A few new plants

I bought a few new plants this week to fill in some empty holes.  Unklike most purchases, I did not research what plants I wanted and pick only Texas natives that wold do well in Austin... I just went to Home Depot and picked up things that plucked my fancy.  These types of purchases generally don't do well for me, but I only spent $30, so I guess it is okay :o)

Dianthus Allwoodii Sarah
There was a big blank space left over from my deceased Black Foot Daisy.  I purchased two Dianthus Allwoodii Sarah.  I really just wanted to replace it with another blackfood daisy, but Home Depot didn't have any, so I just picked these up.  No idea how they'll do.

Salvia Farinacea Henry Duelberg
While at Home Depot, I saw a plant that I have seen around the neighborhood and loved:  Salvia Farinacea Henry Duelberg.  And it was on sale, for $7, so I bought it.  I didn't really have any idea how I was going to use it, but I went ahead and planted it in the north fence bed between the Bottlebrush and Esperanza.  Again, no idea how it will do.  BUt a quick google search indicates it is a Texas Native and needs little care.  So of my purchase, this guy may be the winner!

Ixora Maur Red
And my last purchase was to fill an empty spot in the front door bed.  I've planted all sorts of stuff there.  Nothing really does very well.  So I just planted this because it will look pretty for a short while.  I fully expect it to perish!  So I am thinking of it as more of a 'decoration'.  It is an Ixora "maui red" shrub.  In fact, a quick google search indicates:

Some plants are very temperature sensitive and require conditions not found in central TX. They grow beautifully in Zone 10 or higher, but not well in our climate and environment. I have not had success growing many of these well in Austin yet they are seen at local nurseries every year.

So I will enjoy it for the summer - or maybe just July :o)

Peaches!!!

We have gotten the most amazing harvest of peaches this year. We think it is because of the late frost oddly enough, and the slight higher than usual amount of rain.  We probably should have culled some of the peaches earlier, as the amount of peaches has heavily weighed down the lower branches.

At this point, we've pulled out at least three buckets of peaches.  We have eaten the fresh, made peach cobbler and given them away.  I am just now making my second batch of cobbler, and Dave thinks we have at least two or three more buckets to gather!

We even had a few peaches go bad before we could eat them!  

A bountiful harvest

Today we picked: 25 onions, 7 red potatoes, 18 little brown potatoes, 2 carrots, 1 zucchini, 2 cherry tomatoes and 1 peach! 

I almost feel like a gardener ;o

Onions
Planted:  March 16th
First Harvest: May 26th
Total harvested so far: 1

The onion tops had all fallen over about two weeks ago.  Dave was making spaghetti sauce, and lamented that we were out of onions.  So, I ran to the garden and picked two onions.  The first one I picked was sort of small, but the other was perfect!  I have slowly been harvesting them since then, and pulled out the last onions today.  Some are very small, and some are a little smaller than grocery store size.  What I learned was the size of the stalk seems to have little to do with the size of the onion attached to it.

According to the direction I have, I need to let them air for a day or two, and then store them in a dark cool place.  We'll see how that goes.

Radishes
Planted:  February 1st
First Harvest: I can't remember - weeks ago
Total harvested so far: maybe a dozen?

The radishes are done.  Some of them were pretty small, so I let them stay in the ground longer.  Turns out, once they get to a certain size, I guess the root part stops growing, and they put their energy into the flower and stalk.  Note for later, pull them earlier.  The last few I pulled I threw away because they had gotten a little gnarly.

Carrots
Planted:  February 1st
First Harvest: May 26th
Total harvested so far: 2
In pulling out the onions, I noticed that two carrots had a little orange showing near the top.  So we pulled them today.  They are definitely shorter than grocery store size.  The other thing I learned was I need to plant more, and spread them out waaaaay more.  In all, i probably only will get three or four carrots in total.  But still fun!

Red Potatoes
Planted:  February 15th
First Harvest: May 26th
Total harvested so far: 7

Rat Potatoes
Planted:  February 15th
First Harvest: May 26th
Total harvested so far: 26

I had to idea what to expect here.  Since we were pulling up the onions and carrots, I told Kyle we could try one potato plant.  He tugged and tugged on the plant, and got the stalk, but no potatoes.  Hmm, maybe none grew.  I dug down, and did find one potato!  How exciting!  And it was big, so we decided to pull up another, but this time, we dug down with a shovel to try and pull up the roots... and dug right into a huge potato, and then found another, and another.  Then we went back to the original potato and dug around and found one or two more.

I still don't know the ideal way to harvest potatoes without nicking them as I go.  But I still have lots of potato plants left in the ground.  From just pulling up four or five plants, I harvested 7 red potatoes and 18 little brown potatoes.  I'm thinking I am going to have more potatoes than we can eat.

Or maybe not!  Dave cubed up one of the red potatoes and browned it in butter for hashbrowns, and we all gobbled it up in about a minute, and the kids were begging for more!!

Cherry Tomatoes
Planted:  March 16th
First Harvest: May 24th
Total harvested so far: 3

So, I apparently purchased a variety of yellow cherry tomato. (Looking back at my notes, that must be the Yellow pear - guess I should have figured out they'd be yellow!)   I have picked three cherry tomatoes so far, and there are many more on the plant.  i should be getting a pile in a week or so.  The other tomatoes still are a few weeks before those get red -- probably right when we go away on vacation -- figures ;o)

Zucchini
Planted:  March 16th
First Harvest: May 26th
Total harvested so far: 1

I harvested my first zucchini today.  This is the only one growing, but I have blooms on many others.  It will be a race whether they can grow before the squash vine borer gets it this year!

