Adventures in Gardening-Spring 2012

Hi All!!!  I know!  You totally thought I bailed, right?  Well, I didn't.  As usual, my life has been crazy-busy with these kids.  Between homeschooling, field trips, extra-curricular classes, travel, a husband who has been working 60+ hours a week and trying to get a new business off the ground, blogging has had to be on the back-burner.  There have been so many times that I just wanted to sit down and write, but dishes called or dance class was looming and I knew I wouldn't be able to commit a reasonable amount of time to write something intelligible.  So I just left it.  I am hoping to start budgeting my time a little better so I can check in a little more frequently.  I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best.

So amongst all this craziness, I actually did manage to plant a garden this spring!  I didn't plant one in the fall and it killed me.  Every time I looked out into the backyard, empty beds stared back at me and it pissed me off!  I just didn't have time.  I was lucky enough to get several heads of volunteer lettuce sprout up, so that made me a little happier!

I was really hoping to tear out the beds in late winter, rearrange some things and have this wonderful new garden set up by March, but yeah right!  Between basketball practices and games, science fair prep and everything else, I didn't even manage to weed the damn beds!  Hello!

So when the time came I had just a smidge of work to do!  I finally cleaned everything out and was ready to plant.  

I was lucky enough to have the BEST helper in the whole world!  The Monkey Man could care less about gardening these days.  If Mario and Luigi aren't involved it's futile!  :(  But the Piglet (aka Tie-dye Fairy Princess) is still interested and above all, she just likes hanging out with Mama.  She also had some help (such a good little mama already)!

Roddy didn't help at all, but he's just damn cute so he deserved a shout out!

This year we planted 2 types of okra (Clemson and emerald green), Japanese eggplant, 5 varieties of tomato, tomatillos (our first year with these), black-eyed peas, Chinese yard longs and squash.  Might I just say that zucchini and pumpkins were a total experiment.  For the last 3 years I have NEVER been able to grow a Curcubit of any kind, no squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelon or cantaloupe.  Stinkin' squash borers have taken them all out within a month of planting.  I just happened to read an article about this problem in the "Carrots Love Tomatoes" book and they suggested planting 1 squash seed with 3 icicle radish seeds and planting nasturtiums between the rows.  I figured what the hell, a $5 experiment and if they tanked, I'd just plant with a late crop of black-eyed peas.

Within about a month, we had progress!  Tomatoes and tomatillos.

First bed has the pumpkins, squash and yard longs and the back bed has eggplant and okra.

The kids and I went out of town for a 2 week trip to NM (blog post to follow soon, I promise) and I had to leave the garden in the hands of an over-worked spouse.  I was fully expecting the garden to be a bit, taxed, shall we say, when I came back.  But thankfully, central Texas is actually experiencing quite a lovely spring and the temps have been mild and we have actually had RAIN!  Yes, I said it.  R-A-I-N, rain!  Much to my great joy and complete surprise this is what I came home to...

Bed 1:  Clemson okra and Japanese eggplant

Bed 2:  Zucchini, pumpkins, yard longs.

Baby pumpkin!

And I just have to note, the pumpkins?  Well, those crazy things are from the seeds that I harvested from the teeny, tiny pumpkin my daughter fell in love with last fall and cried when it started to mold.  I promised her I would harvest the seeds and try to grow a pumpkin vine with those seeds.  Those pumpkins have grown with a vengeance.  I am sure these pumpkins are likely to take over my entire yard by the fall!

Bed 3:  Tomatoes and tomatillos.

Oh the salsa and green sauces I have in my future!

My first tomatillos!

And last but not least, Bed 4:  Emerald green okra and black-eyed peas!

I am feeling quite optimistic about my summer garden and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for mild weather and lots of rain!  It is so good to be gardening again and even better to be sharing my experiences with you!  Thanks for sticking around and I'll do my best to keep plugging along and trying to get some decent posts up!  Until next time, enjoy life!  It's awesome!

So what do you on a Sunday afternoon in 100* heat?

You adopt a Muppet!
Welcome Sir Roddy the Kissyface (aka Rowdy Roddy)! He came to us through From the Heart Animal Rescue, which is the same rescue organization that we went through when we adopted Otis Potis. He was found running scared on the shoulder of Highway 71 out by Bastrop. A good Samaritan pulled over and literally scooped him off the busy road. She planned to keep him but sadly her Borzois decided he looked like a rabbit and tried to kill him, so she contacted From the Heart and they agreed to foster him. I noticed his pic a couple of weeks ago, but we weren't ready to adopt before our vacation. When I got home and saw that he was still available I inquired as to his temperament and house-training, both of which checked out. I took the kids to see him at a FTH remote where boy and dog bonded immediately! I talked Big Daddy into taking Nigel and the kids down to check him out the next day. Approximately 2 hours after arriving, we were headed home with our newest addition!

He is certainly NOT the type of dog I would have necessarily chosen for myself, except for that face! I've never been a fan of wire-haired, ankle-biters, but when you've got another dog and two small children, you HAVE to go for personality and temperament and he surely fit the bill! He's a fun little guy, just enough of a puppy to be bouncy and fun, but old enough not to be a complete shit! He's pretty small, less than 10 lbs but he has spunk. Then again, he's a terrier, they're known for spunk and moxy! Sadly he came to us full of fleas and worms, but that's been remedied and all is well. Now if Nigel can get a grip and realize he IS the dominant dog and Roddy isn't challenging that, things will be fine. I suppose I can't expect them to establish pecking order in 2 days! To close, here is my favorite picture to date, Sir Roddy the Froggy-Legged!
Oh and have I mentioned how great it is to adopt! Support your local shelters and rescue organizations, they are full of wonderful dogs in need of homes!