2013 garden planning. Already? Yes, already!

The only produce left to be picked in my garden are the few containers of beets I managed to plant back in fall, a handful of jalapeno peppers on a couple plants that are still plugging along, and some kohlrabis that may or may not mature into bulbs over the winter. Also about thirty more Meyer lemons and a few Marrs oranges. The only herbs left are oregano (is growing like mad still), chives, my bay tree, lemon balm, and some mint. Oh, and the blueberry bushes are doing well and taking a break from all the growing they did since I planted them.

And since my location here south of Houston has a year-round growing climate, I have some things to plant this month, whenever it stops raining enough for dirt to dry out enough to work with. I've got baby broccoli plants to transplant, and lots of seeds can get planted now too: Carrot, kale, chard, turnips, kohlrabi, beets, bunching onions, and parsley.

Then starting in the later half of February, the spring crops start to get planted. I've got a lot of work ahead of me before I'm ready though. We're replacing the big storage bins we'd been using to grow cucumbers, eggplant, and bush beans with rectangular raised beds. Which won't be very hard to actually build, it just needs to get done. I priced replacing the containers every few years versus building simple beds out of cedar planks, and the wood frames will cost less and last longer. Really the only reason I used the big storage bins for planting was that I found them on sale for next to nothing at a discount store because they were missing their lids.

I'm going to re-plant some tried and true favorites again this year: Dragon's Tongue beans, Roma II beans, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, cherry tomatoes, Rich Sweetness 132 melons, Marketmore cucumbers, and Asian Long cucumbers. More Fairy Tale eggplants if I can find them again at a nursery, and the same basic kitchen herbs. Rosemary, thyme, basil, cilantro, and maybe sage this time too.

I also ordered some new varieties of seeds to try from Baker Creek heirloom seeds . A sweet little red pepper called "Lipstick" as an heirloom alternative to the Yummy pepper variety. I'll probably pick up a couple Yummy plants just to hedge my bets though. And a different round zucchini since I just never had much luck with Rond de Nice. Also "Little Fingers" eggplant. An heirloom that seems mostly comparable to Fairy Tale. It makes shorter stocky bushes like Fairy Tale, and produces fruit in clusters like Fairy Tale. But instead of being teardrop shaped streaked fruit, they are thin finger-shaped dark purple fruit. I also got a pack of seeds of a different miniature melon, Minnesota Midget. It's a lot like Rich Sweetness in that it makes shorter vines, small fruit, and can be trellised. But it's a cantaloupe style melon.  I also ordered a pack of Dragon's Egg cucumber seeds, which makes small white oval fruit. I'm going to put a trellis against the front wall of the house and will probably grow them there because they seem like they will be fairly decorative. Lastly, on request of my Dear Friend, I ordered a pack of Ghost Pepper (Bhut Jolokia) seeds. One of *the* hottest peppers on the planet. They're apparently tricky as hell to grow, but we've got a hot enough climate to give them a fighting chance. I'm still not sure I want to try one, well maybe a tiny sliver. But I know some chiliheads who will appreciate some if they make anything.

I also received a pack of fancy purple vine bean seeds as a secret santa Christmas gift from a kind and generous garden fairy and have a decorative metal trellis to plant them against to bring some color to my patio. The vines are supposed to be purple, the leaves have purple veins, the flowers violet, and the beans purple and long-producing. They're an Italian variety so they'll be iffy in the kind of heat we get here. I'll be planting them early as possible to beat the heat and hope for the best.

And shocking but true... I'm taking a bit of a break from tomatoes this year. Aside from the bush cherry plants that did so well last year, I am only planting a few full-size plants this time. And possibly no heirlooms. If I have a craving that won't stop for a dark heirloom tomato, I can just shell out at Whole Foods or Central Market and be done with it. LOL!

