Vacation, Birthday and Gardening, oh my!

This month, I turned 65 while visiting in the New Orleans area with my dear friend, Debbie, whom I have known since 1977 when her husband, Richard, was a young architect who came to work at the same firm where I was working.  In the last few years, we had both gotten caught up in our own daily dilemmas and lost touch, yet kept thoughts of each other in our hearts and minds.  Recently, we "found" each other again, and it was wonderful!

Things seem have calmed down a bit for the most part in both our lives, and it was decided that I would make a road trip to her home for a much-needed visit of catching up with each other, and of revisiting a part of the country that I had been away from for far too long. The drive over the Atchafalaya Swamp just south of Lafayette brought back so many good memories of fishing, crawfishing, and camping, as well as collecting snakes and frogs for my husband's college herpetology class at Southwestern Louisiana in the first half of the 1970's.  

I didn't take photos on my visit because we were just way too busy talking and sharing the entire time for me to remember to pick up my camera.  But, we did have a typical Fourth of July barbecue, N'Awlins style, with her family and friends down in the Garden District, and we drove down into the Lower Ninth Ward one day so that I could see for myself the aftermath of the destruction left by Katrina, and the rebuilding that is now going on there through private organizations like the Make It Right Foundation.  There are still so many empty lots with concrete pads overgrown with grass, indicating places where families used to live and work and play, but there is also a large measure of Hope there, too.

Having spent the '70's and part of the '80's as an architectural drafts person, I was very interested in seeing for myself the innovative designs of the houses being constructed there.  Most were modern takes on the old shotgun style of houses that had dominated the area prior to Katrina, but not all. And there was a riot of paint color everywhere!  Bright yellows, oranges, pinks and blues. New Orleans is known for its colorful homes, and the new construction in the Lower Ninth Ward did not disappoint! 

There were lots of porches on houses built up off the ground, with parking underneath.  Solar panels and geothermal HVAC units to save energy, porous concrete to allow rainwater to soak into the ground instead of building up and causing flooding, and water collection systems for cooling and landscaping, as well as many unseen "green" building innovations within in the homes themselves.  Most of the houses were single units of about 1400 square feet, built so that former residents could safely and affordably return to where most had spent the majority of their lives before Katrina.

Debbie and Richard got me this book as a souvenir.  Cool, huh?!

If you are interested in learning more about what is happening in the Lower Ninth Ward, and about the great work of the Make It Right Foundation, I highly recommend this book, which available on Amazon, both new and used.

I took off 6 days plus one holiday plus two weekends from work, all in a row.  I spent part of the time at Debbie's home and the rest pretending I was already retired!  One day I went to my friend Judy's home and we had a Sewing Day, which we do every now and again.  This time, she worked on getting two quilts ready to go to the quilter, and I used my new sewing machine for the first time to make little aromatic cedar bags out of some discarded quilt blocks to put in closets, drawers and in my ever-expanding fiber and yarn stashes in hopes of keeping pesky moths away.  After sandwiches for lunch, we finished up our sewing projects, played with her puppies, and then went shopping at a local quilt shop and Tuesday Morning where I found a jar of Thai Green Curry and a wire colander for my kitchen.  Judy is lots of fun to go shopping with and I don't do it often enough. 

I bought myself a new sewing machine last year for Christmas, but am just now using it for the first time.  I love it!

While I was down in South Louisiana, the East Texas Heat finally turned on Big Time, and although Ben had watered as instructed, I came home to some devastation in the garden ....  mainly the summer squashes. It seems that Spring and the entire month of June 2014 were too cool and wet to set much fruit, and then suddenly the rain stopped and the temps soared into high gear.  I think I may need to replant and hope for a nice fall crop.  I was so looking forward to yellow squash roasted in my oven with some spices and olive oil drizzled over the top.

The poor squashes!  I moved them into an area where they got full sun for only half the day from now on.

They seem to be doing better.

The eggplants continue to drop their blooms without setting fruit, too, but the tomatoes are doing very well. The peppers are growing and are almost ready to turn color, and I picked the first handful of okra on Sunday morning.  The cotton, too, is blooming and starting to make some bolls.

I decided to move the pots of eggplant onto the back porch where they had about 6 hours of sun each day.  This is where, two years ago, I had great success with them.  They are feeling much better now!

As you can see, the regular cukes, on the left, have won the challenge to get to 

the top of the arch first!

Bees LOVE the cucumber flowers!

My idea that the cukes would hang down from the arch for easy picking seems

to have worked!  They are easier to see grown this way, too.

Look closely and you will see three of the lemon cucumbers hiding in the leaves.

The regular cucumbers are doing well enough, but these new types are really impressing me ... the lemon cucumbers! The instructions said to pick them when they were yellow and about the size of a tennis ball. Well, none have turned yellow so far, but I have picked several that were the size indicated or larger, and I am here to tell you that they are delicious! They are crisp with tiny seeds, and the flavor has more depth with just a hint of sweetness.  I am really thinking of planting only these in my future gardens.

