It has rained most of the day. Rain, rain, rain.
When I stupidly step off of the concrete surfaces, I sink up to my ankles in mud and grass. Rain, rain, rain.
My grass grows taller and taller and the city hollers louder and louder. Rain, rain, rain.
My watermelon vine still only has the one fruit (that I've found*) but has managed to grow 15 feet long and up and over my 5' back fence. Rain! Rain! Rain!
My cannas are blooming for the first time since I moved them from Oklahoma City to South Texas. Rain! Rain! Rain!
My ginger and my plumeria are putting on lots of nice foliage. Rain! Rain! Rain!
If it stops raining, I'll go out and weed the hell out of my garden bed and plant tomatoes and peppers (surprisingly this is the right time here in South Texas). And maybe some okra (yummy!). At which point, it will stop raining at all.
*I say that I've found, because it has chosen to grow in the direction of the most overgrown parts of my flower beds. So actually looking for fruit will require really searching.
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Mary, Mary Quite Contrary
how does your garden grow?
The ginger root we stuck in a bucket of soil is putting up all kinds of new shoots which means we'll have fresh ginger before we know it. I can't wait.
The freesia nub that Mr. Gaia brought home and left on the counter for weeks and then finally shoved into a bucket of soil has 5 fully grown leaves and is sending up new leaves all the time.
The birds of paradise "liberated" from the neighbor's yard are 50/50. One has sent up a new leaf but the other hasn't (but is still green, so there's still hope).
My bengal tiger rose has been blooming but the darn things don't last long at all. I swear they must bloom first thing in the morning and then by the time I see them in the afternoon they're already overblown. But my belinda's dream has had a beautiful bloom for several days now. My cherokee rose is holding its own with one green stem and a few green leaves with only a little bit of brown on the margins. My peace rose is recovering from its transplant shock and is putting on lots of new growth.
My kale is just starting to bolt, but is still edible, so I'm holding it for now.
My cannas have lots of greenery and may actually bloom this year.
My aloe is reproducing at an alarming rate, and is going to have to be moved out of the pots and put in the ground.
I have what Mr. Gaia tells me are garlic chives filling a 5 gallon bucket (sense a pattern here with the buckets? We have a ton of them full of good topsoil and compost).
I have a volunteer watermelon growing in the bucket I used for compost over a year ago (so I'm sure it's fully composted now). I swear I can almost watch it grow.
One of my rosemary plants is still alive and will probably stay that way if I keep the bindweed off of it.
The friggin' oleander and tepeguaje sprout faster than I can keep up with. But I'm keeping on keeping on with the johnsongrass (completely eradicated in one bed and the alley).
The ginger root we stuck in a bucket of soil is putting up all kinds of new shoots which means we'll have fresh ginger before we know it. I can't wait.
The freesia nub that Mr. Gaia brought home and left on the counter for weeks and then finally shoved into a bucket of soil has 5 fully grown leaves and is sending up new leaves all the time.
The birds of paradise "liberated" from the neighbor's yard are 50/50. One has sent up a new leaf but the other hasn't (but is still green, so there's still hope).
My bengal tiger rose has been blooming but the darn things don't last long at all. I swear they must bloom first thing in the morning and then by the time I see them in the afternoon they're already overblown. But my belinda's dream has had a beautiful bloom for several days now. My cherokee rose is holding its own with one green stem and a few green leaves with only a little bit of brown on the margins. My peace rose is recovering from its transplant shock and is putting on lots of new growth.
My kale is just starting to bolt, but is still edible, so I'm holding it for now.
My cannas have lots of greenery and may actually bloom this year.
My aloe is reproducing at an alarming rate, and is going to have to be moved out of the pots and put in the ground.
I have what Mr. Gaia tells me are garlic chives filling a 5 gallon bucket (sense a pattern here with the buckets? We have a ton of them full of good topsoil and compost).
I have a volunteer watermelon growing in the bucket I used for compost over a year ago (so I'm sure it's fully composted now). I swear I can almost watch it grow.
