Month: October 2013

Got another drencher last night.  Right around 4AM we got rain.  In about an hour we got 2.3″ of rain.  At least everything is well watered now.  There’s still a small chance of more rain today, then our next chance of rain in Wednesday.  Then we have 50% chance for it.  Could make for a messy Halloween for the kids.

This year we should have a few kids trick or treating.  It seems our neighbor is doing a hay ride for their kids to take them around the neighborhood to trick or treat.  Since we don’t have many kids in the neighborhood, it would make it easier for the parents if they all get together.  Bill’s thinking about driving the tractor down to the bottom of our driveway in his gorilla suit to hand out candy to the kids.  The kids might like that.

The yard is slowly shaping up.  Our bottom drainage problem area seems to have been fixed.  The regraded the area, got rid of the rocks and gravel, laid down seed then a mat to hold it in place.  And now the grass seems to be growing well and the water is flowing to the storm drain.  So it looks like that area is no longer a problem.  With the rain we seem to be getting, I’m glad.

I still have green tomatoes.  The weather has been cooler, in the 70’s so hopefully they will ripen.  I’m not sure what to do with green tomatoes.  Oh, and the basil plants are happy, green and lush.  The peppers are still growing too.  So I do have stuff growing.  The broccoli is getting big too.  I put in a couple of pea seeds, so we’ll see if they grow.

Pat came over yesterday, hopefully he’ll be able to come over to help Bill today too.  Pat said his father has been diagnosed with dementia.  He said his mother had broken her knee and is in rehab/convalescent place healing.  With the problems with the father she’s not too keen on coming home soon.  Can’t say I blame her.  Apparently the father is having a few paranoia issues.  I’m sure its making life hard for Pat since he still lives with them.  At this point they need him there.  I gather from from Pat said yesterday one of his sisters lives at home now too.  Probably good, she can help with the parents too since Pat’s work takes him out of town sometimes.

Yes, I know its been a while since I’ve posted.  But the last few weeks have been running by me fast.  I left on a trip and was gone a week, 8 days but who’s counting.  But we still have somewhat weird weather.  Last night we got down to 46 degrees.  Definitely cool weather.  Where it may feel nice, its not so great for my tomatoes.  Yes, I am worried about my tomatoes.  I still have a load of green tomatoes on my plants.  I would like them to survive and ripen.

While I was gone I’m not sure what the weather did.  But I can tell you what I came back to.  My lovely acorn squash plant is not doing so well.  Most of it looks like it died.  With all the rain, I wouldn’t be surprised. But I do still have one acorn squash growing.  Also it has another flower, though I don’t think that will amount to much.  My small watermelon and cantaloupe are still small and I’m not sure they will grow much now.  My string bean plant has given me a crop of green beans.  Where they were good, we probably should have harvested earlier.  Next year I should try peas instead.  My pepper plants are giving me a load of peppers.  I have harvested about 6 bell peppers, I have maybe an Anaheim pepper growing, and I have lots of serrano chiles and I’m not sure what else peppers.  These are green, ripe and if you touch them wrong they fall off the plant.  I think that means they are pretty ripe – at least green ripe.  I’m sure I could leave some on the plant until they turn red.

As for my herbs.  I’ve got more thyme then I can use.  I’m going to dry some for the winter.  I have an oregano plant that is doing well and I’ve clipped some of it to dry also.  Its currently in the green house, but I think if next year I put it somewhere else it will do well too.  My parsley is growing, so is the basil.  And the sage looks good.  I don’t think I’m going to grow tarragon again.  If I do, maybe only one plant.  And the little bay trees are doing okay.  I don’t think they are ready for transplanting, but they are alive and seem to be growing.

For next spring I’m think I should put all herbs in a couple of the barrel pots.  Mint can have its own pot, but everyone else needs to stay confined in pots.  I have more rosemary then I need, mainly because it grows in the yard so well.  But in the back yard I have a pot of it too.  But all the other herbs also need to grow in pots.  Some of them just spread too much.

They have marked out my new veggie planter.  So far it is 24 feet by 10 feet.  They are planning on 2 walk paths thru it, intersecting somewhere in the middle.  I also have the two 3 ft by 3 ft raised planter boxes I bought from Gardeners Supply I can use next year.  I’m thinking I might keep the tomatoes in one of those, but make sure I have enough soil in them to be more usable.  Since tomatoes tend to have those caterpillars, I may need to alternate the plants I grow in them.  That’s why I’m thinking of keeping the tomatoes in the raised planters.  This way the caterpillars won’t end up eating other things.  I’ll have to do more research on that one.