I still haven't decided whether to put the orange tree in the ground or leave it in its' container. It can stay there until I make up my mind. It's mature enough for a good crop this coming year, I just need to do some pruning on it at the beginning of next month to keep it growing strong. I pulled all the fruit off of the satsuma and second lemon tree as they were having problems, after pruning them too, I will see how much regrowth they get this spring, and see whether or not I can leave some fruit to ripen on them as well. The Marrs oranges are pretty, fragrant, and sweet. But don't have much of an orangey flavor to them. Just sweetness. But the rind is very sweet above the pith, so if for nothing else, I'll grow them to make candied orange peel and marmalade.

That's pretty much it, I'm sure I forgot something or another. But this blog turned into a ramble, and I need to log offline.

Winter Solstice sunrise at Sylvan Rodriguez Park

The morning of the 21st. my Dear Friend and I went to Sylvan Rodriguez Park in Clear Lake City to watch the sun rise in alignment through the middle of the standing stones. It was cold, cold, COLD! For the Galveston Bay area at least... There was frost on the grass, steam rising from the lake, and even with a big fleece wrap and winter boots on I was close to shivering.

But totally worth dealing with the cold to be there. The park has a central area with a labryinth in the middle, ringed by a circle of trees, pairs of standing stones, and smaller stone blocks which serve as benches. The pairs of standing stones are aligned in a way that the sun rises on both the winter and summer solstices through the middle of a pair of the stones.

Since it was such a cold morning for our area, there were only about ten people there to watch the sunrise. Also, being a work and school day, that probably kept people away as well. I'll be back in summertime, and will be spending more time exploring the park itself between now and then.

Garden update for early November 2012

My Fall garden is doing so-so, although I did have a bounty of produce to pick this morning. The ten greenish yellow things are Meyer lemons. There are so many that have gotten so large that they are weighing the branches of the tree down to the ground, so I had to go ahead and pick a bunch of them before they're fully ripe. But the good thing about Meyer lemons is that they are perfectly useable at this stage so they won't go to waste at all. I had a bunch of different bush beans as well. There are two lonely little burgundy beans, but many more tiny ones and flowers on the plants. A decent little handful of thin green beans, and also of broad Italian green beans. And at least a pound of dragon tongue beans (the kind of yellowish green ones with purple speckles). Also, I had a bunch of smaller peppers. A few chocolate bells, one very red bell, a green bell, a couple orange bells, and one that didn't make it all the way to orange. Also a bunch of jalapenos both red and green. Underneath all of that stuff in the bowl are miniature "fairy tale" eggplants and a few long dark "Ichiban" eggplants. A few piddly little radishes too, a purple one, and a couple white ones.

The weather has been absolutely screwy here. It's November already and we're still seeing highs around 90 degrees some days. That's stunted the growth of a lot of my Fall stuff. And some of the rest of it succumbed to pests. But there are things that are still doing quite well. My long Japanese cucumbers are producing cukes, and there is a big one that should be ready to pick by the beginning of next week. The beans are all doing well and my few beets that managed to make it through the heat are starting to grow. We had a few short cold fronts come through, but that was enough to let a handful of tomatoes set, so I will get something for my efforts. My zucchini plants haven't been destroyed by squash vine borers yet, and are making male flowers, so I keep an eye out for females to fertilize. Maybe I'll get something from them this year?

I still have more radishes to plant, lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots, turnips, kohlrabi, chard, and green onions. I may be leaving something else out, can't remember. I do know that next week will be time to get a lot of seeds going in hopes of actual cool weather to come. I may try more beets, who knows, they might do something for me.

Fall is my favorite time of the year

Fall is my favorite time of the year. And where I live, we're just starting to see the first changes in the weather. It'll be another month before it really starts to feel like fall, but for now, I'll take slightly cooler mornings and evenings and be happy to have them.