One of my rosemary plants is still alive and will probably stay that way if I keep the bindweed off of it.
The friggin' oleander and tepeguaje sprout faster than I can keep up with. But I'm keeping on keeping on with the johnsongrass (completely eradicated in one bed and the alley).
Monday, May 14, 2007
Garden woes
I haven't been able to garden an hour every day as planned because the mosquitoes are really, really thick right now. The bad thing is that part of the reason they are thick is because the weeds are thick and high - see the problem? I can't get rid of the weeds because the mosquitoes are too thick, and the mosquitoes are so thick because I can't get rid of the weeds. So I do 5-10 minutes at a time and just hope that it will eventually get done.
I don't worry about the mosquitoes because they make me itchy. I don't react to them. I worry about them because of mosquito-borne illnesses. Living in the subtropics, there are diseases I need to worry about. I'm not invincible, as much as I would like to be.
And today I walked out and my Belinda's Dream rose looks like lace. The diagnosis? Leafcutter bees. The good news is that the bee (they tend to be solitary so it's probably just one female) probably won't do any major damage to my rose, it's mainly cosmetic. The other good news, since this rose is under my clothesline and close to the house, is that leafcutter bees tend to be nonaggressive.
I don't worry about the mosquitoes because they make me itchy. I don't react to them. I worry about them because of mosquito-borne illnesses. Living in the subtropics, there are diseases I need to worry about. I'm not invincible, as much as I would like to be.
And today I walked out and my Belinda's Dream rose looks like lace. The diagnosis? Leafcutter bees. The good news is that the bee (they tend to be solitary so it's probably just one female) probably won't do any major damage to my rose, it's mainly cosmetic. The other good news, since this rose is under my clothesline and close to the house, is that leafcutter bees tend to be nonaggressive.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Faith the size of a mustard seed
Today was a good day. I slept in while Mr. Gaia worked to prepare yet another side of the house for painting.
When it cooled off, I decided my bok choy had died enough that I could harvest the seeds. Bok choy is in the mustard family. Most of us have heard the bible quote "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed". Let me tell you, they're not the smallest seeds I've seen, but it takes a HUGE lot of them to look like you have any. I gathered enough to have two planting next year. The research I've done indicates the seeds won't need any special treatment.
After I gathered the seeds, I pulled out the plants. I now have a mostly open garden bed. The aphids had been having a field day on the bok choy and it was quite disgusting messing with the stalks. I should have caught some of the ladybugs that were feasting on the aphids and taken them to my poor Bengal Tiger rose in the front yard.
I cleared the johnsongrass out of the main bed I've been working on. There is still one plant that I need to get from the other side of the fence, but I've got to clear the alley area so that I can close the gate to get at it. AND the stupid thing is in the trunk/roots left after an oleander was removed, so it's going to be a pain to remove.
When it cooled off, I decided my bok choy had died enough that I could harvest the seeds. Bok choy is in the mustard family. Most of us have heard the bible quote "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed". Let me tell you, they're not the smallest seeds I've seen, but it takes a HUGE lot of them to look like you have any. I gathered enough to have two planting next year. The research I've done indicates the seeds won't need any special treatment.
After I gathered the seeds, I pulled out the plants. I now have a mostly open garden bed. The aphids had been having a field day on the bok choy and it was quite disgusting messing with the stalks. I should have caught some of the ladybugs that were feasting on the aphids and taken them to my poor Bengal Tiger rose in the front yard.
I cleared the johnsongrass out of the main bed I've been working on. There is still one plant that I need to get from the other side of the fence, but I've got to clear the alley area so that I can close the gate to get at it. AND the stupid thing is in the trunk/roots left after an oleander was removed, so it's going to be a pain to remove.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Garden for your Health
I swear, gardening is the best exercise. I exercise for a specific reason - to shrink my belly and stay in my clothes. If I don't see results in a week, I lose interest and eventually quit when something else comes up.
But with gardening - well, you may not see results in your physique (and I haven't) but you definitely see results in your garden. I'm happy to report that one bed is 95% Johnsongrass free. I flat ran out of steam before I could get that last little bit.
