Uncategorized

What a change in weather.  We spent Friday evening, pretty much all day Saturday, and early part of today Sunday cloudy and with some rain.  I say some rain since we didn’t get a lot.  But most of it was short periods so the rain soaked in, it didn’t just run off.

Today, Sunday we went out to  Fredricksburg Roundup.  Its about energy – such as geothermal, solar, and some water collection.  It didn’t have as many exhibitors as its had before, but it was interesting.  One thing I will say, it has good food.  This place called Navajo Grill had brought in a portable wood burning pizza stove.  I had a Margarhita (sp?) pizza. It was pretty good.

Today when we got back we set up the automatic watering for the green house.  We leave on our trip Oct. 31 so we needed to get that all set up.  Its nice now that the heat is down a bit, 70-80’s during the day, plants are growing again.  So we’ll need that watering system up and running while we’re gone.  Haven’t figured out the big pots outside the greenhouse yet.  Have to figure those out.

The deer in our backyard:

Vegas was great!!  We did shopping, went to see a show, gambled a bit, we had a blast.  I enjoyed it immensely!  I want to do it again, maybe in February or March, or at least some time early next year.

The weather has been cooling down, at least for this area its cooling down.  The days have been high 80’s and low 90’s.  The nights are low 70’s, even a few high 60’s.  The other day we even had fog in the morning.  Granted, it burned off quickly but it was a definite change.

The deer have been coming out in droves.  There’s another new fawn, still with spots.  Its so much smaller then the rest of the young ones.  And we’ve been seeing the bucks with antlers.  Not what I would call large antlers, and not large males.  But they’ve got antlers growing out of their heads.  Sometimes it looks like a bachelor party in the back yard.

But those lovely deer are eating my things again.  I had a small gardenia plant, it had been a house plant but I repotted it and it was sitting outside.  Some lovely creature decided it looked tasty and ate part of it.  Its coming back and has new growth.  One of the mint plants that were outside has also been eaten.  Even though they are listed as deer resistant, I don’t think the deer know they aren’t supposed to like mint.  So the deer have been eating it.  It will probably come back too.  I did buy two mums, small pots.  We’ll see if the deer eat those too.  Again, their tags say deer resistant, but we’ll see what the deer actually think.

But everything else is looking good.  I planted the last rosemary plant we had sitting around.  It still had some green on it.  I also planted a lantana that had not yet been planted.  I found a confederate jasmine that needed to be planted and put it in the ground too.  We’ll see if these plants make it.  But with the cooler weather I believe they will have a chance.

The stores now have bulbs available for planting.  I picked up some daffodils, bearded iris and iris bulbs for the yard.  I just got them so I haven’t put them in the ground yet.  I figure I will put them in the front yard somewhere.  I doubt the daffodils are deer resistant, but a neighbor said that irises do well and that the deer don’t eat them.  We’ll see if the deer eat our iris and not the neighbor’s.

But overal the yard is looking okay.  The landscape company put some plants down at the entry to the street.  We have two standards with lights near the street.  They put in a variety of native plants in semi-circles around the standards. The idea is that we will try to make the yard look more finished and slowly fill in the rest.  It is a big yard so it is going to take some time.  It won’t get done quickly but we are working on it.  We are even finally talking about what to do in the back yard.  We will have to fence a small area and do something in there.  It doesn’t make sense to fence all of it, and of course we are a pathway for the deer and that has to be taken into consideration.  So if we can fence a small area around the back, close to the house we will have an area where we can actually put plants that will be sheltered from the deer.  It may not be sheltered from other animals, but it will be sheltered from the deer.  The fact we are even talking about it is great.  And I know it will be a while until it actually gets done, but here it will be best to plan something first.  It will be a lot of work to get a fence in or to get anything else in in the backyard.  So we will take our time, plan it out, talk to the landscaper and see what makes sense and will work before we start the work.  I just hope with all the talk and planning it actually works.

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday the temperature hit 100, today it is noon and we are just barely 80 degrees outside.  We will not come close to yesterday’s heat.  And tonight they are saying the lows are going down into the 60’s.  I won’t call it a cold front, though I suppose technically that may be accurate.  But it is definitely a cooling trend.  And the nice thing is the 10 day forecast  shows the weather staying this cool.  We’ll still hit the 90’s but more along 90-91-92, not 99 or 100.  We have a breeze too and it feels nice outside.

Well tomorrow I leave for Vegas!  I’m getting excited.  I’m all packed, printed out my boarding pass, getting some cleaning done.  Bill is not really looking forward to my being gone, but he has enough work here to keep him busy.  I don’t think he’ll really notice my absence too much.  He’ll survive.

I went to Home Depot the other day.  They had mint plants.  I’ve been looking for mint all summer and never found it.  Since they had some I picked up 2 small pots.  And with this nice weather they should do well, at least I hope so.  I put one in the greenhouse and the other is outside in the yard, under netting, but in the yard.  We’ll see how they do.

I’ve also noticed I have a problem with whitefly.  I ordered some yellow sticky patches that are supposed to help.  We’ll see, they haven’t arrived yet.  I have the problem both inside the green house and in the plants in the yard.  I’m betting it came from some plant I bought.  On a brighter note I had planted some seeds from a tomato we ate.  Those seeds are sprouting, actually they sprouted pretty well.  We’ll see how they do.

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.