I never decorated for fall, just Halloween. But this year, I spent a little bit of money on some simple decorations for the living room to get started with. The little display in the photo cost less than $20, and that includes the fabric placemat and candles. It's not much, but it's a start and I can add a bit more this weekend, and keep adding a little bit here and there, as I can. Eventually I'll have enough to decorate the entire living room, just like for Halloween and Christmas. I figure I can leave the fall decorations up until the first of October, then swap them out for Halloween, then put them back up the first of November and leave them there until Thanksgiving. I can stretch my decorating season out from the beginning of September through the beginning of January! I don't really decorate for spring, the color scheme of our living room just isn't good for springy colors. But that's okay, I like fall and winter best anyway.

I've got a few little silk flower decorations that should be in the photo too. But Gizmo the cat decided to mess with them (only the silk flowers, he couldn't care less about the candles, or fake pumpkins and gourds) so now they're put up in the entertainment center and probably will get used high up on the baker's rack where he can't reach them. One of them had a velvet-ish sunflower in the middle, and I woke up one morning with it on the ground in the bedroom doorway. He hadn't torn it up, just took it off the tabletop and dragged it there. Maybe he brought it to us as a present?  Who knows... But even after the "hey, new stuff!" curiosity wore off, he kept messing with them, so away they went.

I'm starting to see fall and Halloween stuff everywhere in stores now. The supermarket had a display of pumpkins the other night, and I bought a few $.99 cent pots of bronze colored fall mums at the garden center to plant in pretty containers this weekend. I may go back for more since they're inexpensive, colorful, and easy to care for. They had bright yellow, bright orange, bronze, violet, and burgundy.

I'm going to have to get the ingredients together soon to mix up a batch of "Russian" tea mix. If you have never had it, it's an old housewife recipe where you mix powdered tang, instant lemon tea mix, and some ground cloves in a container, and just use as needed with hot water. There are different recipes with different proportions and slight tweaks in ingredients. But the basic premise is spicy, orangey, tangy hot tea. But it just screams "FALL" to me, because that was when I always seemed to have it as a kid. It's an alternative to spiced cider, which I usually wait and make on the first really cool and windy night of the season. But I'm craving Russian tea now, so I'll have to put the ingredients on my shopping list.

So, it's been a week since we lost our cat, Shadow, and I'm still really sad about it. It's getting better though. This weekend we're going to have to level the ground out where we buried him, and since it'll be a while before I can get his memorial statue, I'll put a large pot full of those fall mums there on a paving stone.

Saying goodbye to my kitty, Shadow. He was the best!

Shadow's last day: Pixel on left, Gizmo on right, comforting and staying close to him.

 



It's almost a week now since we lost our oldest cat, Shadow. He was 17 years old and had weathered some pretty serious health problems in his life, due to the fact that he originally came from a very unhealthy home where he was not being properly cared for. He never grew to be very large, and always seemed to be a bit more fragile than any of our other cats. We almost lost him around age 10 when he just started to waste away and the the vet couldn't find anything medically wrong with him. But, we found a different vet who embraced a combination of holistic and conventional veterinary medicine and we tried some nutritional and alternative therapies that helped nurse him back to health so that he could enjoy several more good years.

About six months ago, he started to act sick again, so we took him to the vet for a checkup. They couldn't find anything wrong with him based on the exam and tests, and said that given his age and health history, he was reaching the end of his life. We tried some of the things we learned from the holistic vet and it helped bring him back a bit, but he just seemed old and tired after that. So, we made the most of the time we had left with him.

Late last week, he started acting funny again, and just got worse over the long holiday weekend. I had to resort to his "if all else fails" food to get him to eat. Turkey baby food. The cat would literally inhale an entire little jar of it! By the end of the day last Monday, he wasn't even wanting to eat much of the baby food, so I knew he was in bad shape. We took him to the vet and they couldn't find anything medically wrong with him aside from what looked like the start of an upper respiratory infection. He was given an antibiotic shot, some IV fluid and nutrients, and sent home with antibiotic drops and said we could try feeding him liquid nutrition supplement for cats. We were told that he would either get better fast, or deteriorate fast. But that it really looked like he was starting to shut down and would most likely not get better.

