Month: January 2020

True to Texas weather, we had a few nice days, then late yesterday the temperature just dropped. Today, at around 3pm we have made a high of 48. How does it manage to go from low 70’s yesterday to not even 50 today? Well, that’s Texas weather for you.

Late yesterday around 4pm the temperature began dropping. It had been warmish, nice, not hot, but then the cool weather came in. And now its just simply overcast and cold outside.

Now I realize if you are living in a snowy area, 48 might seem warm. But here in central Texas this rates as cold. Yes, we can get colder but its still cold for Texas. With luck tomorrow will be 10 degrees warmer, then the day after will be 10 degrees warm that than (or 20 degrees warmer than now). But that is the way it goes in Texas.

The funny thing is I gad received an email from Old Farmers Almanac saying it was time to begin planting seeds inside. Me being the gardener I am just put seeds in the pots outside. With this cool weather we will see what sprouts, or sprouts soon.

One change I have begun this year is since I don’t have formal beds for vegetables, I am planting in pots. I have purchased some of the 10 gallon plastic pots and some 15 gallon grow bags (the heavy felt type of bag). This year these are what I will be using. My thinking is this, I need a way to be able to move plants around as I get to know the sun and shade of my yard. I don’t want to put in any permanent growing beds until I better understand what is available in my yard. Also, I’m planning on getting a deck put in, and that will also change shade and possible heat spots in my yard. Pots for this year while I get to know my yard better.

One funny story- last week I decided to pull the strawberry plants out of a pot that had potatoes growing. I had potatoes and strawberries in the same pot. That’s not a good growing combination (you have to pull the potatoes out of the ground meaning you pull out the strawberry plants to do that, not so good for the strawberries). Well what I didn’t know was there was a fire ant nest in the pot. I put both hands (no gloves) in the pot to pull out the strawberry plants and ended up with about 20 or so ant bites. Unfortunately, I reacted to the ant bites and ended up on oral steroids in order to bring down the swelling. So the moral of the story – check your pots before sticking ungloved hands into them.

We’ve had some strange weather. Where I have written about the fact it has been warm, we have now begun having fog. The past few days we’ve had fog, some of it heavy and dense. Its also lasted long into the day, into late afternoon. Today the fog was heavy until around 4pm. It didn’t so much lighten up as it became a slow drizzle mist, heavier and drippier than fog.

This evening, by 7pm it is heavy enough that roofs are dripping, walkways are wet, not just damp. There are puddles outside on our stairs. But when you stand there it doesn’t seem like rain coming down, just more like heavy mist.

But I’m sure its good for the plants. We haven’t had rain in quite a while and can use the moisture. In that way I’m glad for the weather. One issue is that it isn’t particularly cold. That is nice in a way but not in others. You need something to keep you covered from the wet, but at the same time it can leave you too warm. If you don’t wear a jacket or something the wet and not quite warm gets cold. And with the wet, that cold-wet just saps the warmth from you.

Its strange, cool, not quite warm and wet. But if it were too much warmer weather would feel like a sauna, that would not be better. How much longer will we have this weather, I don’t know. The forecast says rain tomorrow and the day after. We shall see.

Welcome to the new year. Its just begun, and it means we should be in winter, but here in Texas its warm. The weather station here at the house says we’ve hit 76 degrees. This is a warm winter. Really warm. Not good. And not much rain happening either. We haven’t had much, and there’s not much in the forecast. And what little we’ve had has been really more of trace amounts. Drought, yup.

Bad winter here in Texas. Warm and no rain.

On the other hand it has allowed some interesting things. Since its warm, not yet hot, and the nights are not that cold, I’ve spent some time transplanting plants I wouldn’t normally have touched yet. I’ve had an issue with some plants in pots where the pots are disintegrating. Through time, sun, wear, other issues (weed wackers are bad for pots), some of the pots are bad (cracks and holes) even though the plants in them are good and growing. So I’ve taken this nice weather opportunity to get a jump on transplanting. Since the next 2 weeks are all nice weather, I figure it will give the plants a change to grow roots even if we do eventually get some cold.

For example in the next ten days, the coldest night (only 1) is 34, but most are in the mid 40’s. About 3 nights are even going to be in the mid 50’s. This is not winter weather. The almanac (wunderground.com) says our norm daytime temperature should be around 61, with a nighttime low of 40. Not the 76 and 47 we are looking at. It is warm with no relief in sight. It might sound nice, but its just not.

And of course it means how and when should we actually start planting seeds? Will we get some cold weather? Its possible, but nobody seems to know. And with this warm weather it could mean any plants that are growing due to the warm would suffer freeze damage if we do suddenly get a cold snap.

But because it is so warm I might use it as a chance to replant some dead plants. Since the front yard was planted by the builder, some of the plants really were not the best to put in. About 5 plants have died, at least they are crispy at this point. Their twigs snap if bent, I’d said dead. So I’m thinking this might be a good opportunity to pull them and plant something else. Why not do my best to make good use of this weather. But I’ll do it with the possibility of cold still to come.

Such is gardening work in central Texas.