Here in Austin we have a great resource, a fellow by the name of John Dromgoole who is big into organic gardening and he is the best local source for what to plant when for best results.
Since Dallas has a different climate from Austin, does anyone know of a Dallas-area counterpart to John for that kind of local gardening knowledge and guidance?
Realized it was a snake, parked the mower & ran for the camera, hit the zoom button & started walking closer & closer & closer ..... surprisingly, the snake didn't move ... finally got this close:
When I touched his tail lightly, zzzzzziiipp .... off in the grass like a flash. I think this might be a Black Northern Racer. I saw him again later, hanging out under the pomegranate bush. Fortunately, the bluebird babies have recently fledged so if the plan for being in the area was to raid the bluebird box that was nearby, he would have found it empty.
This is the first year that I planted a Mandevilla vine. The red is so vibrant! I used a small trellis and planted it by the light post. It has taken off and you can see vine growth every morning. It truly is a beautiful vine!
We got 5" of rain last night, here 40 mi north of Houston. Though we have drip irrigation system on the gardens, our trees and grass needed it. We had been watering our trees for a couple of weeks; not looking forward to the water bill.
Good morning, all. I’m in CA trying to take care of some of the needs of my mother who broke her hip. She’s 98 and in rehab.
But, gardens. Everything is very lush here in Central CA, but only because of irrigation. The ground is powder dry. Water restrictions are in place in the city — every other day, but you can only water before 7 AM or after 7 PMon your designated day. And not a drop of water had better fall on the sidewalk. This means my mom’s yard is brown.
I picked up a book to read at Mom’s — The King of California. It is all about how one family accumulated more than 200,000 acres of cotton land, etc. from 1906 until the present (plus 60,000 acres in Australia). I looked into the front cover and found the book dedicated to Mom from the author who happened to have been one of her students.
It is a fascinating tale (so far) of the Boswell family. I can’t believe how a dry tale (no pun intended) of cotton farming, water rights, and land acquisition could be so exciting. If my mom taught this Mark Arax (co-author) to write so well, I have to be proud of her.
One other observation: We drove south to the Central Valled from San Francisco. To do so we had to cross the South Bay on one of the Bridges. The San Francisco water was brown and grimy, whereas Lake Michigan is pristine, blue, and sparkling. I know the Bay is more shallow than Lake Michigan, but I think this is an example of the environmentalists who keep a dirty back yard and push their rules onto others.
Hi and thanks for the ping. I used to have a large garden, inheiritated from the woman who we bought our first house from. The soil was incredibly fertile and anything I plant grew fabulously! My first learning experience in gardening, do not plant 6 hills of cucumbers! My second experience in gardening, do not us fresh horse manure as fertilizer. You get a very nice crop of grass, alfalfa and field corn.
Anyway, I haven’t been much of a gardener since we built our ‘new’ house in ‘88. I’ve mainly grown raspberries (easy) herbs (easy) and tomatoes, easy now that I got some great advice from Diana in Wisconsin about hour to fertilize and prevent fungus. Thank you Diana! I’ve shared your advice with more people than I can count.
I had a smallish perennial garden which became overgrown. My dear husband dug it all up for me this spring and I am back to gardening, although at a much smaller scale then most of you,
I planted one hill of cukes, one hill of pickling cukes, pole beans, spinnach, radishes, 3 peppers, 3 okra that a friend gave me and a row of brussel sprouts because I love the plants.
I will be paying much nore attention to these threads now and probably asking a lot more questions.
First question. What is the best method for fertilizing? I have rather sandy soil.
The tomatoes are in a separate area in a raised bed with different soil and dear Diana helped me handle that.
Thanks guys! I love these threads.
Still hot and dry here in Central Missouri. I stopped at Lowe’s on the way home from work yesterday and bought a new tripod sprinkler. Set it up in the middle of the garden after I got home and let it run for a couple hours. It covers everything but the outer fence and is going to be a wonderful time saver for me. The tomato plants are the only thing that I’ll have to drag hose to water.
I figured out the nectarine problem. It is a bug of some sort. Every one of the bad ones has a little worm ~.25” long inside. I guess next year I’ll have to spray the tree if I want good fruit. It looks like I’m going to get half a bushel or so in spite of the infestation. Not bad for a tree that’s only been in the ground four years.
We went to a Bible conferance in Baton Rouge last weekend and I met a gentleman that I had a number of common interest with. For one, he is a beginner bee keeper. We talked at length about his experiances starting out. I guess I may put in a hive sometime and see how it goes.
As I wrote in earlier threads, I did a lot to improve the soil in the raised beds this year. I am starting to see the results.
* The Cucumbers are about a foot tall and learning how to hang on the the chain link fencing.
* The Kohlrabi is growing gangbusters.
* Sweet Peppers are about 10” high and growing nicely.
* Summer Squash is starting to put out flowers
* Yellow Beets are about 2” high and look healthy. They are now big enough I can tell the difference between Beet sprouts and weeds.
Speaking of weeds . . . The weeds are doing FANTASTIC! I think I have the best weed crop in the County! I think a neighborhood prankster snuck (sneaked?) into my garden at night and over-seeded everything with 5lbs. of weed seeds.
[grumble - grumble - grumble]
Why do weeds seem to grow 3X better than veggies???
We went to a Bible conferance in Baton Rouge last weekend and I met a gentleman that I had a number of common interest with. For one, he is a beginner bee keeper. We talked at length about his experiances starting out. I guess I may put in a hive sometime and see how it goes.
Corn sprouted; about 1” tall today. Peas are blooming like crazy.
We have 2 Cherokee Purple tomatoes, but at the same time. The one we put into a Topsy-Turvy is about 4 times the size of the one that went into the garden; and it is covered with blossoms, unlike the other one.
1/2 inch of rain yesterday afternoon, when a sudden thunderstorm blew in, thanks to having just lit the charcoal to smoke another slab of pastrami.
Pole Beans are in. Cowpeas (Thanks, JADB), 3 more types of corn; pumpkins, cocozelle, and a couple of other odds & ends get planted over the next couple of days...but not tomorrow.
Saturday is a special day at the annual 4-day Lakota Veterans Pow-wow at Pine Ridge. They have 7,000 Veterans in the tribe, with over 4,000 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. They have invited everyone, especially veterans & their families, in our county, which neighbors them, to take part as a ‘thank you’ for the mutual support in working with them to keep the Hot Springs VA facility open. We’ll be there, rather than in the garden.
We are having the carpet torn out of the house and having wood and stone installed throughout and expected the crew to arrive on Monday. Right after I posted the thread my doorbell rings ... crew was here and the house has been torn apart ever since. My computer was unplugged all day yesterday and most of today.
I took the opportunity today before relocating the computer to install my wireless router and I had trouble all afternoon. Everything is working well now, but I am totally exhausted, mentally and physically!
I will catch up on the thread tomorrow. Thank you all for your comments! Can't wait to read them all and respond. I appreciate your understanding :)