Picking onions!

On January 18th, I planted a bunch of onions.  My first attempt at growing them.

Five months later, some of them seem large enough to pick.  I noticed that a few had bulges coming up out of the ground, and many of the stalks had fallen over - which I believe is a sign of time to harvest.

So, earlier this week, we were out of onions and I needed on for a recipe, so I went out and picked one of the bulging ones.  They are smaller than grocery store onions, but plenty large enough for cooking!

And they taste great :o)

I would definitely try these again.

The difference a year makes

So, I was updating my journal about this year's beds, and dropped into last year's notes to compare.  And it turns out I had taken photos just a day earlier. 

April 5th, 2014

We had a very cold winter, and a much later frost than usual this year.  On March 3rd, we had a low of 24 and then our last frost was on March 4th with a low of 30.  And low temperatures, even when not freezing, were far below normal.

As you can see from the photo below, by this time last year, everything was in bloom.

Now, on the plus side, a closer look at my Damianita (which has grown quite a bit since last year!) has yellow tips at the end of every branch, and I have a few white rose buds just popping out.  I think it another two weeks, this bed may look a little more like the one below!

April 4th, 2013

My new side bed

And now I have just finished putting 6 bags of mulch on the new side bed.  

Due to the unusually cold winter, I have unfortunately lost some of my new bushes... but some unexpected fighters have survived!

It's dead, Jim!

My bottlebrush is probably dead.  The optimist in me has not given up yet, but I see absolutely no sign of life.  After the first 27 degree low, this plant was looking only half alive. I kept covering it up, but even the last bits of life were lost mid-winter.  I really did love this plant and looking around the neighborhood, I see a bunch of other bottlebrushes that took a heavy hit, but are still alive.  So, I'll see if maybe I can get another one established, and making take a little more care with it on really cold days.

Another one bites the dust
Another plumbago has bit the dust.  No big surprise here, though this guy did hang on for two years and a transplant.  I have killed more of these plants than I care to remember.  At least two maybe three in the porch bed, and this is at least my second in this bed.  But I just love this guy, so I'm going to try again.  This time, I am going to purchase the biggest plumbago I can find, and see if I can't get him established.   But I promise myself, if I kill this one, it will be my last!

And my duranta in the porch planter has died.  I really love this plant, but keeping it is a planted may not be the best plan.  I think I am going to purchase another one and put it somewhere along my side bed.

I will survive!!

On the bright side, my dwarf pomegranate shows signs of life.  This year, instead of cutting it back to three inches as recommended in one of my books, I decided to leave it intact.  He looked kind of messy during the winter, but just this week, I have seen branches that looked incredibly dead spring to life.  I'll keep my eye on it to see how much it recovers!  But I'm thrilled that it shows some life!  That has got to be better than recovering from 3 inch stalks, right?

And I have been looking and looking for signs of life in my American Beautyberry. And just today, when I was mulching, I found this itty bitty sprig of green attached to the base of the plant!  It's alive!!!

And then, while mulching, I had two total surprises.  

Last year, mom and I planted two white phloxes by the bird bath.  They didn't make it through the hot summer, which wasn't all that surprising.  What was surprising was when they both came up this spring?!?  Looking better than ever! Yay!!

And my two to three year old tropicanna, that I replanted last spring is also showing signs of life.  Truth is, it also died during the heat and drought, and I had completely forgotten it, until I was laying down the mulch, and found its pretty little red head sticking up!  Yay again!!!

The Garden is planted!! Let the vegetables begin!

I have just finished mulching the vegetable garden.  Most everything has been planted, and all of the seeds that are going to come up have come up!

Doesn't it look pretty.  Last year I discovered the joys of mulch:  it significantly reduced my weeding.  So this year I mulched over the whole bed.

Melons
Planted this year, in the back corner, one cantaloupe and one watermelon. I know, I rarely more than one melon per year, but I just have to try!

Cucumber Update
I planted lots of cucumbers.  I planted three varieties of seeds (see previous post) and then, when nothing came up, I purchased two of the Homemade Pickle cucumbers as plants as well.

Of the seeds I planted, a few of them have come up.  Perhaps the soil temperature was still a bit too cold when I first palnted them?

As of right now, both of the Armenian Burpless piles have just come up, two of the Homemade pickle have risen (one didn't) and none of the English cucumber :o(

Of the plants, one is going strong, and the other has been eaten by something, and is barely hanging on.  

Potatoes
The instructions I had for potatoes said to cover them up with dirt - and that the potato grows from the base of the plant downward, so if you don't cover them up, they won't grow.  

So that is what I did.  The plants look beautiful!!  No idea about the roots :o)

Zucchini
The Tatuma (Calabacita) have not come up at all.  I think I am going to try again.  I only dug a teeny tiny hole and dropped the seed in.  I think next time I am going to dig a deep hole, and then process the soil, and then put in the seed.

But, the container zucchini are just starting to come up!

I also relented and purchased two zucchini plants - the poor squash vine borer can't go hungry, can he?

Asparagus
My instructions for asparagus also said I should start covering them up.  The last time I did that, the shoot died.  But a) I might have started to early, so i waited until they were a little bigger this time and b) with all of the frosts, the death may have had nothing to do with my covering them up.

So i went ahead an starting piling dirt around the tallest of the shoots.  Please don't die!

As of right now, I have a total of 17 of the 40 crowns that are alive.  At this point, I think the other 23 are goners... but hey, 17 is better than non.  You have to start somewhere!

Everything is going along pretty well!  With the tiny bit of rain, and watering every other day, things seem to be working!  

But, as of right now, the only thing we're eating are lettuce and radishes.