Author: Cat C L

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.

The weather has gone nuts.  In the past two weeks we’ve had rain.  Not light drizzle rain, think deluge.  For instance, last night we had well over 4″ of rain in about 45 minutes at about 1AM this morning.  And about 10 days ago we had something similar, but over 5″ of rain then.  This is Texas hill country type of land.  We have a little bit of soil, over rock.  The water doesn’t just flow, it runs off this land.

We just came back from Home Depot.  On one of the road you could see where flowing water had deposited grass about a foot up a wire fence.  Some areas of roads are still covered in mud from water trying to drain away.  Yes, we need the rain.  And yes, it means the trees are getting a good watering as are the rest of the plants outside.  The deer now have lots to eat from all the new growth.  But that’s a lot of rain in a very short period of time.

The other interesting thing about this weather, is our high temperature was at midnight – 74 degrees.  Right now at 4pm its only 69 degrees.  Tomorrow should hit the mid to high 80’s.  Most people have said we should be warmer, and we shouldn’t have this kind of rain now.  We should be just barely getting some rain, and the temperatures shouldn’t be dropping so.

This is weird nutty weather. I’m not sure if this is due to cold fronts or what.  But it is weird nutty weather.

Summer in Texas seems to be winding down – for Texas.  The temperatures are out of the high 90’s.  We’ve had some rain, cooler nights (low 70’s), and my plants are growing.  The deer are going into rut, its what passes for early fall here at the house.

 This is a bean plant.

 The roses are blooming again

 a baby squash – acorn squash I think

 A different squash plant.  Not sure what kind it is.

 My baby watermelon.

  We have since time put up netting around these two plants.  

Still finding the tomato hornworms on my tomato plants.  Now I’m killing them by dropping the worms in soapy water.  It seems to kill them – I can watch them die.  With the days changing, and the weather cooling (for Texas that is) my plants are growing gang busters.  The tomato plants have lots of tomatoes ripening.  At least I should say the tomato plants in the square planter have tomatoes ripening.  The tomato plants in the RW planter (retaining wall planter) never got a single tomato.  They also didn’t get any hornworms either.  But this weekend I hacked the RW tomatoes down.   If they are not going to do anything, I’m not going to keep them.  I’ve started getting ruthless with my plants.  If they aren’t doing anything, I’m pulling them out or just dumping the soil in one big pile.  They earn their keep or they are out of here.

The weather has been changing.  We get some occasional hot days but the days/nights are starting to cool.  Not much mind you, but just enough.  The days are still in the 80-90’s, but the nights are low 70’s.  Any seeds I’m putting out are sprouting, the bean seeds and the squash seeds have grown into some nice looking plants.  The squash plant has large flowers and with any luck we might get some squash.  I’m hoping the bean plants continue growing too.  Even the watermelon plant is growing.  I’ve had to put up trellis’ near some of the plants since they are growing.

I’ve been weeding the RW planter.  Its hard work.  I’ve been trying to do it in the morning.  Actually I get up, put yesterdays dirty clothes back on, go weed or work in the garden for a hour or two, then come back in and shower.  Makes much more sense then showering then getting hot and sweaty working in the yard.

I’ve even started using a Miracle Grow watering system.  The jar you attach to the hose, add Miracle Grow packet to the jar and water.  That’s what I’m using.  I started using it in August and I intend to continue using it about every 10 days.  I’m using it mainly on the plants that should become a hedge along the fence, some Texas sage, and the trees in the RW planter.  I figure all these plants could use the food.

I’m also trying to get a better grip on what to grow and when to plant it.  We just got back from Home Depot and they have tomato plants out.  Considering how my tomato plants are due, now I understand why they are still selling them.  I think of tomatoes as a summer plant.  But here the summers get just too hot, and they will grow then, but in the heat of the summer, my tomato plants seemed to just do nothing.  They didn’t die, but they didn’t grow either.  So maybe I need to plant them earlier then I think, or later then I think.  We’ll figure this out.  It may just take some time.

