I have some buddies taking refuge in my pear tree while it's raining. Texas skies open up and just dump rivers of water when we get storms. These doves are happy I haven't cut this tree down yet. Meet you out in the garden to see who is visiting today. Crazy Green Thumbs
I have a huge city water bill. The problem is often that I've watered too much. So, I bought this little do-dad. It's a moisture meter. It was about six dollars. I went around my yard testing the soil. I was honestly really surprised about where there was a lack of water, and also where … Continue reading Best Garden Product This Year
Crepe myrtles have been a symbol of the south for a very long time. Some people love them, some people hate them. I'm both. I really do not like the ones meant to mimic lilacs. But, crepe myrtles are a poor substitute for lilacs. Yes they flower with big fluffy blooms, but there's no scent … Continue reading Crepe Myrtles, Texas Style
I had a poor potato harvest this year, however it was entirely my fault. I was sick when I needed to plant these and so they went in the ground about two months late. Same with my onions. Same with the corn. Luckily (for my health), the kid who brings home the most colds is … Continue reading Potatoes And Flowers
I live in the South. Where I am: summer ends up getting really hot (above 100° Fahrenheit) with little to no rain for months at a time. In summer we get moisture that blows in from the Gulf of Mexico and that humidity (without rain) is a real problem. There are weeks where we don't … Continue reading Show Stopping, Southern Shrubs
Pawpaws are a difficult plant to place. In their young life pawpaws are an understory tree in the eastern US. They need shade when young. As they grow: they break through that shady forest canopy, where they grow, and want full sun. This is a replacement pawpaw. Unfortunately, I had a failed attempt last year … Continue reading Putting Some Shade Cloth On The Pawpaws
Everyone focuses on the pretty, fruitful parts of a garden. But there is usually a system set up in the background making it possible. This timer has the main hoses out to the four raised hugelkulter vegetable beds. The hoses have painter's tape and labels for which bed they go to. The splitter above the … Continue reading Today’s Crazy Gardening
I run a mostly organic garden, because: I mostly grow food crops. The only thing I deviate on, is herbicide, and that only goes in select areas. (Like the gravel play area that I did not create.) Well I also use amdro bait. I cannot abide fire ants in my beds. So, as I'm gardening … Continue reading Local Lizards
I usually grow my vining melons on a trellis. Trellising makes them easy to care for and the plants themselves are healthier. Getting melon vines off the ground keeps the powdery mildew under control and I can easily spray the leaves when the inevitable aphid explosion comes. Since I like to research things, and I'm … Continue reading Melon Trellising
Plant these things now! This is a summer tutorial, but you need to start these plants as soon as possible to harvest them this summer! The things I grow in summer are things that I don't have to baby. Today our "feel like" temperature was 103 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm not interested in doing manual labor … Continue reading Low Maintenance, Highly Productive, Summer Vegetables.
We've had rain the last week and cloudy skies so our temperatures have been cooler than usual. I don't know what is wrong with my bed of corn. The seed is from burpee's and I usually have better quality seed. It could be that. However, I have not rotated beds in the last three years … Continue reading Easing Into Summer
Shade cloth structure is in for the year. The plants under this are low chill cherries (a Minnie Royal and a Royal Lee) and a low chill dwarf peach (Bonanza). All are from Raintree Nursery. My dwarf peach. Roma tomatoes. Some cukes forming. Potatoes, doing potato-y things. The ginormous pomegranate bush next to my hugelkulter … Continue reading Summer Heat San Antonio
I am redoing my shade cloth cage. I have realized over the past two years that this is beneficial for the dwarf peach as well as the sweet cherries I have planted. My original shade structure (see how to build one here.) over my high intensity fruit bed. Learn how to build a traditional hugelkulter/high … Continue reading Whatcha’ Building?
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
Crazy Green Thumbs 