Winter is a wonderful time to read up on gardening literature. When your garden is fast asleep, it is the perfect time to make preparations for next year. Whether you are new to gardening or an old hand: this is the yearly time for reflection. What has worked for you? What have you struggled with? … Continue reading Winter: Garden Planning
There are a lot of things that I've tried to grow in San Antonio Texas. A lot of plants ended up failing because of our heat or our sporadic freezes that nip back or kill tropical plants. A few ended up trying to take over. I'm going to concentrate on a few things whose vigor … Continue reading What To Be Wary Of Growing In Zone 8b.
I have a next door neighbor that I absolutely love! I used to watch her daughter after school and she has helped me out when I've had my husband out of state or driven one of my kids home when they got sick at school and we weren't able to be reached. She's super cool. … Continue reading For My Fun Neighbors
Merry Christmas 2022! Can't wait to meet you out in the garden this spring! Crazy Green Thumbs
I tried growing mushrooms indoors. The result was some amazing mushrooms. However, there were not many. About a pound or two. The sawdust block that they came in ended up needing water sprayed on it (or the mushroom caps) multiple times a day. It was fiddly and I didn't enjoy it. It also looked pretty … Continue reading Under The Trampoline Mushroom Bed
I decided to add some Christmas tutorials for my decorations outside. I'm creating a candy background for some characters from the Nutcracker Ballet. My first task was making some candy. I decided on pool noodle lollipops, as soon as my supplies arrived I saw that I had several problems. Like many things on my blog, … Continue reading #!$@:! Frigging Pool Noodle Lollipop Decorations
My grandmother used to make cinnamon pickles out of watermelon rind. It was a dessert she proudly put on our plates. They were delicious and in memory of her, I now make them yearly for my extended family and my kids. Last year I also tried a vanilla pickle which was pretty gross. I'm not … Continue reading Just In Time For Christmas: Modern Cinnamon Pickles And Lemon Candy Pickles!
A gallon bag almost full of pomegranate arils. I had a good harvest of pomegranates this year. I also purchased a steam juicer a couple of years ago and had never used it. My juicer is from Europe and is a pressure steamer. I bought it on a clearance site and it had no instructions. … Continue reading Steam Juicing Pomegranates
I have a confession: I am a messy gardener. I have been gardening for decades and I have been collecting seeds all along my journey. I have attempted to organize before. But invariably, half way through the season my carefully cataloged seed packets are a big honking mess. I have tried different ways to organize … Continue reading Conquering Seed Packet Clutter
During the holiday season I reflect on the things I am grateful for. At the top of the list is my family, and more specifically: my two young sons. The following article is my love letter to my boys. From the beginning through the end of every day, they are always in my thoughts. I … Continue reading A love letter to my boys
This is a great project! I've been able to reuse the original for seven years because I bought a dress form and a Styrofoam head that I restretch the ghost over every year. I really recommend getting a form for this project. Find out how to make her below! Halloween 2022 Oh, I had fun … Continue reading Easy Packing Tape Ghost
Here we go again! It's time for my Halloween tutorials! I'm always working on our Halloween display. This year I decided I needed jellyfish! I love spooky stuff but the creepy, gory, sicko type stuff just doesn't light my fire. However, glowing awesome jellyfish sounded way too cool to pass up! I got this idea … Continue reading Glowing Jellyfish: Outdoor Halloween
Here's a walk through of what I have growing in my garden right now. I bought this plumeria last fall and kept it in the house through winter. It's huge! This rivals the plumeria I saw in Hawaii. It loves our heat and the water retention my raised beds have. I planted it in with … Continue reading In My Summer Garden
I would bet that most gardeners have a list of a few things that they do, out of habit, that are counterproductive. For me it's gardening without gloves or long sleeves. I almost never wear gloves or long sleeves. I love to work the soil with my hands, I weed bare handed and I harvest … Continue reading Curing An Extra Itchy Case Of The Gardening Stupids
The most expensive part of my garden is the city water that we're on. Our city water is piped in. The aquifer that our land is over does not have good water. We're near an air force base, started in the 50s and I wonder if over the years, that aquifer has been polluted from … Continue reading Watering In High Heat
Nonastringent Persimmon I started working on my perennial food forest about eleven years ago. Gardening is my hobby, not my job, so those eleven years took time I might have used for other things. That time I chose to use in my garden created a solid foundation in feeding our family, outside of the grocery … Continue reading Food Forest
One of my favorite plants to grow down here is hibiscus. It is truly a beautiful plant and the flowers are breathtaking. I am not the only one who appreciates hibiscus. We frequently have hummingbirds in the garden sipping hibiscus nectar. My favorite part about the plant though, is that it's edible. Hibiscus is high … Continue reading Ever Had Spiced Hibiscus Flower Tea?
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
I'm always looking for new ways to use my garden. After years of growing sweet potatoes I came across a recipe that called for the leaves. Sweet potato leaves are edible? Yes. Yes, they are.The sweet potatoes slips I got this year were supposed to be a bush variety. While they haven't thrown vines out … Continue reading The Greatest Green You’ve Never Eaten: Sweet Potato Leaves
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
Crazy Green Thumbs 