Posted on 11/15/2013 12:14:17 PM PST by greeneyes
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Hubby has removed a lot of clay from some of his beds, and the rest he has just continued to amend. Drought is hard to deal with, so I understand what you mean about the stone, and it can be quite attractive.
I have a desk calendar that gets a lot of use too.LOL
A neighbor dropped off some garlic so got them in the ground the day before the freeze and watered well. She had them in a bag for a week so they had to get planted so we’ll see.
Ungh! we are having a “white fly” problem here in S. Fl.
My herbs are ruined.
Here’s a question that might sound stupid. This last spring I planted lots of tomato and bell pepper plants, like I do every spring. I buy heirloom seeds from J.L. Hudson, seedsman .com. And this year, all the little flowers on the plants shriveled up and fell off. I got big, bushy, healthy plants, and not one single tomato or pepper out of the whole lot. That has never happened before. And I’ve always enjoyed giving my surplus garden vegetables to friends , neighbors and relatives. But it didn’t happen this year. At first I thought it was a lack of pollinators. But that can’t be it because I’ve got this ugly weed tree in the corner of my back yard that attracts bees. Hundreds of them.
We get pretty heavy frost often in winter, just not yet.
At first I thought it was caterpillars or cutworms. But that couldn’t be, because I have several paper wasp and mud dauber nests around here. And I’m glad they’re here. The wasps pick the caterpillars off the plants and take them home to eat. Fun to watch. I don’t want to spray my plants with commercial bug spray. That stuff is not only bad for humans, but it affects the lizards, the bugs, the wasps, the spiders, the snakes, and everything else that lives in my garden. By the way, I live in Florida where you can grow stuff year round. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
“I have a desk calendar that gets a lot of use too.LOL”
I just printed off several months of a free print 2014 calendar, plus next month, December 2013, so I can write in the daily boxes if I need to about planting or whatever.
Right now the seed packets are in no order except a bunch in a plastic bag I won’t use for a spring/summer garden but I’ll have to go through those again since I don’t remember what’s in that bag. Then, there’s another plastic bag full of seed packets I think I will need to plant. Then, two orders of seeds are coming, so it’s really all a mess.
You guy have planted certain plants for so long you know when to start your seeds, etc., and I don’t know any of that. That’s what I’ll write next to the seeds when I get them listed in the notebook. I do have a list of what to plant in spring in the Houston area and when to start the seed or plant the plant. That list will help if it’s different than what’s on the seed packet.
I just don’t have this organized and I have to do that ‘cause that’s what I do.
We grew picnic watermelons this year on a trellis. The trellis wasn’t high enough and those suckers took off like crazy! They wouldn’t cooperate and stay in the pretty little raised garden bed. I had vines all over the yard despite my daily attempt to control them. LOL! They sure tasted good but there weren’t near enough of them for the space they consumed.
Some hardy folks plant late summer and early fall crops. Me, I’m just running around raking leaves to toss on top of the garden soil over winter.
Oh no! Did you try anything to fight the infestation?
Do you rotate your crop? Do you add nutrients back to your soil?
Several things come to mind. If the weather is too hot or too dry that could explain it. Also nutrient deficient soil could be a cause. Sometimes you have plenty of nitrogen, but not enough of the other nutrients.
About mid point of the DTM, I use a liquid nutrient that has trace minerals and twice the amount of phosphorus to nitrogen.
Are you in Central or South Texas? I didn’t think that Texas had much frost except maybe in the Northern most part. So that’s a suprise to me.
I keep my Mo Extension Office schedule handy. It tells when to start seedes etc. It also has a list of seeds recommended for Missouri as well as planting amounts.
I remember some of the stuff, but I still have to check it out for a lot of stuff every year. I keep that in a file folder that sits right next to my printer so it’s really handy to refer to quickly when I am planting.
My desk calendar has November, December and 2014. I use it as my daily reminder. Appointments things to do each month/week and when I plant something, I note it and then count forward to the DTM and note that as the date to harvest so I have an idea about when I’ll do that as time goes on.
I used to be a lot more organized than I am right now, and it’s getting on my nerves, so I’ll take advantage of being indoors to get some stuff done now.
Had a thought. If you can protect them from freezing, now might be the time to plant peas in your area. They can handle light frosts, and they enjoy cooler weather.
Can somebody from Texas tell me if I’m right?
Looks like the dandelions we get.
Ummm, I’d be seeing a doctor if I were you. That sounds either poisoned or infected.
SE Texas, 55mi north of Houston. Not as much frost as You, I’m sure, but frosted yards and frosted cars. I had a frosted windshield Wed morning when I went to leave for town. Lots of humidity here and that factors into the picture for frost. Frost is some calculated event figuring humidity, dew point, temp, cloud cover. I noticed it Wed that open areas not covered by tree canopies were a little frosty, but no frost in my yard, except the top sides of my trucks.
Now snow... That would surprise me! In all my years living on the gulf coast of Al, I have only seen snow there, on the ground, maybe 6-7 times. The city shunts down and goes into panic mode if it should snow any visible amount and sticking. You would laugh yourself to death seeing that circus.
Without seeing it, it sounds like a baby Brown Recluse spider. The wound certainly sounds like it. Brown Recluse bites are very serious.
Well, yes, but the spray i used killed everything even worse.
Oh well. I will let it die down and start fresh after Christmas.
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