Lemon Mint

We got two kinds of mint that I put under the fig tree.  Mint can be hard to get to grow sometimes but when it does it can take over.

On the plus side it can help keep some bugs down like fleas. We haven't had a problem with fleas as of yet but it can't hurt to prevent them in the first place.

The mint shown here, I believe, is lemon mint.  I could be wrong but that's what I'm told we were given.  The other mint we have is spearmint.  These have spread out a little but still not very far. 

The fig tree is still coming back nicely and has several shoots now.  Taken off two leaves so far and not a lot of change. Will wait a bit longer before trying it again.  Maybe it's not quite big enough to send enough to that sprout to make a difference.

The green onion is blooming nicely. Several poof balls of flowers have opened up and some fairly large ones.  Also planted a red onion among the green ones.  It was sprouting anyway.

I was able to remove a lot of weeds recently.  The best time to do weed removal is right after a good rain or possibly during a rain if it is late and will get dark before it's over.  Instead of having to fight the weeds to pull them out, most of them came out fairly easily if not immediately.  A couple of the harder ones to pull were the dandelions.  They have a tap root that can go down for a while even on a relatively small plant.

Wonderful Weeds

The heat is up and all of my plants are growing like, uh well, weeds.  All thanks to the actual weeds growing in among the plants  The four o' clocks especially are blooming in the morning. By this time they are usually just hanging on and waiting for September to roll around.
The cantaloupe plant has started growing again after fruiting and I hope to see new flowers soon for a possible fall crop.
The tomatoes in the back are a healthy green with many flowers. Trying to pollinate early in the morning before the heat rises in hopes of having more tomatoes.  Not much of a crop yet this year.
Planted some leek bottoms which are already double the size they started out as and are still very healthy looking. Hopefully they'll keep it up and we'll have leeks available all year.

Summer's coming

The heat is coming and it's time to make sure everything will survive the temperatures we're about to have here in the metroplex. We're usually five or so degrees hotter than the surrounding country side mostly due to running engines and pavement reflecting heat.
Last year I had good success just making sure there were enough weeds to keep in the moisture.  Natives are really good at this and are one reason they have survived here for so long.  Most of them are grasses but there are a number of vining ground plants that come along as well.  For the most part they won't compete too much with the plants you want since they keep their roots shallow. So not only do they help retain the water in the ground they also don't compete to use it up.
Mulch can help too but it's not really made for the job. Although it does create shade, it wicks the moisture up off of the ground and gives a higher evaporation surface. When the wind picks up they dry out quickly and pull more moisture.
Watering throughout the day in specific areas, not broadcast watering helps too. One of my favorites is ice watering. A block of ice will melt slowly and not only release water but also cool the roots down. It's like placing the glass of iced tea on your chest on a hot day while at the same time sipping it. Which isn't a bad idea to do while refreshing your plants.

Green Mulch

We're going on day 26 of 100 degree weather. Most of my plants are really feeling the heat and trying to wither on me. On the bright side, literally the bright side of the house even, the planter that's full of weeds is doing pretty well. I pulled half of the weeds out yesterday trying to make it look better since the weeds are growing up and over the little concrete wall I put in.
Today I'll check on the plants to see how much the weeds were protecting the plants I actually wanted.

Jimson Weed (Datura)

Although there are many names for it as well as spellings, the jimson weed is a beautiful flower. I had one in my yard for many years and it might not come back this year after mowing it over repeatedly for years.

"If it's such a beautiful flower then why would you mow it down?" you might ask. It's pretty invasive. Once the flowers are done, it makes a seed pod that looks what I imagine a spine ship from Lamplighter would look like. Inside there are, I would guess, hundreds of seeds. The seeds are poisonous. Ingesting just a few can kill you.

Also, it's spread to my nieghbors yard and I can still see it when I come home in the evenings. It really is a sight to see. Pictured here is only one flower but when even a small plant starts to bloom it can have as many as will fit. The one we had in the back which was only about two feet tall usually had fifteen to twenty flowers at at time.

Poison Ivy (What Not to Grow)

I've been out surveying in the deep jungles... ok, forests.... fine, thick bunches of trees of Fort Worth and Mansfield and of course there's a lot of things not to grow that don't need tending.

I've kept clear of most of them but the poison ivy just finds a way to get to you. Currently my arms are red and swollen, not bad enoug to stop me from blogging though.

Another of the fellons of the forest would be bull nettle. I have successfully kept clear of the hairy death plants. They say it feels like a jellyfish sting if you accidentally rub up to one. They can go through your jeans and lodge in your leg, but they are low growing and don't climb.



This mean little thorn can reach both the length and the thickness of a pencil and grows all over the honey locust tree. This is not a climbing tree. The thorns start out purple when they're still growing and have a toxin on them that will leave you sore and aching long after the thorn is removed.

Fall Yet?

