Category: Garden

Frozen

On By CarynIn Garden

No Disney princesses here, just a particularly cold cold snap for Texas. We don’t usually see freezing temps until well into “winter” and heavy frost later than that, but heavy frost is what mother nature brought to us.

Our first frost was a heavy frost, almost looks like snow

I prepared this year: removed the hoses from the outside faucets; brought the sprinkler timers inside, covering the delicate plants we nearly lost last winter. I even tried to save the cucumbers. Then the freeze hit for two nights.

Cucumber area covered in freeze protecting fabric

At least I harvested three cucumbers, because the vines did not make it through the frost. I forgot about the nasturtiums and basil, both of which also succumbed to the cold. The lantana in the front looks great, though.

My chickens are loving it. They are all fluffy and active. Their outside water freezes, even with apple cider vinegar added, but once the ice is broken, they drink from it anyway. The coop stayed above freezing, so the water inside didn’t have ice (I don’t heat the coop).

Confused Daffodil

On By CarynIn Garden
Daffodils growing in October

More anachronisms. My daffodil bulbs have decided to sprout… in October. (The tall leaves coming up through the ground cover in the picture.) I wonder how that is going to work out for them? Between the June bug earlier this week, and the daffodils, it also makes me wonder what winter will bring this year.

New onion experiment

On By CarynIn Garden

We harvested the greens from the green onions in a baggie in the window, and it worked so well, we are trying a new setup with onions in test tubes.

Green onions in test tubes

I ordered a set of plastic test tubes and a test tube rack through Amazon. I chose the plastic because there is a good possibility of the cat walking on the window sill and knocking it over. We cut off (and used) the green parts of the onion (which my eldest likes best anyway) and put the white part and roots in the test tube, then filled the water just to cover the white part. The idea is that we harvest the greens when they are long enough. After three days, we are already seeing growth!

Green onions growing in test tubes

Cucumber harvest

On By CarynIn Garden
Home grown cucumber

Singular. One cucumber harvest. But, super exciting for me because this is my first successful cucumber planting! I pulled this guy off because we had a large storm rolling in and I was worried about hail damage. We did have hail, so it was a good call.

There are more potential cucumbers on the vine. This one developed for three weeks, so there is a chance of more cucumbers before winter saunters into our neck of the woods!

Patio

On By CarynIn Garden

Awhile ago I set up a sand putting green in the back yard. I hauled in many bags of sand and leveled and raked, and raked and leveled. Putting on it was very slow, but I figured it would improve over time. Until the first rain. The rush of water filled the putting hole (half a peanut butter jar) with sand and dirt and swept away some of the sand. I cleared it out once or twice, then gave up.

Raked sand putting green (Feb 2019)
Remnants of sand putting green (Sept 2019)

All that work was not in vain, however, since I had need of a place to put a patio. The builder left a cube and a half of bricks on the side of the property. I’ve been using the bricks here and there for various projects (edging for paths, and stabilizing the chicken feeder, for example), but here was an opportunity to use up the rest. There was still enough sand to make a good base for the bricks, so I raked it clean and hauled the bricks over by the wheelbarrow load to place them down.

Bricks laid out

My in-laws are downsizing, and we are getting their patio table, hence the need for a patio. The bricks went a long way, but I didn’t have quite enough to make an area big enough for the table, so we picked up some pavers from the hardware store and I laid them around the perimeter. My kids and I then swept sand into the crevices.

Brick and paver patio

Not too bad for a project where half the materials were free. And now there is one less eye sore on the property.