On 9/14/2014 6:05 AM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
songbird wrote:

frost warning for tonight.

Yesterday we had 95F temps, woke up this morning to a 10-15 knot north
wind and 69F. Very brisk out as we surveyed our domain. Decided to take
out a big, sprangly cherry tomato in the long bed and then move some
sweet chiles from another bed into that one so we can prep the smaller
bed for winter crops. Probably plant it in spinach and other leaf crops
soon.

we'll have some sunshine this week for a change
so i hope to be outside more. i'm sure i can find
plenty of small tasks...


not much left in the gardens that will be
hurt by frost so that is ok.

yet, i'm struggling with acceptance that
the gardening season is almost over when it
comes to what we have planted, what we will
harvest yet and such.

Move south bird, we're planting fall tomatoes tomorrow plus putting in
some carrot and beet seed.

i've lived south and ended up spending too
much time on the road travelling north to
visit family. besides, there is water here
though i must admit i do prefer it in
unfrozen form.


we do not have a lot of cold winter crops
in. nor will we likely ever have (because
most of them Ma won't eat or use). silly to
me, but i just try to work around what i can.

again, acceptance.

We had volunteer winter squash coming up all last spring and we
cultivated them. Ended up with about a dozen acorn and other types of
winter squash, ate most of them but have a few in a cold closet for
later use.

the volunteer this year was the few melon
plants i let continue in the lettuce/pea
patch. they've taken over and continue to
flower. i took out all the volunteer squash
plants in that bed because if i didn't they'd
do what their name says, squash everything
else...


the tomatoes, well, most of them were picked
and then buried to feed the worms. we'll likely
have about 35 quarts of chunks put up (a normal
year we put up 100-150 quarts of tomato chunks
and tomato juice). c'est la vie.

Pitiful mater crop here, stink bugs hit us early than another big juice
sucker bug came in. We got rid of most of them but our tomato plants
were and are not producing well. Disappointed in the crop but c'est la
vie, that's gardening.

yep, plant a wide variety of things and then
you won't be so put out when some of them fail.


onions doing well, fennel mostly picked and
eaten, beets still need to be picked and put up,
a few melons, dunno if they will be ripe or not,
sure that a frost won't be good for them, hope
we actually do not get that cold tonight after
all.

I'm not growing anymore bulbing onions, to easy to buy locally grown
Texas 1015Y sweet onions cheaply and it helps the local market garden
farmers.

when i can grow them from seed for free minus
the labor/space then it is worth it as i desire
a self-sustaining no-cash spent type of living as
close as i can get to it (eventually much more
along those lines than i am now).


...
the challenge this winter is to convince Ma
that we don't need to leave the gardens inside the
fence fallow next year just because we had one
trouble with the buckeye rot on the tomatoes.
leaving the ground bare is not good IMO and i can
plant a root crop like garlic or onions in those
places and it will do just fine. besides our
peppers, onions, fennel, beets, beans, etc. have
done well enough (if you discount the groundhog
feasting).

Living this far south we never leave ground fallow, there's always
something growing. We just keep adding compost and composted cow poop
and the gardens keep on giving.

it surely is not by my choice that this is
contemplated. i'm a firm believer in green is
best cover than to leave any thing bare, but Ma
will spray and scrape and dig just because she
likes it looking "tidy", but to me that is just
wrong. no home for beneficial bugs when there's
no cover. already i see more aphids coming on
as more gardens are converted from perennials
and cover plants to bare dirt or mulch and
"crops".


a few gardens to fiddle with, figuring out
where to plant some garlic, still not too heavy
work for me (the hand still needs time off to
heal), some inspecting of the roof to finish up
any remaining issues before the warrantee runs
out, some caulking before winter, ... picking
some morning glories before they spread, ...
then soon enough winter will be here.

My problem is partially paralyzed right leg and arm and a bad back from
forty years ago. That's why my daughter gave me an Ames Garden Buddy
cart that I can sit on and scoot along and I really like it and have
used it enough that I may just ask for a new one at Christmas.

my own bad back and injuries over the years
certainly commiserate with you. some days i
just do what i can and that has to be good
enough. Ma is good that she doesn't complain
or ride me when i say i've had enough. the
hand thing is really annoying because i get
to where i don't notice it and then something
happens to injure it all over again. like
last week when i went to catch a heavy door
as it was opening/closing and used my injured
hand and instantly swore and regretted it and
in the process the door swung and hit the person
who i was trying to keep it open for anyways.
grr... pointless and stupid of me, but it
happens.


acceptance? i'm just not ready to be cold yet.
by January i might get there...


You'll take it in stride Bird, gardeners always do. Just keep grinning
and ginning.

oh yeah, we certainly keep a laugh track
going here from the morning to the end of the
day and in between. even with our minor
conflicts and differences of opinion we still
get along well (or i'd have never been able to
stay, i am not a huge fan of continual large
conflicts or arguing).

the important things are that we can always
talk about this stuff even if we disagree and
usually we can laugh or joke about our flaws
and foibles. we know that in the end it isn't
huge or that important. eventually we'll be
worm food or cremated and then the world can
get on with what comes next.


George, glad to have a cool day in sultry Houston, TX area.



we hope for a bit more sunshine today than
this past week... i see it is a cloudy
morning, i think i'll go back to sleep for
a while.

i was glad to hear the other day about some
younger relatives getting a place going, don't
know the location or details yet.


songbird

Today we are being truly blessed, since yesterday afternoon we have
received four inches of beautiful rain. All the plants are perked up,
the retention pond behind our home is getting full again. Maybe able to
nab a few bull frogs when the rain stops if the picky neighbors don't
see me out there with my headlight and frog gig.

Just think, "Free Water," beats a big water bill at this time of year.

George