Tomatoes

If you need 5 tools to solve a problem in the garden, 4 of them will be easy to
find                                                                         Mike Garofalo

I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself.

                                                                       Sir Peter Smithers

Tomatoes are not my favorite plant to grow.
                                TexanGardener

 

Porter on the left and Better Bush compact on the right
(If you click on the picture they should enlarge)

I have come to the conclusion  that I am not going to do this anymore! There are lots of farmer's markets in the area and I plan to reward their efforts.
Having tried to raise tomatoes and failed numerous times over the years, my patience is waning.  

The porter is setting lots of tomatoes. The bush has set 5 or 6 and no more blossoms.
The other 2 I tried were an heirloom, Pineapple Beefsteak and Solar Fire.
Solar Fire keeled over before it even had blossoms. Disease of some sort, I expect.
Beefsteak has NOT set one tomato. Lots of blossoms and in a windy area that is conducive to self pollination. It is now tall, leggy, and turning brown from bottom up.

Bedraggled bush on left is the heirloom

The watering system works well. The "pile" has to get thoroughly soaked in order to leak the good stuff to the plants.  Have to water at least 2 hours to soak things.  I may have over watered early on, but now that roots are deeper, water less.

 I admit that I tend to get discouraged when work is required to produce such little result.  
Hubby, bless him, suggested I plant a watermelon vine in the spot where the heirloom is going to be yanked. I smiled sweetly and asked is he going to water it? Is he going to trim weeds that grow up around it when it is taking over the yard? His reply "No."  
Nuff said!
I may try flowers or a bush of some sort and leave veggies to the ones who can grow them.
 

Cone flower summer

Finally, finally, my precious cone flowers are all in one place.  Most wintered over in pots so I could clean the bed and adjust the rabbit fence.
Yes the rabbit fence is still up.  The rabbits are making themselves to home everywhere and all I can do is watch for nibble evidence, spray Scram or other repellant, hope they don't decide to go after my phlox.
So far, they haven't gotten inside. They seem to prefer (at this time of year) tender leaves.  I don't know if they will go after mature cone flower leaves...............

 

 

Raised bed update

Never did get the concrete blocks painted.  Too windy most mornings. Hopefully a calm morning with low humidity?
Anyway, I did get plants in in May.  Two thyme plants, mostly because of their spreading nature. I tasted one and it must be of the Thai class as it made my mouth feel as if it were on fire. Wish I could remember the name of it.
The other two herbs are cilantro, which has already bolted and needs to be replaced. The other corner, basil. Big healthy plant. I munch on the leaves every time I pass by.
The flowers are supposed to be trailing as well. They are not as rapid growing as I hoped. Of course, I forgot the name of it.  I may do petunias?
Even with a liner to keep in moisture, the soil dries out in 90+ weather.
The pots are lavender cuttings from last fall. They are just waiting to get stuck in the ground.
The clay pot is the last mum cutting. I don't really have a place for it and it is sort of dormant in the heat.

Whimsey on the side of the road

I don't have to travel far to enjoy a bit of whimsey.  On a county road a lot of people (including me) use to avoid the congestion of the main highway through town.  Instead of stressing, we (I) get to enjoy a bit of remaining country side. Farms/ranches tucked away before urban crawl really got going.

I checked  with the owner of this bit of whimsey and even love her email address.

I hope to present her fence as a bit of charm that one can pass and smile, and maybe slow down just a bit.

Oh, you have looked and passed on to the next photo. ..... I wonder if you really "looked".
On nearly every picket, if there is not a darling fantasy, there just might be a house on a house, a butterfly, a heart,

Or................ a little gate for "little people", a church

or................lady bugs, a chair, POLKA DOTS ! 

Maybe the "little people " live here?

             

Summer heat is here

Our newspaper has reported the heat stats for 2011 and 2012.  The average for North Texas is 18 days of 100 or more.
The earlier in June the 100 temp hits, the more likely for a "long hot summer".

The average first 100 day is about June 30th, this year, we may hit 100 this week. The weather forecast is not likely to show rain for over a week. Not a happy prospect

2011 reported 71 days
2012 reported 34 days

In 2011, untold numbers of trees died all over the state. Many, many creeks and ponds dried up. This is when our plum thicket died.
There are trees that simply gave up and fell over across the street.  The poor persimmon trees in our neighborhood are nearly all gone.  Many fruit trees and cedar trees are gone, including my old peach trees that put on a final show of bumper crop peaches last year. One is now cut down and 2 probably will die. There is no way to keep them watered and alive.

