We have just a tiny veggie garden space in a nice, sunny corner of the back yard. It's time to start planning what we'll grow this year. We've decided to plant only one tomato plant and only one or two chile pepper plants and plant lots of herbs.
The Love Of My Life has already said I'm not allowed to plant sunflowers in our little veggie garden space this year :) I know they're not really food plants for us, but they're like crack for the bees. And yes, they do reach 5, 6, 7 feet in height and start falling over and shading out everything else in the garden, but hey, they attract bees and birds, right? Okay, so I guess I'll plant some sunflowers in our front flowerbed instead.
If we plant tomatoes and/or chile peppers we'll have to devise some sort of protective cage around the plants to keep out the birds, squirrels, or whatever vermin stole all the fruits of our labor last year. It was like we were operating an all-you-can-eat buffet for all the wildlife in the area, and they were inviting all their friends! If I'm going to go to the expense and trouble to buy the plants, fertilize the plants, and water the plants, I want to harvest some of the peppers and tomatoes too!!! Seems pretty fair to me :)
We've had wonderful success with parsley, basil, cilantro, and oregano. We had such good results with parsley, basil, and cilantro growing from seed last year that I think we'll sow seed for those three this year and not bother with buying plants. I'd love to get some really strong rosemary plants going. I need to find some of the hardy ones that can make it through the couple of days or couple of weeks of cold we get here in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Shouldn't be too tough.
We're in Zone 8, so if anyone has any recommendations of easy-to-grow veggies or herbs, let me know. I love this time of year. It's warm enough that I can feel the promise of spring coming soon ... but not so warm that I have to move my sorry, lazy self from the couch and actually go outside to tidy up the patio and the yard and prep the garden. Life is good ... sigh ...
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, September 14, 2009
Fall is in the air ...
I love, love, love this time of year. Thanks in part to the fact that it's been raining for days on end, the temperatures here in North Central Texas are finally only reaching into the 70s and 80s during the day and mercifully falling into the 60s at night. It's starting to feel like Fair weather. The State Fair of Texas starts at Dallas Fair Park on September 25th http://bigtex.com/ This is the fair that each year gifts us with important culinary offerings such as fried Twinkies, fried Coca-Cola, fried bacon, and this year's awe-inspiring contribution, fried butter. The deep fried butter even made the David Letterman Top 10 list. Check this out: http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=jB9jQIxrjoYO_WAf2lcAPiYMjtJB5mj0 Makes me so proud of my home state (hiding my face in embarrassment). Thankfully the State Fair of Texas also gave us the world famous Fletcher's Corny Dog, so hopefully it all balances out.
The Love Of My Life and I are just giddy at the thought that open-window weather is imminent. As soon as the temperatures get a little chilly we open the windows to enjoy the fresh, cool air and seldom close them again before the temps start getting hot again in the spring. There is that occasional week or two of below 32 degree temperatures here that might make us close the house up tight; but other than that, we enjoy the cold and just warm the bathrooms with electric heaters for our showers.
The rainy weather and cooler temps are like a happy pill for our little garden. The basil and parsley we planted, both from plants and seeds, is thriving. The rosemary and oregano plants are growing happily. The jalapeno plant is setting fruit like crazy, and hopefully the habanero and poblano will follow suit. The tomatoes should start setting fruit again now, as they like it when the nighttime temperatures fall below 70.
That's the trade-off here. The summers are pretty brutal, especially for folks who like cool weather; however, the fall weather is amazing and we often have short-sleeve weather even at Christmastime. All of that makes for a great fall growing season, maybe even better than the spring growing season.
We had lots of tomatoes on our plants in the spring and a few jalapenos; however, those "rats with fluffy tails," as my mom calls the squirrels, apparently invited all their friends over and helped themselves to our "salad bar" every night, so we've yet to enjoy the fruits of our efforts. Need to figure out a way to outsmart those little menaces so we can enjoy a fall harvest!
Next up on my blog to-do list is to start taking pictures of what we're cooking and our garden and posting them here. I'm not very technological so wish me luck!
The Love Of My Life and I are just giddy at the thought that open-window weather is imminent. As soon as the temperatures get a little chilly we open the windows to enjoy the fresh, cool air and seldom close them again before the temps start getting hot again in the spring. There is that occasional week or two of below 32 degree temperatures here that might make us close the house up tight; but other than that, we enjoy the cold and just warm the bathrooms with electric heaters for our showers.
The rainy weather and cooler temps are like a happy pill for our little garden. The basil and parsley we planted, both from plants and seeds, is thriving. The rosemary and oregano plants are growing happily. The jalapeno plant is setting fruit like crazy, and hopefully the habanero and poblano will follow suit. The tomatoes should start setting fruit again now, as they like it when the nighttime temperatures fall below 70.
That's the trade-off here. The summers are pretty brutal, especially for folks who like cool weather; however, the fall weather is amazing and we often have short-sleeve weather even at Christmastime. All of that makes for a great fall growing season, maybe even better than the spring growing season.
We had lots of tomatoes on our plants in the spring and a few jalapenos; however, those "rats with fluffy tails," as my mom calls the squirrels, apparently invited all their friends over and helped themselves to our "salad bar" every night, so we've yet to enjoy the fruits of our efforts. Need to figure out a way to outsmart those little menaces so we can enjoy a fall harvest!
Next up on my blog to-do list is to start taking pictures of what we're cooking and our garden and posting them here. I'm not very technological so wish me luck!
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