Wednesday morning it was clear that he wasn't going to get better. We called the vet and they said there was nothing more they could do for him and that unless he started to show signs of distress, to just keep him comfortable, give him water with an eyedropper to keep him hydrated, and say our goodbyes.

My husband had to work a long day Wednesday and was so very afraid that by the time he got home Shadow would be gone. In the morning, two of the other cats, Pixel and Gizmo got on the bed, on either side of Shadow, and just laid there with him for a few hours, comforting him and keeping him company. Tipsy was still semi-confined from having a minor surgery, so once Pixel and Gizmo left, I brought her in to visit Shadow and spend some time with him too. After the cats had their time with him, I laid down and let him crawl up beside me and into the crook of my arm and held him close for a couple of hours. He was very tired and weak but he purred and kneaded his paws, and was aware of where he was. I talked to him and told him what a special and sweet boy he was and how I knew he was tired and it was okay to let go when he was ready.

After that, I let him rest on his own until my husband got home. We checked on Shadow and he was alert but very weak. We fed him some liquid supplement and water with an eyedropper and he swallowed it readily and seemed to perk up a little bit. After that, we left him to rest, had our supper, and went for a drive to get some fresh air and for me to clear my head as I was emotionally drained.

We took turns checking on Shadow through the evening and giving him water and little bits of liquid supplement, neither of us wanted to go to bed lest he pass away while we were sleeping. Around two in the morning Thursday morning we went to give him a bit of water and he seemed really out of it. He drank the water but when I tried to give him a few drops of the liquid nutrition, he didn't want to have anything to do with it. I decided that it was time to let my husband have some private time with Shadow to say goodbye.

I went into my craft room to work on a project and about a half hour later, my husband came in to tell me that Shadow was gone,  he went very peacefully, purring and being petted. Later in the morning, when the sun came up, we buried him in the back yard, next to a bench I like to sit on. I found a cat garden statue online that looks SO much like Shadow and will be the perfect memorial to him. As soon as I'm able, I will go to the local garden center that carries that brand of statuary and place an order for it. I'll put it in a tray-shaped planter surrounded with low-growing flowers and that will be our little Shadow space where we can sit and remember him.

Gardening, scrapbooking/papercrafting, renaissance faire plans.

I took a couple of large pots and made "teepee" trellises with tall thick bamboo stakes, and planted some more of the Rich Sweetness 132 melon seeds in them. So far the seeds I have saved from the spring crop of melons has had at least a 75% germination rate. It's the first time I have successfully saved seeds, so I'm all kinds of proud about it. If all goes well, I'll have 8 more vines, the same as I had going in spring. Next spring I am planting the entire side driveway gate with them, enough to cover the entire gate in vines. They grow well, don't require a lot of fertilizer, are drought tolerant, and heat/humidity tolerant. I have more than enough saved seeds to do so!

I also got my cucumbers planted, three varieties. Japanese long cucumber (which has already sprouted) and will be ready to thin seedlings by next weekend. And a smaller planting of Lemon cucumbers in front of a decorative trellis on the side driveway, 12 vines total. And something new, a miniature bush or short vine type cucumber called "Picklebush" in 5 gallon buckets, 3 vines/plants to a bucket, with 3' tall bamboo stake teepees for the plants to latch onto and be supported by. It'll be 18 plants total for those.

And so far one long oversized windowbox type container of kohlrabi seeds, mixed purple and green.

By the end of the week, I'll have the first of my bush bean seeds planted. Some Roma 2 flat beans, and some Dragon Tongue bush beans. They're like a green bean but kind of pale green/yellow with burgundy-purple streaks. I have read nothing but rave reviews about them, so I am looking forward to seeing what they do for me. I'll have 15 plants total of Roma 2 and 12 total of Dragon's Tongue. I'll also be planting some plain old green beans (Blue Lake variety) and burgundy beans too. But I'm staggering my bush bean plantings out for the next month or so to make sure I have plants maturing and producing at different rates.

