Photos my mom sent me from her front porch of the morning mist at her ranch in Colorado, 2023. It is so beautiful up there. Cold, but beautiful! Love to wake up with a hot cup of coffee and listen to the elk bugle. Picture from the other side of the mountain, in Colorado Springs.
The birds plant these for me. They look like a holly, but they aren't. This is a wild edible berry that grows down here on the edge of dry forests. What is it? It's a Mahonia trifoliolata (aka agarita berry). It's a type of barberry and is our South Texas version of a currant. Harvesting … Continue reading Plant, Plant, What Is This Plant?
The pear is covered in bees and butterflies, drinking nectar. Usually I've got better control over my beds, but I barely made it around the yard. At least I'm not still in bed. Gotta be a good sign! Blueberry flowers. Daylillies are up! Blueberries and weeds. I have a lot to catch up on. The … Continue reading Crazy Good Signs Of Spring
If you are following up on how my low chill, sweet cherry trees in a high density grow bed is going: the plants are doing really well. I did have to put shade cloth on them during our awful dry, super hot summers. The following video is from a Florida nursery and how they are … Continue reading High Density Cherry Tree Pruning. Year 1-4
Heavy flowering in my pear tree. It's a little cool out today, but not a danger to the blossoms. Low chill sweet cherry. I put two of these in last year. Royal Lee and Minnie Royal. They made it through our scorching summer last year. Hoping for good things this year! My son's lemon tree. … Continue reading Springy Dingy
This is the fourth and final installment of my beginner gardening tutorial. For this class I decided to list some of my favorite books and growing aides. The book list is by no means exhaustive but I have some that have truly helped me form the backbone of my gardening approach. These products have definitely … Continue reading Beginning Gardener: Class 4-Walking You Through What You Need To Know
These bananas are giants. Quite a bit of work to prepare the bed for winter. Just like the fruit, cut stalks quickly turn black from oxidation. What banana stems look like on the inside. I used a pole saw on these. However, it was a lot of work. This year I'm going to buy an … Continue reading Over Wintering Bananas, In San Antonio, Texas
An all in one product. I took these photos of the moon: in my car, at the bus stop, in the morning, through a dirty windshield and propping my phone up on my steering wheel to steady it. If you wonder why my photos are as clear as they are: it's my phone. If you … Continue reading Crazy Photos From The Garden
This is the third part of a four part online course. It’s free and if you would like to know more go to the top of this page and click on the Gardening Basics tab. Or you can get the first and second parts of this course here: Beginning Gardener (part 1) and Beginning Gardener … Continue reading Beginning Gardener: Class 3-Walking You Through What You Need To Know
I am doing my spring yard cleaning. Up first was the birdbaths. I rinsed and wiped them out. Then I put vinegar and water to fill them. Then I put paper towels to hold the vinegar on the ring of scale (from my gunky, high pH, calcium and lime filled tap water) around the rim. … Continue reading Spring Cleaning part 1
Photos from the end of last year's experimental fruit bed. Above that is: a current bloom on my son's lemon tree. The cherries shot up, even in our miserably hot, dry summer. These are cut low to keep their canopies low so that I can net them easily to keep the squirrels and other rodents … Continue reading Crazy Photos From The Garden
Learning to garden takes time. It's also helpful to have a seasoned gardener show you how to garden in your area. If you don't have someone on hand: you now have me! I may not live where you do (and it makes a huge difference if you are growing in a different area) but I … Continue reading Beginning Gardener: Class 2-Walking You Through What You Need To Know
If you saw my post about my past and the song "Used To Be Young" and maybe you have a similar background... Even if you are just interested in becoming a unique, strong, emotionally honest woman: who loves herself deeply and forgives her mistakes... Or, maybe you feel like you are at the end and … Continue reading Crazy Green Thumbs Reading List
When I'd walk through the fields and there would be deep cracks in the soil, it was Kansas summers. The smell of sweat and hard work, it was Kansas summers. Getting sprayed with "Off", examining mica rocks my grandmother had gathered, cigarette smoke drifting past me and the adults drinking Coors beer on folding chairs, … Continue reading In Those Times
Spring is on the way! It's time to brush up on your gardening skills and learn about new gardening ideas. This year I thought I'd get back to basics and start publishing pieces of my gardening advice from my page: Gardening Basics. For the novice gardener: read on and stay tuned! This is pretty much … Continue reading Beginner Gardener: Class 1 Walking You Through What You Need To Know
From the Noma restaurant in Copenhagen. Have you started a fermenting journey yet? I have been fermenting for almost a decade. I have some recipes I absolutely love. I've made them countless times. I'm so onboard the fermenting train and I have enough experience with it, that one day I thought... "What else can I … Continue reading Crazy Green Thumbs Reading List
What do you do when you have both a perennial orchard and annual vegetable beds? You document. If I hadn't created the folder with growing information for my fruits, I would constantly be stopping to look up the growing instructions for whatever plant is having a problem. Having a binder for your information is really … Continue reading Crazy Photos From The Garden
Who knew these make great wine? I started making my own wine last year. I was gifted a link to a gentleman who makes his own wine from store bought juice, granular sugar and bread yeast. I don't like sweet wines and I really didn't like how his recipe turned out. It's good to add … Continue reading Armenian Cucumber Wine
This is one of my favorite photos of my garden. Deep soil, straw mulch, indeterminate tomatoes on a tower, bananas in the background and fluffy clouds floating across a sunset. I absolutely adore my garden. There's nothing negative out here. It's all healthy and beautiful. I work hard on my garden, but I could more … Continue reading Crazy Photos From The Garden
Winner of the most colorful visitor I've had in my garden. This is a flame skimmer. In late summer I have dozens of large dragonflies. They eat all of the mosquitos they can find. I think they are magnificent! But, this guy is definitely not your average dragonfly! I've only seen the one. In the … Continue reading Crazy Photos From The Garden
Crazy Green Thumbs 