Okra and lemon cucumbers

The inside of the lemon cucumber is very similar to the inside of a honeydew or cantaloupe!

A recent harvest

These little beauties are "Matt's Wild Cherry" tomatoes, but they are really only as big as small grapes.

They are very sweet and prolific! Easy to just wash and toss into a salad.

They grow in clusters just like grapes.

 

They are a bit delicate.  You have to be careful when picking them as they tend to

split open easily.  Usually, when that happens, I just pop them in my mouth right 

then and there.  It is okay because I have grown them chemical free.

Four of the five types of tomatoes I have in my garden this year.  Left to right:  Marglobe VF, Ozark Pink VF, and Celebrity, with Matt's Wild Cherry in the front.

Recently, I caught Max Steed, "Security Cat", keeping watch over my garden. This may explain why I have had no damage from any of the cottontails that live in the brier patches out front and in the woods beyond the back pasture.  I have seen the wild bunnies out and about, but so far they have not dined on any of my precious veggies.  I must remember to put a bit of something extra in Max's food bowl for a job well done!

Good boy, Max!  You are a good Watch Kitty!

There have been three definite failures in my garden this year:  the Moon & Stars watermelon (of which only one sprouted but it never made it's second set of leaves even after hanging on for a month after emergence), the Malabar Spinach (which never, ever sprouted though I replanted a second time, but the seeds had come from a friend who wasn't real confident about them in the first place), and the icicle radishes (which was totally my fault because I planted them too late and did not direct sow as directed!).  I don't count the yellow squash as a failure, just a huge disappointment.

Did you know that watermelons have both male and female flowers?!  That was news to me, too, until I read a short book on growing fruit recently.  The book also said you really can grow full size pineapples from planting the tops of those you buy in the produce aisle of the grocery store.  It may take 24 months to accomplish, but it can be done!  May give it a go when I get my greenhouse.

One of several cicada shells I have found this summer.

Have you noticed how loud the cicadas are this summer?  What's up with that?  Did more than one batch hatch?  Do you love to discover the empty cicada shells on tree trunks and such?  I do!  Along with catching fireflies and walking barefoot in thick St. Augustine grass, cicadas were an integral part of my childhood, and will always reside in a special corner of my heart!  What brings back memories of summertime's past to you?

Last but not least, the pit bulls were seen in the neighbor's backyard late Sunday morning as I went out to do some yard work along my driveway.  As usual, they barked and growled at me the entire time, but I was prepared with my pepper spray just in case they got out from under their fence!  It reminded me, however, that a month has gone by and I still have my medical bills, my scars, and my dead llama, and the neighbor's still have their dogs.  There has been no response to the demand letter from my attorney. "The System" says that it is really my fault because I did not shoot them the second time they got into my yard in April.  No one ever said Life was fair, but a bit of Justice now and then would be nice, I think.

Right now, it is very hot and dry here on HeartSong Farm!

Growing forward

A few weekends ago, with the help of some very knowledgeable folks, I made a decision on the location of my greenhouse. Thanks Scott and Chelsea!  I appreciate your helping me with this, and look forward to the design and construction of a workable, efficient, and cost-effective 10' x 12' greenhouse in a few months! Scott and Chelsea are wanting to have a greenhouse of their own someday soon, and we will experiment with mine first.  Great idea, huh?!  They are part of the Naca Valley Vineyard that is being cultivated just north of my farm in Nacogdoches County.  My friend, Wanda and her hubby, Buzz Mouton, are the driving forces behind it, working hard towards fulfilling their dream of operating their own winery on family land. You can visit their site for more info here:  https://www.facebook.com/nacavalley.winery  It is quite an exciting adventure!  

Scott and Chelsea are in the foreground, Buzz in the back.  To the right are some of
the rows of grapevines planted.  This photo was taken in very early spring, I believe.

As for my little greenhouse, we chose a nice, fairly level spot in Jagger's old pasture beyond my backyard fence .... in the same general area where I made the new raised bed for the asparagus beans and am also growing the squash, eggplants, and melons in pots.  The greenhouse will be to the east of that planting area. The location is south of my home structure and away from the large pine in the southeast part of my back yard that would have blocked some of the winter sun that I will need to fall on the greenhouse.  It will be out of the way of the north/south wind tunnel directly behind my parking pad, and far enough away from any shade trees in the pasture and near the house to allow for plenty of sun in the spring and summer.  A bit of shade at that time of the growing season will be fine.

Greenhouse location!  I have already removed one section of the
fence separating my immediate back yard and this former pasture.