I had intended to get my zucchini seeds going this past weekend but ran out of soil, energy, and time. I'll have to buy a couple bags of soil for their containers and get them going sometime this week.  And then the rest of the stuff gets planted a bit by bit, as the temperatures cool off.


****************************

On to scrapbooking and paper crafting. I joined two Halloween/Fall themed gift swaps on a large scrapbook forum I belong to. One is more of craft supplies with a few gift items, the other involves handmade stuff and mostly gift items. Halloween is my favorite holiday and Fall is my favorite season. So I really wanted to get in on something fun this year. I used to belong to a Yahoo group that did monthly swaps, and I really miss the shopping and planning and packing. And then getting something fun in return.

The first swap, I'm done shopping for and will be shipping out after the 15th when I have more spending money. The second swap is more about crafting so I have a lot of work to do. For that one, we're giving a container (altered box, paint can, candy bucket etc.. ) and filling it with Fall/Halloween themed craft supplies, decorative items, candy, accessories, and a handmade or altered decorative item. I've got her container about halfway finished, got her candy bought, one of her decorative items, and most of her accessories. I just need to finish the container, get the rest of the things to finish the altered decorative item, finish it, and pick up a few more goodies. I'm really striving to get that one out as soon after the middle of the month as I can, as it has to go all the way to Canada.

Until I get my swaps out in the mail, other craft projects are on hold. Which is fine, I really didn't have anything that needed to be urgently done. I have a couple peasant tops cut out to sew, but it'll be warm enough to wear them for quite a while still.

*****************************************

The one big thing my husband and I do every Fall, is to go to the renaissance festival that takes place north of Houston in October and November. We usually go one of the last weekends, when it's cooler and more pleasant to be outside all day long (unless there is a freak early October cold front, then we might go twice).  We're really hoping to get comp. tickets again this year. Last year a family member was able to pass a couple along to us, as he gets all kinds of event tickets and passes through his job. If not, it's okay. But if so, that will save us a good bit of cash that we can spend at the festival. Money is tight right now, so we don't have a lot to just go out and blow on fun stuff. Now that my Halloween swaps are pretty much all bought for, I've been saving for the festival. I pay cash most everywhere, and I take all ones and coins from my change and put them in the "fun kitty". When I have a bit extra above ny change after all the necessities are shopped for, it goes into the cash stash as well. I've got two more months to save, so we'll have plenty to spend, even if we do wind up buying tickets.

I like to have enough cash on hand that we can have plenty to eat, plenty to drink, plenty to tip performers with, and a bit extra to buy something from the shops before we leave. It adds up fast too! 

Most years, we dress up in costume. This year, if we want to do so, I have my work cut out for me. My peasant underdress neckline is way too big, as are the sleeve elastics, and the bodice/corset vest is looser than it should be and in bad condition. I can  make do with the dress just fine by taking in the neckline and sleeve elastics. It's in great condition and just needs altering. But the bodice may pose a problem. I took it in several inches for last year and didn't reinforce the new armhole cuts and it ripped a little. I'm thinking I can patch it from the wrong side to reinforce it. I really don't want to sew a new one. They're tricky to fit and take a while to do right. I've got fabric from when I wanted to make a new costume a few years ago and decided to make do with altering what I already had. I may just wind up making the new one after all. It won't be a peasant wench costume with a bodice, but rather an Italian renaissance type costume consisting of a high waisted jumper-style overdress on top of a basic peasant gown. I already have a simple white peasant gown, it just needs smaller elastics too. So, we'll see what winds up being the easier option. Thankfully husband's pirate shirt and pants just need to be re-dyed with fresh black dye and maybe taken in a little bit at the waist and hips. Easy enough that he can probably do it himself!