And for reference, check out the link below – Texas A & M Agriculture pages.
 http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/

We have bugs.  Bugs in the tomato plants.  Big green caterpillars.  And I do mean big.  These things are eating the leaves off my tomato plants.  And with my happy tomato plants, I have big happy bugs.  BUT I’m not happy about the bugs.  I’ve been picking them off and putting them in a container with cactus.  We’ll see if they like cactus.  And hopefully they can’t get out of the container.  Not happy about these critters.

I looked them up and it seems I have tomato hornworms.  They grow into hawk moths.  They eat the leaves of tomato and pepper plants.  Actually they ate all the leaves off one pepper plants.  But the plant does seem to be trying to recover – its putting out new leaves.  I’m not sure how to get rid of these things other then to pluck them off and kill them.  I’m not sure exactly how to kill them.  So for now they are going into the cactus pot.  Its a pot of cactus I’m trying to kill off.  I dug it up with a hoe and put it into an empty pot so it can’t set new roots. That’s what I’m dropping the tomato hornworms into.  Don’t know if they like cactus, we’ll find out.

Wow.  We have been having some work done at the house, extending the back patio and paving the area with pavers, changing out some plants, and getting mulch put down.  Yes, I know, we’ve had workers doing most of the work.  But we’ve been woken early – the workers usually started at 7 or 8 AM and finished by mid afternoon in order to beat the heat late in the day.  Its made for early mornings.  But the planters do look good and the patio extension looks great.  So it has been well worth the expense.

Things I am learning during this work.  Even plants they want full sun can benefit from some afternoon shade.  Many of the pots I had in the back near the patio got moved into what areas I could find that got some afternoon shade.  They are doing pretty good.  The couple of matching pots that were in full sun are growing, but not doing as well.  Moral of the story – afternoon shade helps in this heat.  As a learning lesson the tomato plants that get absolutely no shade, down in the retaining wall planter are big and lush.  They get watered via soaker hose.  But I have gotten not one tomato from them.  Not even a small one.  They put out flowers, but no tomatoes yet.  The plants in the raised bed have given me tomatoes, albeit not large fruit.  But those do get some shade but get full sun in the afternoon.

I’m not taking any of them out, but I will keep tabs on them to see how they do as we cool down.  Speaking of cooling down we may be out of the 100 degree days.  We are still in the 90’s but low 90’s here at the house.  Today we only made about 92, with a heat index of 94.  Much better then the 98 with heat index of 103.  That’s just plain hot.  I wouldn’t say autumn is here, but at least we’re not in the high 90’s this week.

We also were lucky.  We got a little rain – only 0.13inch but we’ll take what ever we can get.  They are saying more rain, 60% chance next week.  Hopefully we’ll get some.  That would be nice.

We’re making a few changes to the front.  One of the crape myrtles just is not doing anything.  The two flanking the stairs look great, the other one, not so great.  So we are going to dig the little one up, and plant two Italian Cypresses in the two cut out areas in front of the house.  That’s tomorrow’s job.  We did some weeding this morning, and that’s hard work.  So we’ll plant the cypresses tomorrow morning.  The little crape myrtle we are digging up we will put in a pot and see if we can get it to grow.  I’ll put it in the back yard so that its safe and it will get water as I water the other backyard plants.  Since I usually water them every other day, they do get good watering.  Let’s hope the little crape myrtle grows and survives.

Things I’m learning this summer.  I have two pots that do not have drainage holes – the strawberry pot and another pot.  Pot 2 has plastic taking up part of the bottom of the pot.  The strawberry pot is entirely filled with soil.  When we had our recent over and inch of rain, the strawberry pot was practically floating.  It actually had water sitting on the top of it.  I gently tilted the pot onto its side and let water drain out.  I hadn’t realized the strawberry pot didn’t have drainage holes.  I knew pot 2 didn’t have hole, but I knew it had plastic in the bottom taking up some room.

I’m starting to wonder if holding water in these pots is not quite the bad thing during the summer.  Yes, the strawberry plants are getting some sun burn, but considering the heat of the sun and the fact the pot is sitting in direct sun with no shade – I’m not surprised some of the edges are getting burned.  But I wonder – if I don’t put drainage holes, and put the pot somewhere it will get some shade, will the plants do okay?  Its making me wonder if pots I use for summer planting can hold more water, not drain so much, will it help the plants?  Would it give them more available water for their roots?  I’m not sure if it will, but I’m thinking maybe I should try it next summer.

