Author: Cat C L

We’re goin’ to Vegas Baby!!  A friend and I are going to Las Vegas week after next for a shopping trip.  I haven’t been to Vegas in a few years.  I’m getting excited! I even got tickets for a show. OHHHHHHmy.  This will be fun.  And the really fun part – no husbands, no kids.  Now how’s that for fun?!

I feel bad.  I think I killed a frog/toad today.  I was watering the plants.  One plant, in a pot, was sitting in another pot so it could get a good soaking.  Unfortunately I didn’t realize there was something in the bottom, picked up the pot and dropped it back into the outside pot.  Later I went to check the pot, to drain the excess water.  And there was a frog/toad, not moving.

I didn’t mean to do it.  I know we have these frog/toad around the property.  I often find them in pots or under pots.  I just never know where or where I will find them.

My husband is having way too much fun.  I mean just too much fun.

WOWWWEEEE!  Its noon and only 75 degrees.  We got a little bit a rain last night – 0.11 inch.  Let’s hope we can keep some of this cool weather going!!  Cool weather, a bit a rain – life is good and the plants are happy.

Go figure, the weather has been hot but plants are starting to pick up. My peppers have new leaves and my tomatoes are getting green. So I stuck a few seeds in the ground and we will see what happens. I put in some tomato seeds from a tomato I had and I put in a bean seed – don’t remember off hand what kind of bean. But its still hot, and we still have a growing season to deal with. I also put some more herb seeds in pots. We’ll see how those do too.

We also broke down and put up bird netting around some pots of mine. I figure if they start to flourish, or at least grow then I probably had a problem with them being eaten, but they are otherwise okay. Now for the eating part. If something actually manages to lift the frame and get underneath to the plants, its not a deer. I’m hoping its just deer, then the netting would keep it out. But we’ll wait and see if that’s all it is or not. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure we have a raccoon, but I’m not sure if that’s what is eating my plants. If the plants start to thrive or grow, then its probably just deer doing the eating. The frame is just pvc pipes and sprinkler risers. Its about 3 ft tall (risers) by 5 wide and 5 deep (cut pvc). 

Speaking of deer some of the males around here are starting to sport small antlers. I guess rut season is on its way.

Early next week they start breaking ground on the new garage. Bill decided we don’t have enough garage space – duh!!! So we are building a new 3 car garage, but its going to be used for storage. Which will be good considering our current garage is nothing but storage. And Bill has promised I’ll have a place to park my car come the Oct/Nov trip. They figure it will take about a month to build the garage. I sure hope so. We need it. Basically it will be 2 car garage for storage and 1 car bay for Bill’s extra “tools” and stuff. Maybe once its build we’ll be able to finally get the rest of the stuff out of the San Antonio house and put it up for sale. We can hope.

The weather is not getting any better. It is hot, high 90’s to low 100’s. The nights are only getting down to about 75. Its tough to sitting or be outside just because of the heat. The plants are not thriving, but at least they are not dying. A few have died, but most are just staying the same. I have a yellow pear tomato plant with one tomato. But that poor tomato has yet to ripen. I think it may be just the heat.

 I have actually pulled a couple of the dead plants out of their pots. I had a tomato plant that was just a stalk so I pulled that out. I also pulled some of the parsley plants. They probably needed to be pulled sooner. But I have pulled the poor parsley stalks and put in new parsley seeds. Now the interesting thing – my basil seeds are doing well and growing. Not only that, the basil growing outside the greenhouse has not been eaten by the deer. Go figure.

 The deer have been eating the geraniums, most of the potted plants – dahlias, day lilies, cannas, but they have not eaten the purple verbena. I’m not sure about the apricot verbena, its alive but not doing great, but the purple verbena is thriving.

 Don’t leave the top dutch door open at night. The night we did that something got in and ate the tops of the meyer lemon trees. The next day when I checked the plants the lemon trees were definitely shorter. They didn’t seem to eat anything else, just the lemon trees.

 Speaking of the greenhouse, the pepper plant is just sitting in statis – not dying but not growing. The mint plant in the greenhouse is doing okay. Its a bit yellow, maybe too much water, but it is growing. Some of the runners are starting to wind around the pot and setting root in the soil. The beans and the squash plants are dead. The watermelon is not doing much, but one of the baby watermelons is starting to split – again maybe too much water. I’m hand watering the plants at this time. We don’t have the automatic watering set up in the greenhouse.

 We did bring the rosemary plant from San Antonio to Austin. It was living in the greenhouse there. Here it is living on the driveway and I’m not sure its happy there. It is in direct sun and not getting quite as regular watering. But at least its still alive.

 This week has not been one of my best. I’ve been sick part of the week, not eating, not going outside to check plants. I’m not sure if it has mattered to the plants. Maybe I have been watering the plants too much and being sick and not going out to check them has been good for the plants.

Well, its now the beginning of August, not going to plant anything new for a while. This is usually the hottest time of the year so its not a good time to plant.

