On 10/14/2016 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

High temperature in the Houston, TX area today is forecast at 80F.
Same here. We had a taste of cool weather right after Matt helped
drag a front through but predicted high today is near 90° with mid-80s
for the next week or so. Nights, though, are 70-ish. Little chance of
rain. Confusing as heck to much of the green stuff but I planted
collards under the aging okra this morning, anyway. The little dears
will just have to tough it out; or not. Late season "provider" green
beans and yellow squash are blooming but nothing from the cowpeas or
cucumbers yet.

Temp here supposed to be about 90F today if the weather heads have it
right. Went to the library this morning a little before noon, got home
and the sky was dark. A little sprinkle of rain hit us, already dried up
as the sun popped up again. We've started putting water on the gardens,
fruit trees, and the grass right at dark. No point in wasting the
expensive stuff.

We have pretty much amended all the raised beds and those in the ground
too. Emptied the compost barrel yesterday and the blasted thing broke. I
figured it wouldn't last long as the so called "metal" stand was flimsy
to start with. Now the plastic barrel will sit on a few bricks and we
will just roll it on the ground each time we put something in it. Mostly
it is leavings from the garden, yard grass, leaves from the fig and pear
trees, stuff from the kitchen, etc. Dog poop gets picked up daily and
goes into a bag for the trash can.

Pear tree is still blooming, setting fruit, and has leaves,mid-October,
pretty much the same with the fig tree. Don't expect to get any fruit
from either and, I will soon prune the pear and the kumquat to open them
up and get rid of "rain" limbs, those pesky limbs that just decide to
grow where you don't want them.

I miss the gardens and trees we had in Louisiana, we lived on that
14,000 foot squared lot with several fruit trees and a very nice in
ground garden. Several feet of thousands of years of leaves, etc. laying
on top of an ancient sand dune. Really good dirt and many truck loads of
cow manure went into the garden. Around here they sell cow manure by the
small sack full. In Louisiana folks with cows and horses would give you
the stuff as long as you shoveled and toted it.