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Yesterday we hit 82 degrees outside. Today it has dropped to 50, we’re hoping to make 60. We started with rain around 5:20 AM. I know because it woke me – a bit of lightning and thunder. And so far we’ve had about 1/3 inch of rain (about noon here). The weather forecast says tomorrow should be sunny and around 70. We’ll see. At least the plants are happy. I’d go take some pictures, but its wet and drizzly outside.

Not quite sure where it came from but last night we got wind, and at around 3 AM we got 3/4 inches of rain. The wind blew over pots, plants, and trash cans. Today – clear and sunny. Not as warm, but that’s okay. Today only make 66 degrees, but at least no wind. Though we did have a good 40 mph gust around 1:45 AM. But other than being blown around, the plants seemed to take it okay. No damage I can tell so far.

Earlier this week we hit 90 degrees. For 2 days! Last night we had lightning, thunder, and some rain. Today, Saturday we barely make 60. Tomorrow, Sunday night we have frost and freeze warnings.

Welcome to crazy Texas weather.

Okay, today we had to go pick up some items at Lowes and Home Depot. So while we were there I picked up a couple of fruit trees. Since we already have a hole where a wax myrtle was, we needed a tree to put there. So I got two, one for the hole, one for somewhere else.

The hole will get: SunRacer Nectarine. It says its hardy to 20F, self-fruitful, and low chill. Its semi-cling, great flavor, and high resistance to disease. Let’s hope so.

  

The other tree is a Avocado, Lila. She is hardy to 20 F, and self fertile, though someday we may want to plant a mate to her. This plant says you may get better yield with additional avocado varieties around it. Let’s hope she likes where ever her new home becomes.

So how did we get a hole from a wax myrtle? Well there was a wax myrtle near the fruit trees. We’re testing a “cage” to keep squirrels out and it made no sense to keep the wax myrtle in the cage. So out came the wax myrtle. We planted it elsewhere. So that’s why there was a hole that needed a fruit tree. I sure hope the nectarine likes its new neighbors.

While we were at Home Depot they had a couple of other trees I’m thinking about. They had a tangerine and a persimmon. I’m thinking maybe they could join the family, but I haven’t decided yet. We’ll see.

I made it out to the yard today. Its been gloomy, wet, with patches of blue sky, and no rain. So here is how the garden is doing.

We have little apples.

  

  We have artichokes growing, but no nothing to harvest yet  

Meet the swiss chard.

The peach tree has blossoms.

The meyer lemon has flowers.

The potato plants are in cages. Thought that might be safest.

A little green friend with the grape plant.

The blueberries are growing. I hope they ripen.

And some of the cutting from the trees are taking root. Don’t ask me how, but its happening. We may end up with more trees. And yes, I put tags on them so I know what is what. Hopefully those tags stay put.

The good news – we’ve had a slow light rain for almost two days. We have had times of no rain, but its been wet and gloomy out there. We have barely made it to 60 degrees. Hopefully if it lets up I will go out and take some pictures of the trees and plants. But they are saying more rain for the next day or so. We’ll see.

But we can use the moisture. No argument there.

I’ve decided to begin making some changes to the site. Nothing to major, but you will notice some links on the right hand side. I don’t make money off this site and I don’t intend to. So if you click a link, I don’t make anything off it. Those links are to sites I use (the gardening links) and sites I visit (fashion sites). More sites will be added eventually.

The garden is starting to come together nicely. I recently signed up for The Old Farmer’s Almanac Garden Planner. They send out emails with Your Personalized Planting Reminders telling you when to plant seed or sow indoors. I figured I would give it a try and see if I have better luck with my garden. Its nice because they seem to send out emails only weekly or every two weeks. So you don’t get a lot of emails, but they are very time sensitive. So when you get them, they are do now kind of information. So we’ll see how it goes.

Following TOFAGP Pat and I have put in a lot of seed. We’ve already got tomatoes in the ground, peas, beans, more asparagus, more strawberries, collard greens, swiss chard, and we even got corn in already.  We’ll see how they do.

Another thing that has happened is the apple trees have fruit. We have lots of little apples on the trees. We transplanted the stupid plum (it needs a new name – maybe survivor?) to the area with the other fruit trees. Its short, but full of blossoms. The other plum also is getting its blossoms. The pear is starting to send out new shoots so blossoms are on the way. We may have to build a cage or something around the fruit trees to help us keep the fruit. Last year we lost fruit to the squirrels. I’d like to keep some fruit this year.

We also put in a berm in the back to see if it will help with the rain flow. Since we got rain starting last night, we’ll finally see how it works. I also think the new walk path will help with water flowing down. But overall the yard looks good and this rain is much appreciated. The weather forecast says we should have light/heavy rain all day and into tonight. We might even have rain tomorrow. We’ll see.