They said it would get cooler yesterday.
Then they said it woud be cooler today.
Then I stopped listening to them and just waited like everyone else.
Granted, it was a little cooler today. I stayed in the truck more with the AC running. I've been out doing surveying work. The worst part is the mosquitos atacking. As I was swatting them away from my head with one hand and a hat, I failed to notice my other hand. By the time I looked down there were nearly a dozen on the one hand alone, not to mention my jeans where they couldn't get to me anyway. I smacked them off and red smears were left.
All things said though, it is a little cooler. Not as much as I would like just yet but it'll be here soon enough.
We'll be cruising out of Baltimore November 4th. Then I may just be thinking why I wanted the cool weather to come so soon.
The cantaloupe is still growing. It's been netted for some time now and just hasn't ripened. So far I haven't found a reason for this. In the mean time I guess I'll keep it watered and fed.
The cooler weather has done wonders for the weeds in the yard too. I pulled out a bunch of them recently just to have them replaced with a new batch.

Weeding the Cilantro

Bean soup is a wonderful way to wee the cilantro from the front walk way. Just pulled up the plant root and all and chopped it up sans root. A little lime and seasonings and good to go.
I dare not tell my neighbors to have at it since they could probably go throught the entre plant population in a couple days.

Seedy little plants

I went outside today and looked over the front garden and saw tiny little plants growing in the gravel walkway. I knew there were some weeds creeping in and trying to make it a weed bed but I was a little surprised to find some other plants sprouting up there. Mainly, besides the weeds, there was cilantro. I really like cilantro, as long as there's not too much of it at a time, but now there are dozens of little plants along the edge of the gravel and I'm afraid I will have to uproot them and toss them to the side like the rest of the plants. They have journeyed to the realm of weeds since, as we all know, weeds are merely plants that are growing where you don't want them to.
Another newcomer to the weed family, in my case the plants that are growing in my gravel walkway, is fennel. There are only two fennel plants sprouting where they shouldn't but that's still too many. It's hard enough to keep the grass out.
I wouldn't have this problem if they weren't so reproductive. Both plants produce many seeds every year and have no problem dropping them where they shouldn't. Ok, so it's partly my fault for trying to harvest some of the seeds for cooking but I don't want to complain about myself...

Skullcap

We have a little skullcap plant in the front but I really had no idea what to do with it. At first I thought it looked a little scraggly but it turns out that it's supposed to look that way. No wonder most people don't like planting it. It's not a showy plant or even lush. If I didn't know better I would have pulled it up and tossed it into the weeds.



I may be making a tea out of it soon to see if it helps my wife sleep, I still need to do a little more research just to make sure there are no calamitous side effects. So far as I can tell an overdose may lead to confusion, giddiness, and possible liver damage over a long time, then again so do a LOT of things. I love those commercials that end in the disclosure, "Side effects vary and may include, nose bleeds, liver damage, eyes bleeding, skin peeling off and possibly death." Ok, so I exaggerate, but everything has a side effect that's usually why something is taken.

Skullcap is also listed in a tea for arthritis which includes rue, angelica, black cohosh, colombo, valerian root, and gentain root.

Rue is another thing I don't currently have much of an idea of what to do with but that will be another day and probably after I get another plant of it, the last one died, I think....

Weeding

I have been putting it off for way too long. There are more weeds in the flower beads and garden than I have plants that I want. I finally took action and pulled for a few hours.
The center bed, the round one, is now weed free and fortunately most of the plants that I have put in there are doing fine. The mint for instance has taken off and is in about a third of the bed.
At first I thought the lavender in the top section was dead but it apparently only had a few dead leaves. Our first lavender died from overwatering, a flood really.
The brick area was not too bad but had a lot of grass growing over the top. I should probably raise the brick border a little to keep more of the grass runners out but alas I don't have any more bricks.
The new mower is fortunately working great and the grass is trimmed neatly and looking great.

ARF!

There are quite a lot of folks who are using the word "fail" recently or by now for some time. This is an expression circulating around many writers I know to announce that something hasn't quite happened correctly or even badly as in "This coffee, fail."

My response to this trend is "ARF!"This will make sense to anyone who has come across the dreaded abort/retry/fail error and makes more sense than just fail since it gives you some options, unlike the actual error which usually just lets you abort after hitting "R" for retry a billion times in the vain hope that it might work.

The only unfortunately down side to this is when commenting on anything having to do with a female since I am sure saying "arf" will get you slapped.

So next time something just isn't right try "ARF". It' might work.

Saltcedar

Years ago I visited Galveston with a specific purpose in mind, to have fun. My wife on the other hand went that day to find out all she could about the 1900 hurricane that leveled most of the island.

I didn't goof off the entire day, although I did get to see muppet fairy tales while my wife interviewed a historian, I actually learned about a plant that has eluded me for some years now. I probably would have come across it sooner if I had tried harder to look for it, snd by the looks of it no one else has been trying to find it save to destroy it. I'm talking about the saltcedar (tamarix ramosissima).

At one time, a long time ago, Galveston was covered with the stuff and my guess is that's what kept it from blowing away. Now it's considered an invasive weed that dries up streams and salts the land. On Galveston that wouldn't have been a problem since it is pretty much impossible to oversalt the Gulf of Mexico or to dry it up. I don't think I will be planting one any tme in the near future but my curiousity has now been satiated, at least on this topic.