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How to find tools in the yard

I figured with this sunny yellow I would be able to find my gardening tools when they are in the yard. I hope it actually works. The tools all have wooden handles, and most are in bad shape. So it was sand them down with sandpaper then paint them. I used good old Rustoleum paint, in a can not spray paint, and gave them two coats. They were still drying when I took the picture. I set them in the holes on the table so they would not touch anything and let them dry. Now we’ll see if this color works. Hopefully it does.

Weather here has been strange. We had such a cold, but short spell of weather. Then it warmed up. Overall its been warm now, at least warm enough for plants to begin growing. Seed has been sown and lettuce is coming up. The artichokes are growing back as are the asparagus. We’ve even begun harvesting a few asparagus. The snow peas are just starting to produce though I haven’t picked any yet.

Since we did have such a cold spell, when we got down to 17, the fruit trees (apples) have already begun flowering. One weekend we even went out and used paint brushes to pollinate them. Small apples have already begun growing. But with that cold we did lose at least a few trees. Some of the citrus frozen back as did at least one avocado. All in all I don’t think it was too bad.

Even the green house lost a few plants. Some of the house plants that had lived there froze and died. Though overall most everything survived. Even the aloe is still growing. But I think the bougainvillea is history – its branches just snap and crack when bent. 

But with the warmth we’ve had the blueberries have begun putting out berries. Even the strawberries survived the cold and are starting to produce. Though I think we’ll need to add a few to the patch.

But the new trees, especially the pomegranate Wonderful is doing well. Its actually doing better than our older pomegranate. Maybe we’ll finally get some pomegranates. I do like them.

We are having some problem with trees along the fence line. We’ve had problems with them dying. Now we’ve lost about 8 (maybe more) plants. They were trees/bushes. They were to provide privacy, but with them dying that’s not happening. So now we’re looking at pulling those trees out and putting in something new. We’re thinking about putting in Mountain Laurels. They should be a good tree/bush for Texas. They don’t tend to require much care, they certainly don’t have to be babied to grow. We’ve already put in four, but we do need more.

Today we’ve a cool day. Yesterday we had slightly warmer weather (63), but rain. So who knows. Today may be cooler (48), but at least no rain. Tomorrow we should be 70. So when I say this is strange weather, the temperature has just been up and down. 

Its been so nice the fruit trees are trying to bud. Not the best time for that. But the weather has been mild, even though some nights have gotten down to 35 or so.

Planting reminders (old farmers almanac emails):
Under cover or indoors – start seeds now:
broccoli, summer cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, kale, leeks, leaf lettuce, onion, peas, peppers, spinach, large tomatoes.

We started most of these outside in the garden since the weather has been mild (no eggplant or leeks). If we actually get cold I’ll cover them. But I’m not expecting that.

We did have some problems with our watering system. We had a pipe leak and had to get it fixed. We actually lost quite a bit of water (almost drained the tanks) from that. Luckily after we got it fixed we got rain so the tanks are full again. That was not a good experience. But we are back up and running again, sort of. The pumps used to be able to be started by an app on the cell phone. Well that is not running so we have to go manually start up the pump. Basically we just have to hit the button to start them up so its not a big deal really. Its just we cannot do it remotely. Not the end of the world.

We hit a low this morning/last night of 17.4. That’s low for anywhere. We’re supposed to warm up to 42, but drop down to a low of 24 again tonight. Crazy Texas weather. Not sure what all has frozen, but I’m sure we lost plants. I’m hoping we didn’t lose too many pipes too. Plants are so much easier to replace than plants.

New notes:
Plants to sow indoors or under covers:
summer cabbage, celery, eggplant, leeks, leaf lettuce, onion

Our high today was at midnight. Its now 4pm and the temperature is dropping again. We got up to 30, but its now down to 28. They are saying tonight should get down to 20. It will be interesting to see if we drop below that.

Tomorrow will hopefully be warmer during the day, but tomorrow night will be cold again.

Yesterday we hit 60, but last night we dropped to 25. The next couple of days should e cold. Day’s will be cold – today we should be just above freezing. And tonight they are forecasting 21. Tomorrow they say we’ll get up to low 40’s, maybe 42, but tomorrow night should be another 21 degree night. Then it warms back up. Crazy weather. Let’s hope this time nothing freezes.

Our last freeze about 2 weeks ago, one pipe for the rain water did freeze. We were able to get Pat to fix it. Pat came over last weekend and did some work. He actually got a lot done, which I’m very glad about. I’m just hoping we don’t lose any more pipes in this freeze.

Today was warm and nice. By that I mean 79 degrees today. And just as strange is that tomorrow we should hit all of 59. We’ll see what the weather has to offer.

How cold was it? We hit a low of 20.5 last night. We were lucky this morning to find we only had one pipe that broke. It was a pipe for the rain water. But of course its still broken, and its spraying water. We turned off the pump attached to it but its still slightly spraying. We had an insulated grocery bag that was falling apart. So we cut the lid off, then cut the bag open so that we could cover the break. I’d rather have it covered since tonight we are supposed to get back down into cold again. The last thing I really need is for this pipe to continue to break – that would be a really bad idea. I’m hoping that with DH helping me, and hopefully remembering more information we can get this break fixed. 

I hope this will work. Really hope.

Tonight, Monday night we are due for a low of 28, then we will warm up above freezing for the nights.

I  did a dance competition at the end of September, then a couple of weeks later we left for a cruise. We got back from the cruise the end of October, and a couple of days later my other half took ill. He’s been ill since then and unfortunately the garden has been on the back burner.

Its now mid December. We had a cool night, almost freezing the other week. But last night we had our first official freeze. Yesterday, Saturday Dec. 17 we had a high of 75 degrees. Though the low didn’t hit until this morning, we bottomed out at 23.5 degrees – a 50 degree drop. And this lovely cold is due to stick around a couple of days. Today, Dec 18 we hope to hit the mid 30’s, but then drop slightly lower for the night. Yes, we are bundled up and prepared to stay home the next couple of days.

Welcome to Texas weather.

Yes, we got rain. We got about an inch of rain in about 15 minutes. No joke. It just poured. And the forecast says more is on the way for tomorrow. Its a cold front coming in. We should also see our temperatures drop. Today we had a high of almost 84. The high tomorrow should only be about 73. Our nights will be cooler too, high 50’s for the night temperature.

So I’m guessing fall has come. But at least with this weather the plants should be happy.