When I go, I go mainly for three things:  Musical acts, Peoplewatching, Food/Drink. I want to say that since 1989, I have only missed one year. And that year I was just having too much trouble with my back to manage it physically. The one thing that makes it challenge for me is the walking. The grounds are huge and spread out. Fortunately there are concrete benches and big sturdy stone planter rings around the trees to sit and rest on. And they are *everywhere*. But there is literally more than you can realistically see in a day, and when I'm stuck sitting more than walking, I have to plan the day very carefully to be able to see and do everything I really want to. I will even do reconnisance work and look at the performance schedule online before we go and map out a route around the grounds, That takes a little bit of fun and spontenaity out of it, but it's what I have to do to get by. I am more mobile this year than last, so I should be doing more walking this time.

My Fall 2012 garden is officially underway!

This past weekend, I finally got my tomato plants and new pepper plants planted.

I only bought four tomato plants this time, two of which I don't expect much from. But two I have very high hopes for. I got two little transplants, a Roma plant and a Homestead plant which may or may not mature by the time the weather cools enough to set fruit. I also got two large grafted tomato plants. Black Krim heirloom grafted onto a hardier and more disease-resistant root stock. Supposedly you can get a much better result from heirlooms in our climate by growing them this way. The plants certainly are hardy and full and growing faster than expected. Whether they produce fruit, we'll have to wait a while to see. They better! They are significantly more expensive than the basic grown from seed transplant plants. But, I had a birthday gift card from the particular nursery that stocks them, so I figured it wasn't a big gamble to try a couple out this season. I wanted to get them transplanted over 2 weeks ago but was sick with an ugly virus and between recovering from that and the heat, just couldn't handle being outside much.

The peppers I got were two more jalapeno plants that are supposed to make bigger peppers, they're called "Mucho Nacho". 2 of my bell peppers and my other basic jalapeno plant, along with the 3 Yummy peppers all are surviving the heat, and still producing, but much more slowly and much smaller fruit in the heat. If they make it to cooler weather, they will give me more decent sized peppers until it gets cold enough to kill them off.

This morning I prepared the two large tub-sized containers that I plant cucumbers and bush beans in, so I can plant the cucumber seeds tonight or in the morning. I was amazed at the sheer number of earthworms living in those containers. They have loads of drain holes in the bottom, so they are more like raised beds, so the worms can come and go into the earth and containers. The soil is healthy and happy and I only had to add a little bit of organic matter to replenish it. Let's hope it gives me some good cucumbers this season to make up for the major fail of spring.

By the end of this coming weekend I'll have planted the cucumber seeds, some of the kohlrabi seeds, zucchini seeds, the first of the bush bean seeds, and some more Sweet 100 melon seeds. Also, some starter peat pellet pots of herb seeds and a couple of thyme plants I picked up at the nursery.

As far as what's still growing and producing? I have a couple dozen Meyer Lemons on the tree getting ready to start ripening, and a couple of small Ichiban long eggplant plants that are producing here and there, and six remaining Fairy Tale eggplant plants that are producing slowly in the heat. Also the Yummy peppers are giving me a bunch of little peppers, and I saw a baby bell pepper on one of the plants yesterday. Many of the herbs died, but both the sweet basil and Thai basil are thriving. Mint is near dead, but will come back, as will lemon balm. I thought the oregano was a goner, but am seeing new growth and lots of green in the pot. One of the other things I need to do this weekend is snip dead leaves. Oh yeah, the blueberry bushes are getting along just fine in the heat and have doubled in size from when I planted them last Spring. LOTS of love for my blueberry bushes! I am looking forward to eventually having mature plants that give a decent harvest.

As we start to see cooler weather here, I will plant beets, turnips, romanesco, broccoli, lettuce, kale, chard, radishes, spinach, and carrots.