Peach flower. Divisions for different types of fruits. I only have five types of plants, that I have more than one of. I have more than one of these because it was necessary for pollination. I'm growing on a quarter acre of land, which means there's a lot of different single varieties out there. I … Continue reading How To Successfully Run A Food Forest
Pomegranates forming! The pomegranates have done well so far. How open pomegranate fruits are. This is why they get fungal issues inside the fruit. Giant fig tree with thousands of fruits developing. Tomato and mysore raspberry bed. Potatoes. Bananas. The daylillies are blooming. I think this year I'll make fritters with the flowers. Another view … Continue reading The Great Pomegranate Bush
Future pomegranate. I love these, but: processing a whole bunch of these, no matter the method, is tedious. My poor sick pear. I'm not sure if the drought and heat last year got to it, or if the fireblight and iron chlorosis is doing it in. So sad to see my twelve year old tree … Continue reading Summer Fruits Are Forming
I'm in San Antonio. I grow Asian persimmons and have done so for about twelve years. The first tree was a dud (that's what the picture above is.) It was an astringent persimmon, a Saijo. It was fantastically sweet, but had the texture of a water balloon filled with snot. Varying degrees of ripeness from … Continue reading Non Astringent, Asian Persimmon In South Texas
Well it's getting hot down here in south Texas and that's never good news for strawberries. Strawberries like cool weather and full sun. These bags have been hard to keep hydrated. The heat and resulting dry conditions are making very small, but very flavorful berries. I took the bags down last night and soaked them … Continue reading Strawberry Bags
Let me introduce you to our summer heat that starts in May and doesn't let up until October. You don't get much rain either! Crazy Green Thumbs
Corn, onions, with the cucumbers near the remesh trellis. Tomato/mysore/aspargus/bean bed. Unfortunately, I did a little digging online on the mysore raspberries and even though they do well in our heat (regular raspberries do not.) they're supposed to be watery and not very flavorful. They are going crazy out here, though. So, they may be … Continue reading Garden Happenings
These cute glass mushrooms with solar lights built in are so easy and so cheap! Since I haven't had a craft on here in a while, I feel like I'm overdue. I'm super excited to share this idea with you! We're coming up on a year since my husband was able to come home and … Continue reading DIY Red And White Mushroom Solar Light
Yayyyy! This was a twelve year odyssey, but boy am I happy! My life is in transition, with my eldest boy going off to college this fall. Always good to have things to celebrate, during the movement towards the empty nest. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this blog! I am grateful! … Continue reading Another Milestone!
So, I had surgery last week and the beginning of this week. I'm not supposed to lift more than twenty pounds for several weeks. But it is the day before Mother's day and that means 100° heat is almost here. Today was in the 80's with showers, and I finally felt good enough to go … Continue reading Dumb, Dumb, Beds
I finally crossed over 4,000 followers! Thank you so much for choosing to spend time with me in the garden! I hit kind of a plateau that lasted from last year (when I started posting daily) until just recently. My subscriber stats slowed down to a crawl over the last year, even though last year … Continue reading Yippee!
This year's April bananas that I successfully saved the lower pseudostem (by cutting them to about hip height and covering them with a plastic tarp and straw.) Last year's April bananas that I had cut to the ground, over winter. This is an amazing difference! I'm hoping this means fruit! The pseudostem from last year … Continue reading Difference In Bananas
I got a call the other day from a neighbor. "I have seven bricks, do you want them?" "Yes! Yes, I do!" I have plans for bricks, and free ones are the best kind! These plans were sparked by regularly spending hours on Pinterest (Can't sleep? It's Pinterest time!) and randomly remembering a few pins … Continue reading Painting Pavers To Look Like Books
Because of our heat, and the fact that our main hummingbird variety will not share with other birds: I use really small feeders and place them all over my yard. On the way out the door with fresh hummingbird food. I usually have five out at a time. In our feel like 112° heat, they … Continue reading My Favorite Hummingbird Feeders
I have a pomegranate thicket. I figured out this year that this plant was grafted when I put it in ten or eleven years ago. The majority of this monstrosity is rootstock. I almost never get fruit off of the back of this plant's mess. I'm usually very busy all year long because I have … Continue reading Pomegranate: Texas Style
While we were in Colorado there was a trend to rip out anything that was growing and replace it with a gravel landscape. Every time I saw someone ripping out their grass to do this: I wanted to throttle them. Here is why: rock is not low maintenance. I understand those who don't garden are … Continue reading Please Don’t Rock Your Yard!
Instructions on use. We're coming up on the last few weeks to get beneficial nematodes in before the summer heat. I buy nematodes every year. Sometimes I add them in fall, sometimes in spring. But no matter which season you choose, heat is your enemy. Full list of target insects and the variety of nematodes … Continue reading Don’t Wait To Get Rid Of Soil Borne Insects.
If you are my age (in my 50's), you might remember the music at the bottom of this post. It's music we don't hear anymore. But in the past: I always heard it at grandma's. I remember eating cereal in the morning at grandma's house. The radio would be on, first came the farm report: … Continue reading In The Garden
In the spring trees and bushes send out new growth. If you have grafted plants (a lot of fruit trees are like this. The roots belong to a different plant than the top. The top has the fruit you want.) In the spring: trees send out growth below graft unions. Roots prefer themselves, to what … Continue reading Watch Your Grafted Plants
Soil has been added to my vegetable beds. The bananas have been fertilized. Bird baths have been scrubbed. I added water crystals to the beds this year because the bags of composted manure have a ton of sand in them and water runs right out of the beds, without something to absorb it. Pvc marking … Continue reading Finishing The Vegetable Beds
Crazy Green Thumbs 