Lots o' Pots

One of our many friends has moved away again leaving her sons to tend to the house until it gets sold. They really don't want to take care of the pots of plants she left, not to mention the several bags of potting soil, and so they have asked me to get rid of it all for them.
Usually I would say, "Yes! Of course!" So I did. And now I have a good many pots sitting in my driveway waiting to be placed in their permanent homes. Among them are four different types of cactus, a few different flowers including dianthus, and some post that I'm sure are just some kind of local weed that has taken over and covered the dirt.
I have not gotten all of the pots and dirt yet and will post a series of pictures showing the wonderful findings soon (as in some time this year, I hope).
It was all outside durring the recent freeze so it should all be able to stand whatever Texas has to throw at them. In short, they're staying outside.

Winter Veggies (Texas)

I know this probably won't work in a lot of areas but where live these are some of the survivors you can look to for veggies in the cold weather.
The great old standby is cabbage. At least in the south it's what you eat on new years with black eyes peas in hopes of having a better year. In the beginning it was because there was nothing else to eat and that's what they had.
Here in the DFW metroplex it's a little warmer (3-6 degrees) than the surrounding cities due to lots of heat being produced. In fact now that there are a lot of gas wells just burning off the initial fumes coming out of wells it should be a little warmer than that even.
Due to the warmness other crops are still doing well. For instance my beets, carrots, radishes and lemon grass are doing great. If there's a particularly cold night just cover your plants with a cold frame or, if nothing else, a sheet.
Let me know when you make some soup with your winter veggies and I'll come try it!

Winter is finally here

I'm in Texas. What did you expect?
Anyway, it's supposed to have flurries or freezing rain or some such thing tonight so I finally harvested all of my peppers. Keep in mind that the only thing I put on them was water so although they're not super big there are plenty of them, most of which will have to be frozen because I don't believe I will actually use them every day.
I also still need to separate the hot ones from the bells and sweet peppers. Just so you can see them all I put them in a strainer and voila!
Any other harvests out there?

Blimy! More Blooms!

You were probably thinking, "I bet he didn't show us all of his flowers. What an outrage! Let's pick off all of his petals!" You then picked up your gardening implements and marched toward my house.
After a couple blocks you gave up because it was too far and wore a blister on your little toe because you hadn't broken in your new shoes yet and they weren't made for walking across whatever states there are to get here.
Before you get another crazy idea into your head I guess I had better post the rest of the flower pictures and get it over with. Sorry for causing such havoc.

MBD (My Bloom Day)

I was out in the garden today gardening and all arount me there seemed to be flowers! Normally this wouldn't have made any lasting impression since it is a garden but mostly I've been reading about what plants to bring in out of the snow or how to winterize your plants. Apparently my garden hasn't gotten the message and still thinks it's September or some such thing and decided that blooming was a good idea.

So for all of you who don't have any blooms, here you are.

Tired of the same old thing?

I sure was. So I decided to do something about it!
The little I have picked up here and there by fixing all of the problems that Dreamweaver creates by making junk code and if you ever tried to look one of it's pages over after several edits and whatnot you would sympathize and nod appreciatively to removing vast seas of Dreamweaver code.

Anyhow the result is a new and wider blog! That's right, there's more room to move about and not so much scrolling down
and down
and down
and down
and down
and down
and down
and down...
You get the point, pictures wrap better too. Hope you enjoy and feel as relieved as I do that the blog isn't squished into a sausage.

Wouldn't You Like To Have A Pepper Too?

My pepper experiment this year has been an overwhelming success. I threw a bunch of pepper seeds out on a very fertile raised area of the yard and *POOF* up come pepper plants. With a little watering they survived the summer and now in the cool part of the year they are producing a hefty crop of peppers.

The first frost has been pushed back a little longer so they should get nice and big. I've already picked a few and used them in pastas, sandwiches and a gumbo. I have to admit that they aren't as big as the ones in the stores but they taste way better.

Here is a view with several different peppers in the picture. Unfortunately I don't know what some of the peppers are since I sprinlked some mixed pepper seeds in with all of it just in case they were still good. No sense in wasting seeds. It's made a very interesting grouping of peppers. They are all different sizes and hopefully soon more colors will come to the fore.

I just better not forget to pick them or my wife will probably shake her head at me and sympathetically pat me on the back to comfort me in my time of mourning.

Gardening with Style

I've heard of stylish gardens and people who have a flair for gardening. A garden can be very complex or so simple it's gorgeous. Our garden is none of the above as far as I'm concerned even if our friends say it's wonderful. I think they're biased.
One thing I don't think I can ever forget is the time my wife and I went strawberry picking and one very cute couple decided to dress up for the event. It was a bless her soul moment because she really should have known better than to wear high heels and such a short dress to pick strawberries. Sun dresses, on the other hand, work beautifully. Unless you're a guy....
Curiously, as far as I can tell, a guy can wear just about anything he would normally wear and still be modest while gardening.

Pecans

If you've ever tasted a fresh warm pecan pie you probably became an addict and need a fix occasionally to keep you sane. There's good news though! We're smack dab in the middle of pecan season and there is a good supply of pecans for everyone.




"I don't have pecans around me." you may lament. That's ok, there are these things called trucks that will bring them to your local grocer and you can get them from him. He's a nice old man who knows a lot about things like fishing and spitting and of course pecans so you should be in good hands if you don't know what to do with them once you've bought some.


In the rare instance that I met a different grocer you can also look online for some recipes like the following one.


http://www.tpga.org/cgi-bin/public.cgi?action=list_recipe&recipe_id=18



If you even try to convince me that you don't have access to the internet then shame on you.. I'm not that gullible.

The main problem I have found is that there are too many pecans where I live and the squirrels like to hide some of them in the flower beds to pop up in the spring where I then have to dig them out and scold the squirrels for their industriousness.

Hurry before the end of the month though because the prices will soon rise as the harvest season ends and the grocer treis to hoard the rest for himself.

Live Bamboo Fence

All you need is several acres for it to grow in well and there you go..... What? That doesn't sound good?
If you're like me then it sounds really good except that you probably don't have the acreage. Don't let that daunt you though, there are varieties of clumping bamboo that are much more manageable as a screen and don't end up on the other side of the yard, or worse in the middle of the yard.
If that still sounds a little too much, there are many shrubs that would do just as well for a little privacy. If your area is good for it you might consider grapevines The main problem with a live fence is the time it takes for it to grow. Even if you have the acreage, bamboo would take a few years to make a decent fence unless you planted the entire thing. Likewise bushes and shrubs are usually sold in much smaller sizes than you would need to make a good fence. In the mean time you can plant vines, which would work well on a chain link fence, or tall growing flowering plants like sunflowers to fill in where the shrubs haven't yet.
If you have a living wall I would love to see pictures of them!