There is a small town in West Texas that has started water rationing and the ranchers can no longer drive into town to get water for their cattle and horses.  Who knows how far they will have to go to get water.

On that happy note, I am planning early morning lighting of some sort to light up the garden areas so I can at least pull weeds and such before heat and sun drive me indoors. There are areas that remain shady until about 10:00 AM and that will help.

GARDEN QUOTE

The less help you have in the garden the more you it is

 I tend to be an independent person. Sure, I get lonely sometimes. But, in the garden, I can vent frustrations, pray, cry, be very, very angry. Even do a bit of swearing.  Much more therapeutic  than an argument or spiteful rant that can never be unsaid.

Most of the time, I am working and dreaming and thanking God that I can still do what I love.  When my mind is full of garden dreams (not wants I cannot afford) there isn't much room for anger.

Thank you God

Spring rain and things waiting to be reborn

Poke Sallet, Weed,Berry,Bush,Root......................

This is a very interesting plant.  It is called by many names and is native to North America, South America, East Asia and New Zealand.

That said, it is also a horrendously difficult bush to dig out. The ones in my yard grow  HUGE. The ground is sandy and this made it relatively easy to dig dirt away from the root.  Problem?  The root goes to China!! It also has roots other than the tap root that resembles tree roots, only softer.
We dug down at least a foot and no end in sight. We cut the roots of all I could find, at least that deep.  I will be curious to see if the plant comes back. I am betting it does.

This May, I kept this one for the birds. It will be 7 feet tall in the fall and winter loaded with purple berries in clusters like grapes. It is 4' fall now. The brown things are just a few of the roots we dug out.

These tiny white clusters will be 6 to 7 inches long and deep purple

The larger, gnarled root  is upside down, the white is root,  it is 4" across

We have a 6' stockade fence and the bush draped over the top and into the yard.  It nearly covered the rain water tote. Birds love the berries. Between the bird's purple droppings on the ground and on my bench and purple berries falling to the ground, we were always tracking purple in the house.  I make an effort to always take my shoes off before walking on the carpet.

I will keep watch (in the early morning,thank you very much) for greenery in the areas of what we dug out all summer.  I am reasonably sure the bushes will come back.  I have no desire to let these things get a head start and none at all to be whacking away at anything in the heat!

Speaking of heat, we had a lovely, heavy down pour Sunday and now morning temps are in 80's and highs in 90's and no more rain for this week anyway.  We can only pray there will be more when summer is really hot.

Moles, weeds and humidity

The mole problem is not going away. Nor are the weeds and the humidity.

In the weeks since last post, a number of things have been going on.  First, purchased pinwheels for the garden and yard.  Hobby Lobby has tons of them.  They went on sale for 40% off 3 days after purchasing the first one.  I bought 4 more.

 The rabbit fence is here to stay

Have been moving them around to places where I see trail activity.





 The other "event"  for want of a better word. Weeds in all their gloriously rampant growth and blooming and making "wonderful" seeds!!

It seems as if over night, the things just took off.  Futility is the best word for trying to get rid of them.

I came up with a solution for moles undermining area where my bench and chair are.  Works for me!

Now to figure out how to keep bird droppings off!

                                                          
All in all, just making the best of a bad situation is satisfying.  Hated sitting down and having a leg drop 3 inches. 

                                                                                                                          

Bluebonnet Finale

I am sitting  on the patio (IN THE SHADE) and enjoying a bit of vino. Life is good. The AM temp is 75 to expected 92.  The sun is out and I am "hiding".
Actually, I am cutting bluebonnet seed pods off into a brown paper bag.  AND -- just to be really anal about it, I am cutting the leafy bits into a 5 gallon bucket for the compost bin.

The plan is to scatter the seeds away from the gardens.  Enough pods split and spit the seeds anyway.

Bluebonnet pods after twisting and shooting their seeds

Odd plant with bluebonnet bloom AND "ripe" pods

 The root nodule carries a bacterium that fixes the nitrogen in the soil and allows the plant to bloom 

I gathered these plants and took them to the patio for shade  while I cut off the seed pods. Cannot deal with the sun at all anymore

 I ended up with quite a few pods.  The old fashioned way to save seeds is to contain them and put them someplace warm and dry and let the seed pods mature.  I wonder if I need a lid on the bag as the pods twist and shoot the seeds quite a ways.
I may divide the seeds into another bag to give them room and hopefully not get moldy.