Onion Planting
Tuesday February 02nd 2010, 9:38 pm
Filed under:
Veggies by Audrey II
It happened today, put in 18 ft of 1015Y and red Super Sweet. They are in the bed with the garlic which probably isn’t really getting enough sun yet but that will change soon enough. 18 ft is something north of 100 onions though many of those will be weeded out for cooking along the way. Both varieties should store reasonably well so if we get 50 (which would be amazing), we’ll be set for onions for quite awhile. They need to be fertilized in 3 weeks and then every 4 weeks after that up until harvest. Here in Texas, that probably means late May, early June.
Early Spring Garden
Tuesday February 12th 2008, 6:45 pm
Filed under:
Random,
Veggies by Audrey II
Last weekend, February 3rd to be exact, we planted our early spring garden. We put in broccoli, red cabbage, rhubarb (mmm, strawberry-rhubarb pie), swiss chard, brussel sprouts and onions. This week, I’m going to plant Irish potatoes in tires which helps not take up as much space in the garden since it takes until June for them to be ready. I planted garlic in late October and it’s going well, looks like we’ll have about 16 heads.
It’s been really mild here lately so I’ve been jonesing to plant stuff and last weekend helped scratch the itch. In another 30 days or so, it will be time to start thinking about summery type veggies.
We’ve been doing some pruning here and there and we’re going to redo a significant section of our back flowerbed once we get our new wrought iron fence in because several of the plants don’t get enough sun. The fence will make the yard look a ton different and we’re both excited about it. I’ll post pictures when the fence is up.
Random
Monday December 10th 2007, 7:32 am
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Random by Audrey II
Things have been slow over here at Blowing Asparagus of late but I’m looking to change that. I’m trying out a new “Self-Improvement by avoiding self improvement” technique that involves putting off things that really need to be done by writing for 30 minutes a day. Ok, not really, I’m actually putting off surfing the tubes first thing in the morning until I’ve written for 30 minutes so I figure this site might get a few more updates. This is number 1. Note to self, write more in journal that people don’t read if you’re really going to write at 7 AM in the morning.
Our summer garden had some decent successes and some spectacular failures. Our cowpeas were the main success, we got probably 3 full size quart jars out of 10 plants or so. Mark that one down to plant next year. Our tomatoes and peppers didn’t do nearly as well in the summer but got decent in the fall. I’m not sure exactly why but that’s how it goes.
In the fall garden, the collards and lettuce were good as were the tomatoes. We had such a warm fall that we harvested tomatoes up until December 3rd. One thing to remember for next year when planting the fall garden is that it only gets sun on about half the plot because of how far south the sun is. The neighbor’s fence really blocks it a lot. Our garlic chives are dead because they just don’t get any sun.
Last week, I pulled everything up from the fall and summer and mulched really well. We have 15-16 heads of garlic growing and that will be about it until January when I’ll plant potatoes and onions.
In other garden news, the satsuma was a success this year with 18 or so oranges. The snapdragons and mums in the front are doing well though I need to do some work on the sprinkler system to get better coverage. Because our bushes have gotten so high since they planted them, the sprinklers don’t fully cover the front beds. I think I can get some of the 4 foot risers and fix the problem.
Another thing to remember for next year in the veggie garden is to plant more flowers around it so that the bees and wasps are attracted as pollinators. My yellowneck squash never did anything this year but the luffa went crazy because it had so many more flowers. The mexican heather by the back porch was really good at attracting bees so I think I’ll plant some of that around the garden next year to help with the pollination.
That’s really it for now, we’ll probably plant a tree or two later in the winter but most of our planting is done until spring.
Random Overdue Update
Monday August 27th 2007, 8:04 am
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Random by Audrey II
Our gardens have been a mish-mash of success and failure this year, most of both I think we attribute to the rather odd weather for DFW. After 4 months of rain in March, April, May and June, we’ve finally reverted to form with tons of hot weather. I think this confused most plants but made a few here and there pretty happy.