The other thing I’m realizing, is I need to figure out how to get more shade for some of the plants.  Wind is a problem here, but for those plants that don’t get any shade, is the brutal sun the biggest problem?  The lemon tree that is currently sitting in the sun seems to take it okay.  But its a really large pot, so it has quite a bit of water.  And right now I’m watering pretty much every other day.  So the plants have water.  But shade, we just don’t have much shade in the back yard.

Tuesday they start working on extending the back patio.  They will be putting in a row of blocks to hold crushed granite.  The crushed granite will be topped with pavers.  It will essentially extend the back patio.  I’ve had pots sitting in that area.  Right now they are moved into the back area that does get some shade.  But after the work is done, those pots will go back where they were.  This area actually gets morning sun until about 2-3 pm.  Then the shadow from the house moves into that area and the pots get shade.  I think they like having that afternoon shade.

I’m also starting to think about this winter.  Last winter we didn’t cover any of the plants.  I’m thinking this year all the esperanza’s and the plumbago’s need to be covered.  They took a beating in the cold last year – they froze back almost and to the ground.  When I cut them back in spring, most of the branches had to be cut back to almost the ground.  Some of the branches just broke off because they had frozen and were dead.  I’d like to no repeat that again.

I’m also thinking that I want to set up planters in the back for veggies for next year.  We have two areas that are hard rock areas.  They don’t even grow weeds well.  So I’m thinking maybe I need to put down either mulch or crush granite or something, then put down weeds barrier, then put square planters on top of that.  But this time I really do need to fill the planters better, with more soil.  I also need to make sure I feed more and on a better schedule next year.

We’ll see what we can come up with.

How hot is in here your ask.  Well its now 11:15 pm and its 86 degrees with a heat index of 90.  Our high today was 98.  Welcome to Austin hot!

I know its been a while.  Got back from my trip last week and promptly got sick.  I’m getting better thank you.

Well talk about Texas rain.  Last night, around 12:45 AM we got rain.  We got 1-1/4 inches of rain in a bit over an hour, maybe an hour and a half.  At least we’ve had rain, and we still need it.

This is Memorial Weekend, and its raining in Austin, Texas.  We had about 1.25 inches yesterday here at the house, and its raining again today.  I don’t know how much rain we will get.  It is very much needed, no question there.  But it is still strange.  If it were any cooler I would think I was back in Washington state. As is, we are in the 70’s, ranging from the low to high.

But I’m sure all the plants will be happy for the rain.  This time of year I don’t think they expect much rain.  But its here.  With the drought, plants and the reservoirs will be happy to get the much needed moisture.  And it hasn’t all been those heavy downpours either.  Yesterday we got about the first inch of rain in one hour.  Then it was just kind of slow and drizzly.  It didn’t rain overnight.  But this morning it started up again and its been slow and steady.  Just the kind of rain I would see in Washington.  But at least it should soak in well.  The rain won’t run off too much.

That’s not to say some areas aren’t getting flash floods.  There are flash flood warnings in Austin and San Antonio areas.  Some sections of San Antonio, near the airport, apparently got 8 inches of rain yesterday.  And its still raining there.  I’m sure some areas of Austin are also looking at flash flooding.  But up here, its not likely – mud slides maybe, flash floods not so much.

Thursday my neighbor Mrs. L came over and we planted my roses into large containers.  I’m glad we got that done.  And now with this rain, they are getting a good watering.  Hopefully more things will continue growing now that we have this rain.

On the other hand, the deer have been dropping fawns.  We have seen a few wobbly legged fawns about.  When we saw the first one we put up some additional wire netting around the back yard.  These fawns are so young they could have fit between the fencing bars.  But at least with the wire netting, they can’t fit between the bars.

I have to admit, our neighbors who had put in grass throughout their yard are making the deer very happy.  There are time I see lots of deer just standing out there eating the grass.  Happy deer! With this rain, I’m betting lots of the fawns will survive.  There will be lots for them to eat for a while.