Another sign of spring, our volunteer grape hyacinth have bloomed! These have established themselves at the base of a cedar elm near the driveway. There was one plant five years ago, now there are several clumps in the area.
Grape hyacinth
Category: Garden
Container garden
I picked up basil, pepper, and oregano plants at a local nursery for my container garden this year. I usually start with seed, but didn’t get the seeds in this year, so went with a short cut. I amended the soil with chicken compost from the bottom of my compost bins, which was nice and dark and crumbly, and used the wheel barrow to mix an equal amount of dirt from the container with the compost. I’ve set up the frog habitat again too.
I’m hoping that I didn’t plant too soon. It has been cold this week, and basil doesn’t care for temps under 40. Hm.
It has begun
My Thanksgiving Cactus has started to bloom again!
The cactus hangs in a north facing window, and gets watered for a count of three twice a week. I do not change its location, nor its watering schedule ever throughout the year. Still it blooms. I’m glad it is happy.
Winterizing
We had a freeze coming in so I set about winterizing outside the house in 40 degree rain. It is a little different setting up for cold temperatures in Texas than up north, but there are still things that need doing. (I would take 32 degrees over forty and raining any day, though. Yuck.)
I cleaned and filled all the chicken water (three hanging, one heated) and put away the foot baths. I closed up the extra vents in the coop to prevent drafts (there are still eave vents to allow air circulation). I drained all the water hoses and put winter caps on all the outdoor faucets. I took the batteries out of the automatic waterers and stored them away in the garage. I harvested all the basil and covered the tank garden (which still has non-producing squash vines).
I washed the basil and picked through it for the nice leaves. The remainder went out to the chickens, who appreciated that I threaded it through the chicken wire in the covered run so they could pull leaves off, and did not hang it out in the rain.
Basil
Usually when the temperature dips below 40 my basil hands in its resignation papers. Seeing the upcoming cold snap (for Texas), I attempted to cover my little garden with a clear shower curtain.
It worked! The weather app (oh Dark Sky, how can you leave me?!?), reported 38 degrees in the wee hours of the morning (6am). I took the cover off in the afternoon and the basil was all still green! No dark browning anywhere!
I don’t think this will work when we get a more serious Texas winter (I know my northern friends just laughed), but at least I have some reprieve on harvesting. In case you’re wondering, no fruit have set on the winter squash vines. But at least I have basil.
Critters and Craft 