From the veggie garden, really the only thing doing well at all is the southern cowpeas and pink-eyed purple hull peas. The okra is producing but with only two plants, it’s not a lot (which is fine with Kat). Everything else is pretty much useless. However, the peppers are starting to look like they will put on a late burst of production.
The vitex is growing like crazy and the live oak in the front has really begun to put on some growth. However, lots of plants are looking rather unplantlike and I’m hoping that the cooler fall weather will help out a little.
We fertilized the roses this past weekend in preparation for the fall display though in reality, our roses have been a bright spot throughout the summer. The Belinda’s Dream has beem especially prolific in the back yard.
We haven’t planted much lately, though I’m planning on put in some veggies next weekend for a fall garden. I’ll probably do some collards, maybe a lettuce of some sort and a root veggie, though I’m not sure what. I want to try brussel sprouts as well even though my recollection of those are some of the worst memories of my childhood.
Rain, Rain Go Away
Wednesday June 27th 2007, 6:23 am
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General Info by Audrey II
Ok, I never thought I’d say that but we’ve been getting a ton of rain this spring, upwards of 23 inches just since I started tracking it in the middle of March. Our lakes are full, our soils are saturated and really, I think I’m starting to be ready for some heat. Lots of our plants are natives to Texas, not Bolivia and thus are probably also ready to dry out. I’m hoping we don’t get any that drown.
We got 2.9 inches last night and it was raining when I got up. We’re due for 1-2 more inches over the next 24 hours. And yet, we have two neighbors who were watering this morning. It’s hard not to shake your head and wonder how clueless some people can be but then I know I do some pretty clueless things sometimes too.
A New Veggie Experiment
Sunday June 03rd 2007, 12:31 pm
Filed under:
Veggies by Audrey II
Since I hate to blame myself for things unless I have to, I’m currently blaming the soil for my veggie woes (it’s June and I’ve harvested exactly 2 cherry tomatoes, even though I’ve had a ton of stuff planted since March). So I bought some garden soil and humus from Home Depot on Thursday and planted two more tomato plants, a sweet bell pepper, two slips of sweet potato and half a row of pinkeye purple hull peas.
We’ll see how this goes. By my calculations, the peas should be ready to harvest on August 26th. That sucks.
More Plants
We finished up most of the remaining planting this week. We put in 3 1-gallon containers of sweet potato vine, 2 variegated and 1 purple. Also, 3 1-gallon blackfoot daisies and 3 1-gallon mexican mint marigolds went in. The mint marigolds are very pretty and replaced a bunch of seeds that weren’t coming up too well.
The daisies are cold hardy to 0 which will probably make them perennials here in our area. They should be fertilized in early spring and again in early fall. They get 18 inches tall and 24 inches wide which should mean they fill the space they are in perfectly.
We also planted two 1-gallon Texas Rock Roses which don’t really look like roses at all. They are Texas natives and drought tolerant which will work well here even though we now can water twice a week again. They are cold-hardy to 10 degrees (zone 8 ) which will be borderline north of the Metroplex. They grow 15 inches tall and 24 inches wide.
Other things I don’t have the tags for right now are another duranta, this one white, 2 camillias and 2 abelias where were on sale in the half price house, 1 new sage, a bat-face cuphea and some verbena. Still left to go in are the mexican oregano in the garden, a firebush and a firecracker plant which both have no homes yet. The last two get pretty big so I’m having trouble figuring out where they will go.
The pinkeye purple hulled peas all germinated today and the southern cowpeas that I planted last week are also up. Three new kinds of basil got replanted last weekend and are coming up as well so I’m cautiously optimistic about my veggie garden. Now if I could just manage to kill more grasshoppers, all would be good.
Monday May 21st 2007, 8:08 pm
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Pictures by Audrey II
We got a new camera last week. I’d say it takes pretty good pictures.
Monday May 21st 2007, 8:04 pm
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Fauna by Audrey II
These guys hatched out about 4 days go. Mom and babies seem to be doing fine.