It will be built out of pressure treated wood and either fiberglass or the new type of plastic panel now available.  I need to go check both out face to face at Lowe's soon, and decide which I like best visually as well as which will hold up better in the long run for me.  I have gotten quite a bit of information from this website:   www.littlegreenhouse.com     The site sells greenhouse kits and equipment, and offers some tips for construction of the foundation and such.  I was particularly excited about a lever that will raise a roof panel for ventilation and it is powered by the outside temperature .... no electricity and no batteries needed! I think that is way cool!  Sort of like solar energy, but not exactly!

I have decided that the floor will be made of this great recycled rubber mulch I found at Lowe's and have tried out in between two of my raised beds this year.  First I hoed all the weeds out of the pathway, then lay down 6 layers of newspaper (not any of the shiny sections like the ads/flyers) over the bare ground.  Then I thoroughly soaked the newspaper before laying down about 4" of the mulch.

This is the recycled rubber mulch I used.  It costs about $10/bag, 
but will last much longer than the usual bark type, and doesn't soak
up water or attract termites and bugs.

As you can see, it has worked very well keeping out weeds, which
had been a major battle for me for years. And it looks nice, too!

I have tried numerous things over the past few years and this stuff is the best for my needs.  It comes in two other colors, I think, and I chose the brown.  For a person who loves to be barefoot, however, I have had to remember to wear my clogs into the garden when I need to go down this path.  The rubber really heats up in the sun!  Like asphalt!  This may be one reason why it does a good job as a mulch .... the weeds can't stand the heat!  I do get a few brave weedlings here and there, but they are easily removed, and not anything like what I have battled before!

Because of the heating up factor,  I plan to use it as the floor of my greenhouse!  In the winter, with the sun shining through the roof, this rubber mulch should heat up and hold its heat to keep the inside of the greenhouse nice and toasty, and, hopefully, I will not have to install a heater that uses electricity.  

Meanwhile, I have pretty much given up on my Brussels sprout plant and the fava beans this year. (sigh)  I need to move on.  I pulled them all up this weekend, and, of course, added them to my compost bin.  I need to do more research on the cultivation of the B.sprouts and other members of the brasica family because I really enjoy eating them and they are a wonderful source of good things for your health.

As for the fava beans, I have enjoyed watching them grow and bloom, but the weather here doesn't seem to be conducive to them, or at least the weather we have had this year.  It has taken FOREVER to have any pods large enough to harvest, and the winds have beaten them down numerous times, snapping their stalks in half or bending them low to the ground where they have ended up rather moldy and muddy.  This is even though they were caged with wire fencing for support.  The plants themselves are stalks that do not form tendrils for clinging, nor do they bush out for strength at their base.  In fact, they tended to be quite top heavy, especially in the rain.

This is one of my typical weekly harvests of fava beans from about

20 plants.  Fairly scant, wouldn't you say?!  This is after shelling them

from the pods, but before blanching them to remove the outer casings.

Here, on the left, we have a bowl of those same fava beans with the
outer layer removed after blanching, and, on the right, is the outer layer

casings.  That is right!  You have to shell them twice!!! And all I got for
all that trouble was what's in the bowl on the left!  They were good, tho.

I won't say that I am not interested in them enough to try again, because so far what little I have harvested were really quite tasty, with a buttery, nutty flavor. But, I think that I will stick to growing the more common types of peas and beans next spring, instead. Gardening should be a fun adventure, not a frustrating one. Don't you agree?!

The vegetable plants are doing very well, especially after a recent week of heavy, soaking rains.  Ben and I added an arbor over the path between two of the raised beds so that the cucumbers on both sides of the path could grow up and over it!  I love the way it looks!  In my mind, there will be a race to see which side reaches the top first!  Which type of cuke will win?  I'll keep you posted .....

The cucumber arch with slicing cucumbers on the 
left and the lemon cucumbers on the right.

Tomatoes and marigolds.

Asparagus beans beginning to climb their trellis!

Bed mates and cousins, okra on the left and cotton
on the right.

Squash plants doing very well in the plastic raised
bed containers.  Once a week I add water to each

through the watering tube that leads to the bottom

of the container.

Beefsteak tomatoes ... can't wait for a tomato and onion and fresh
basil sandwich on multi-grain bread!

Cute little baby patty pan (button) squash.

And, just as cute, a baby acorn squash!

My gardenia bushes bloomed profusely this week,  more so than in recent year!.  They must have really enjoyed all that rain we had. I have two bushes next to the parking pad, so when I drove up after work each night,  I was greeted with their wonderful fragrance that I love. It always reminds me of the beginning of summer and school being out for the summer!  I am thinking of trying to root some in my greenhouse, so that I can plant a few outside my bedroom window.  I usually still have my windows open in the house during their bloom time. Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to fall asleep with the fragrance of gardenias on an early summer night?!

Mmmm! Deep breath! Can't you smell them!

Life is so very good here on HeartSong Farm!