Of course, the bad part is that this leaves my compost pile (and I do mean pile) exposed to the view of anyone driving down the alley (see completely off topic rant below). Mr. Gaia decided that the boxes our salad comes in decompose, so we should compost them. We store the compost in them in the kitchen and when they get full or stinky (or fruitflies) we just take the whole thing to the pile and leave it there. Now, in theory, this is a good idea. In practice? Yeah. The plastic (made from veggie starch, supposedly) doesn't decompose in anything resembling a halfway timely manner. So my compost pile looks extremely trashy. So I foresee a few days with a garden fork mashing and crushing and somehow making them hide.
Okay, now for my completely off topic rant. People are such assholes. Apparently the people on the corner are moving out or moving in. The CORNER - which means they can park any number of places. They decide to park a huge minivan (and really, it was the biggest minivan I have ever seen) about 2 feet from the curb and about six inches encroaching on our alley, on the other side, they parked a truck, so you had to pull all the way into the traffic lane, no driving on the shoulder to merge into traffic. I literally could not see around it to get out of my alley this morning. I tried inching out and almost got hit many, many times. I could see a huge group of people on the other side of the moving van (in the driveway), so I roll down my window and yell, very loudly, "Could you please help me get out, you're blocking the sightlines". They ignored me. I yelled louder, I see feet turn toward my car and then I hear laughter. Assholes. I should have called the cops. I ended up having to back down the alley to my driveway (there was one a little closer than my house, but not enough for me to be rude enough to use their driveway) and then go down the alley the other way and get caught in traffic there. I started out being early for work, I ended up late, this added about 7 minutes to my 7 minute commute.
And the kicker? We have trash cans to serve 4 homes. They filled their can and now have filled our can. I actually saw him wheeling a kitchen can down the alley looking for a can he could use. Now, we're pretty loose with our cans, if one is full, sure you can add a bag or two to another can, but you just don't fill it up. You just don't. When Mr. Gaia took our one small bag out (it was starting to smell) he had to walk down 2 trash cans to find one empty enough to put it in. So, they fill our garbage cans and they block our alley. I hope they are moving out because if they are moving in, this does not bode well.
But with gardening - well, you may not see results in your physique (and I haven't) but you definitely see results in your garden. I'm happy to report that one bed is 95% Johnsongrass free. I flat ran out of steam before I could get that last little bit.
Of course, the bad part is that this leaves my compost pile (and I do mean pile) exposed to the view of anyone driving down the alley (see completely off topic rant below). Mr. Gaia decided that the boxes our salad comes in decompose, so we should compost them. We store the compost in them in the kitchen and when they get full or stinky (or fruitflies) we just take the whole thing to the pile and leave it there. Now, in theory, this is a good idea. In practice? Yeah. The plastic (made from veggie starch, supposedly) doesn't decompose in anything resembling a halfway timely manner. So my compost pile looks extremely trashy. So I foresee a few days with a garden fork mashing and crushing and somehow making them hide.
Okay, now for my completely off topic rant. People are such assholes. Apparently the people on the corner are moving out or moving in. The CORNER - which means they can park any number of places. They decide to park a huge minivan (and really, it was the biggest minivan I have ever seen) about 2 feet from the curb and about six inches encroaching on our alley, on the other side, they parked a truck, so you had to pull all the way into the traffic lane, no driving on the shoulder to merge into traffic. I literally could not see around it to get out of my alley this morning. I tried inching out and almost got hit many, many times. I could see a huge group of people on the other side of the moving van (in the driveway), so I roll down my window and yell, very loudly, "Could you please help me get out, you're blocking the sightlines". They ignored me. I yelled louder, I see feet turn toward my car and then I hear laughter. Assholes. I should have called the cops. I ended up having to back down the alley to my driveway (there was one a little closer than my house, but not enough for me to be rude enough to use their driveway) and then go down the alley the other way and get caught in traffic there. I started out being early for work, I ended up late, this added about 7 minutes to my 7 minute commute.
