Hello again,

Well the South Texas heat has finally stopped the relentless assault on us and the rains have returned… we even had a few temps down in the 60′s , you can’t beat that!  So it’s been a busy few weeks around here, we have been horse sitting for a friend of my wife’s, we have moved cattle around to rotate pastures, and the garden work has picked back up.

After the Hornworm Incident last month, I had given up on the tomatoes, but there is one plant that still keeps chugging along.  So we shall see how that goes.  Mostly its been cleanup work, weeding , cutting back the dead stuff, you know how it goes.  We have also been filling up the compost piles, lots of goodies for that endeavor, old hay grass clippings and what not, so now we have two pretty big piles ready for next spring, if everything works as it should!

Now The Garden Plan!

Down here where we live we really don’t get winter. oh yea I hear ya , it gets cool, 40′ s maybe a freeze in January, but over all its more like a hard Fall season…I was stationed in Colorado in The Army, now it gets cold there!!  But that’s all the better for us , with the proper protection , you can garden dang near year round.   Most of your cool season crops just love the mild weather here from October until usually late December, even some root veggies and onions can stay in ground until spring, That is if the cold rainy days don’t get to crazy and it all rots.   So without further delay here’s what I’m planning for this fall season.

• Cabbage – some red and some green
• Carrots – can’t go wrong with carrots
• Onions and Garlic – Two more favorites around here
• Spinach and some Lettuce
• Broccoli – gonna try this again, I never have any luck with good broccoli

And whatever else I have a few extra seeds for , so stay tuned for the next installment now that things have cooled off a bit!

I was Mowing the yard today and as I rode by the garden I noticed the three tomato plants that lived thru the drought had the top 10 inches or so stripped of it’s leaves!

Tomato Plants Stripped of it's leaves

As I Inspected further I found the culprit, Tomato Hornworms , and there was quite a few of them. The more I looked into the plant ,the more catapillars I saw.

Tomato Hornworm on the Vine

Another one on the bush

They are colorful bugs, but they sure can do some damage, I was just looking at the tomatoes day before yesterday and I didn’t have any damage then, They work fast!

I pulled these off the plants, the chickens get them after the photo session.

So now I’m off to the web to find the best way to deal with these green devils, I will fill you in with the research when I find it,  Till then …Good Gardening to ya!

Picked a few ears of corn the other day and look what I found!

Corn in a raised bed

With the triple digit temps we have had for the past month and some odd days most of the garden is looking a little weak, but not the corn …or the watermelon for that matter!!

Watermelon Patch

The cucumbers have run their course , the tomoatoes are slow to bloom in this heat , but these two , they just keep on truckin.  The corn stands at least six feet tall, and the WM has covered abour a 10×10 area from one single mound of about 4 seeds.   The corn has put out tassle and the melon are small but growing bigger by the day, cant wait for some fresh corn and a lage slice of watermelon.

Cucumbers growing up the trellis

The cucumbers we planted have really started to climb, and they are just loaded with cukes. I think now that I should have made two separate trellis , one for the “straight eights” and one for the pickling variety I planted, but no, I had to mix them together. I can’t tell one from the other until they grow up a bit, oh well, they both taste just fine.

Fresh Off The Vine

I’ve been picking them for about a week now and have gotten about 40 or 50 cucumbers, I’ve given most of them away, but gonna pickle some here soon.

The only pest problem so far has been one lone Goat and her kid, I looked out the front window the other day and she was leisurely walking across the front yard like she owned the joint.  After I got her back in the pen I noticed the damage to the cucumber vines, several leaves were eaten back to the main vine.

In all about a 2 foot circumference hole was eaten into the vines, no real damage though, just large leaves, I don’t think she likes the little Gherkin sized cukes hehehe.

Hole where the goat ate the leaves off.

The full viev of the trellis

Cucumber Trellis

Here is a few cucumber plants I planted next to the goat shed. The trellis is a 16 ft cattle panel stood on end.  At the top i nailed it to a section of 4×4 lumber and tied that to two old pieces of pipe that were already buried in the ground, so far so good.

More Cucumbers

This is another few plants on the same pole , but different panel material, it was a smaller piece we had laying around.  you may be able to see the Tomatoes in the foreground. I planted some beets and bok choi in the bed next to this one and it looks like the slugs wiped the all out overnight, Oh well , just have to try it again.

Here it is the end of April and I thought I better get an update put up.   Well with all the rain its a shock that everything didn’t float away.

The Asparagus bed is looking good, I can’t get a picture yet, it all blends into the green grass of the pasture at this point, but soon my faithful minions …soon!

Onion plants

The onions are looking good, they are shooting right up, no bulbs showing yet. Also have some Garlic right behind these.  The garlic is moving right along too, i know i need to get in there a weed. I mulched everything in these beds with some pine needles from the front yard.  Needs another layer before the real heat shows up… it wont be long.

Onions and Garlic

Here is the Garlic photo, I used construction fencing to keep the chickens out, works real good.

You cam also see the spinach in this photo, we have already harvested some spinach from this bed, It was delish!

Horseradish and Potato

This is a Horseradish plant, actually two, the other one is way smaller and is closer to the near side of the planter. On the left side is a purple potato that I planted in there just to see what it would do, guess we see.

With the slow warm-up that occurred in our area last weekend my wife and I decided to get some raised beds built. So after some light tilling and some hammer and nailing we got two small planting area put together.
One long bed is for some uc157 asparagus crowns, two years old of course. In another small 4×4 area I have put in 2 blueberries, don’t remember what species at the moment, will find out for ya! In that bed are a few onions starts too. The other beds are open at the moment, until we decide what goes where. I’ll get some photos up soon

On another note we bought a 1951 Ford 8n, it needs some work , but its gonna help out alot around this place. It came with a brush hog, disc harrow, furrower, and back blade. I can’t wait to get this thing out and working, I’m not sure when that will be though hehehe.