In the front:Yellow Lantana seems to grow well and the deer and other critters don’t seem to eat it. They tasted it when it was first planted, but have not bothered it since. Now the Confetti Lantana is another story. They is on the same watering system as the yellow lantana but is not fairing quite as well. I have noticed that it does occasionally get munched on. Even though the Confetti lantana should get bigger then the yellow, I think if it can survive the summer, make it to fall and really set some good roots it might stand a better chance to making it and growing bigger. Right now I think its new shoots are getting eaten.

Marigold and Zinnias: These guys are having a tough time. The deer seem to have stopped eating the marigolds. But the problem is they are still getting stepped on. The zinnias are having the flowers eaten. That is a problem. I think that next year if both the zinnias and the marigolds are put in earlier they will do better. But the marigolds are blooming and continue putting out out blooms. So the marigolds are working. And since the deer are not eating them much at all, more like an occasional tasting, they should be replanted next year. In the picture below you might be able to make out the marigolds, the rosemary and some of the seedlings.

Seedlings:I put in seeds of morning glories, lavender, sweet pea, and marigolds. None are doing well. The morning glories are being eaten when still small, so they are struggling. It looks like one lavender plant is trying to come up. None of the sweet peas came up at all. The marigold seeds have sprouted and are trying. One problem with the seeds is that they were planted way too late. Even though I hand water them, it is hot, high 90’s well into the low 100’s. That is problem too much for them. Even water is not helping other than to keep them alive. They simply are not thriving. I will wait on these and see what happens.

Plants in the front:We put in rosemary (had to be replaced) which is doing fine. The upright rosemary is actually blooming, so they are doing well. The prostrate type had to be replaced. The first ones we planted had just been kept to their pots way to long. But the replacements are doing fine, they seem to be thriving.

The Blue Plumbago seems to be doing okay. Again I think planting was done later then it should have been but the plants are surviving. They do get nibbled by the deer, but not a lot of nibbling.

The Esperanza is doing fine. It is still flowering, does not seem to be getting eaten by the deer which is helping. Bill calls them Yellow Bells.

Yes its been a while since I’ve last posted. And my how things have changed. We have sold our house in Bellevue, WA, moved out of the house in San Antonio, TX (pretty much moved out), and we have built and moved into a house in Austin, TX. The house in San Antonio still has some of our things in it. But we have decided we need more room in the Austin house before we can move the rest of the San Antonio items. So we are going to build a “new garage” in which to house the stuff. You may ask yourself, “why not just get rid of the extra stuff?”. Well, we can’t just get rid of that extra stuff. Its stuff that must be kept, so we are going to build a spare garage in which to put it. So that is the basics of what has changed so dramatically in my life. Now for the blog info. Since the house is on a large lot, almost 2 acres, and we have deer and other critters wandering naturally around, I am having some trouble with plants. As in they are being eaten, some more then others. So I have decided to track my successes and failures of plantings on this blog. And yes, this is subject to change.

It has been a strange summer here in the Seattle area. We’ve had some days of warm weather, but not much. Its been a cool summer, and rainy for August. It actually has seemed like a very short summer here. And what makes it so weird is that we’ve gone from some absolutely beautiful days to rainy days. But even our absolutely beautiful days have not lasted for long. We didn’t really get much in the way of hot weather, but we have had a few days. We even, just a couple of weeks ago, got hot enough days (an inversion layer) to exceed smog standards. Kind of weird to have happen with all the cool weather we’ve had, but it happened. But today, nearing the end of August it was cool with only a slight amount of rain this morning.

But it seems like its been such a cool summer. It also seems like its gone by so fast. Maybe is just me, but it seems like this summer has gone by really fast. It almost seems sad to see it go by so quickly. But such is life. Gotta live it while you can.

Well, we made it through July 4th. Its been really strange weather. Its still been cool, more aptly put cold. It rained July 3rd, so I’m sure that made the firefighters happy. On the fourth we had a slight drizzle, but not much. And so it was cool, not really warm. Today, the 7th, it still hasn’t really warmed up. Hopefully it will. They said we should have warm weather this week. I’m hoping they are right. It would be nice.

Friday, 7/11 is the start of the sales of the new iPhone 3G. I’m not sure if I will be in line to get one or not. They have not yet said much about how they are going to handle these sales. But the rumors are bouncing around like balls about how they will handle it. Some rumors say they will be open early, like 8AM. Some rumors say they will only allow one per person, who knows. But dear hubby may be the one waiting and standing in line for them. We do want to get them for each of us. But we’ll see what they will allow us to do. It should be interesting.

My class this summer is Meteorology 101. This is such an informative class. There is so much stuff to learn. It is really fascinating, but there is just so much. But I am enjoying it. I admit, I enjoy classes like this – lots to learn. For our first project we have to track weather for the next 10 days. Its interesting to do. I’m almost hoping we get strange weather just to be able to record it. This really is a fun class.