And the kicker? We have trash cans to serve 4 homes. They filled their can and now have filled our can. I actually saw him wheeling a kitchen can down the alley looking for a can he could use. Now, we're pretty loose with our cans, if one is full, sure you can add a bag or two to another can, but you just don't fill it up. You just don't. When Mr. Gaia took our one small bag out (it was starting to smell) he had to walk down 2 trash cans to find one empty enough to put it in. So, they fill our garbage cans and they block our alley. I hope they are moving out because if they are moving in, this does not bode well.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Johnsongrass!
I've been trying to get rid of johnsongrass. I swear I had it gone last year, but it's back and stronger than ever this year. I suspect I missed a bunch because I just didn't want to see it. And now I'm paying the price.
I'm organic (and making every day Earth Day), so I don't want to spray anyway. Plus, I won't use a Monsanto product even if they paid me, so that leaves out round-up and many other common herbicides. But I started doing some research on how to control and eradicate it and found that it is rapidly becoming resistant to many common herbicides. So even if I wanted to spray, and didn't mind that it might kill all my plants, it might not do much good anyway.
My legs and hands are so sore. Even with gloves, I'm getting friction spots on my hands. My calves are cramping all night long and yet I've only cleared about 1/4 of what I have to clear. Sooo frustrating.
The good part of all this is that I feel like I'm burning some extra calories.
I'm organic (and making every day Earth Day), so I don't want to spray anyway. Plus, I won't use a Monsanto product even if they paid me, so that leaves out round-up and many other common herbicides. But I started doing some research on how to control and eradicate it and found that it is rapidly becoming resistant to many common herbicides. So even if I wanted to spray, and didn't mind that it might kill all my plants, it might not do much good anyway.
My legs and hands are so sore. Even with gloves, I'm getting friction spots on my hands. My calves are cramping all night long and yet I've only cleared about 1/4 of what I have to clear. Sooo frustrating.
The good part of all this is that I feel like I'm burning some extra calories.
Monday, April 02, 2007
First watermelon of the season
We had our first watermelon of the season. And it sucked. It was underripe and overripe at the same time. It was clearly picked too soon and then artificially ripened and it just didn't work. It's really too bad because we love watermelon in the Gaia household. We had a volunteer vine but a combination of chilly weather and too little water took it out.
I'm seriously behind on my gardening this year. My bok choi and arugula have bolted, but I haven't pulled them. They're just sitting in my garden being all yellow and white flowers. I've decided the flowers are pretty. I've also decided to let them go to seed and see if the seed will germinate. That would be really cool. Adding to the flowers in my garden is a radish that went to bloom in the compost pile. It's clearly not hot enough if the radish is surviving in the middle of the heap. Oh well, it'll eventually decompose.
My lancinato kale is still doing really well, except for the caterpillars and aphids. I need some ladybugs in the worst way. I love this kale, I had the same plants live through 17F temps and 105F temps unprotected. They eventually went to seed after about 9 months. That seed was not viable.
I seriously need to hurry up and plant my peppers and tomatoes or there will be none this year. Mr. Gaia can get free avocados fresh from the tree at work, so tomatoes and peppers are a must.
I'm seriously behind on my gardening this year. My bok choi and arugula have bolted, but I haven't pulled them. They're just sitting in my garden being all yellow and white flowers. I've decided the flowers are pretty. I've also decided to let them go to seed and see if the seed will germinate. That would be really cool. Adding to the flowers in my garden is a radish that went to bloom in the compost pile. It's clearly not hot enough if the radish is surviving in the middle of the heap. Oh well, it'll eventually decompose.
My lancinato kale is still doing really well, except for the caterpillars and aphids. I need some ladybugs in the worst way. I love this kale, I had the same plants live through 17F temps and 105F temps unprotected. They eventually went to seed after about 9 months. That seed was not viable.
I seriously need to hurry up and plant my peppers and tomatoes or there will be none this year. Mr. Gaia can get free avocados fresh from the tree at work, so tomatoes and peppers are a must.
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