). I’m going to give it one more week to show some new growth that doesn’t look diseased and then, I may very well kill the thing or at least put it in a pot and move it far, far away from the garden.

Speaking of tomatoes, I got a late start this year getting my seeds going. I’d be upset about that if the weather had been normal this year, but seeing as it’s still occasionally getting REALLY chilly at night, being late with my tomato plants isn’t going to be a crisis. Besides, that’s why I always buy a few plants as backups and to give me some early tomatoes. Fact is, having tomatoes before July 4th is really a luxury. Anyway, I got my seeds started late, but I’m having good success with germination. Three yellow pears have come up, as have three of the all new cherry tomato varieties I decided to try this year (Nugget, Snow White, and Sweetie). In a couple of weeks, these will all get moved to the garden. I’m especially hoping the yellow pears do good this year after last year’s total failure to produce even one plant that survived to give me tomatoes. I need some tomato success this season.

The peas are growing, though slowly. They look so healthy and strong though, so I expect them to pick up steam soon. They have just begun to send out arms to grab a trellis, so I suppose I better be making one soon. The plan is to crochet one out of leftover brightly-colored acrylic yarn from the Blanton project and run it from the planters to the hooks on the porch roof. The peas will love it, and once they start climbing it, I’ll have some shade and privacy on the porch. Hopefully, I will also end up with some peas, but to be honest, I won’t be disappointed if I don’t. Pea plants are pretty, and mostly I want some shade and privacy on the porch. The year I had the cherry tomatoes up there, I enjoyed sitting on the porch without baking in the sun.

I think that’s about it for garden news. Today is my watering day, so I better get out there and set up the sprinkler to water the stuff I’ve planted the last couple of days. I watered it all by hand each day, but not very deeply. Now there’s a good block of it done, so I can use the sprinkler and give it a good long watering. Not only will it be good for the seeds trying to sprout, it will also keep the damn cats from using my new garden bed as a litter box. The neighborhood cars have been making me a little crazy this week, but that’s a whole other post waiting to be written. Right now, I think I’ve babbled enough about the garden, so it must be time to go take care if the garden a bit.

And have more coffee. Need more coffee.