September 24, 2011
Bishop
Gardening, Vegetables
beans, hummingbirds, vegetables
The yard is zooming with these little guys
Yard work and gardening chores are a bit more enjoyable now …. several reasons;
The break from the brutally hot summer we have been having. It is the worst we’ve experienced since our arrival in 2004 and apparently one of the worst on record.
The plus side – the hummingbirds are heading south and passing through. They seem to be lingering a little longer than last year. It has been so dry that they are reluctant to leave the feeders in the yard.
It is a joy to see these guys zooming all over the yard. The bigger bullies are always chasing away the less aggressive hummers and while chasing others sneak in for a drink. I have to duck on a occasion as they zoom past my head.
Now for the garden update. I was off in Covington,Louisiana this past week working for Chevron….I sometimes miss the old company and friends. Good bunch of rain early in the week so the plants were happy. Kathy kept the plants well-tended in my absence. My experiment with home-made seed strips appears to be working. I will keep up the staggered plantings to see if I can extend the harvest.
The pole beans are acting like Jack’s magic beans and don’t seem to know when to stop going vertical. I added extensions to my tepees and they have gone beyond the 10 foot height. I hope they start flowering soon. My sugar snap peas have popped up this past week and will be climbing soon.
Looking good. A longer post soon.
TTFN
Bishop
September 8, 2011
Bishop
Beans, berrries, Gardening, mulching, Solarizing, Vegetables
beans, berries, carrots, garden, lettuce, peppers, solarizing, strawberries, tomatoes, vegetables
Well it has been brutal working in the garden, adding the extra touches and prepping for my fall growing season. As always I will be experimenting a little – it is all about learning.
When we returned from vacation the gourds and the indeterminate tomatoes had gone wild. There was not a clear and easy path down through the middle of my two biggest beds. Then there was the ankle biting Bermuda grass. You know, Bermuda grass is not so bad when you want it for your lawn, but in a vegetable bed…. it is insidious! I had tried to mulch the Bermuda out but it is just amazing how it can find a little light and burst out. I promise, scouts honor, to not let it get ahead of me this year. Yes, I was a Boy Scout…..not like my nephews that made Eagle Scout – congratulations Wesley and Wade, but I did make about 12 merit badges.
I recently scared off a potential convert. I had been negotiating with my friend John to add a 4X4 bed to his existing 4X4 raised bed. Once he saw my jungle at the end of July and followed my efforts to reclaim/re-tame my plot he backed off. I think we can get him to do another 4X4 – walk before we run.
So, the experiments; I planted tomatoes in August in order to get another bountiful blessing before first frost. The Carmello variety is setting some nice big flowers that may bear fruit. The jury is out on the others. The pole beans are climbing like crazy so I am optimistic for them. The Serrano Pepper plant is loaded with blossoms – 100’s. They just need to set. After solarizing my problem bed for 5+ weeks, I pulled the plastic off a couple of days ago and have begun planting it. I am trying Bush Cucumbers, Swiss Chard (always does well), the first of some staggered lantings for my beet rows, sugar snap peas and I will get some carrots going this weekend. I will continue to stagger plant beets and carrots about every 3 weeks. I have a couple of recently planted squash plants that have not shown signs of distress so I am hopeful. Lettuce will come in another few weeks. I have 150 strawberry plants being shipped the first week of November. I had very few survive this brutal summer.
I also poured a walkway down through the middle of my large beds. I used one of those forms that looks like irregular stones .Kathy wondered why I was pouring during the 105 deg weather and not waiting until December. I didn’t have a good answer other than I just wanted to get it done! I think it looks good and should keep the mud away…..if it ever rains again. We are over 20 inches behind.
Here is a link to a cool site for backyard farming;
http://www.homefarming.com/
Look for another installment in a couple of weeks.
TTFN
Bishop
August 24, 2011
Bishop
Beans, Gardening, mulching, Solarizing, Vegetables
asparagus, beans, environmentally friendly, gardening, grass clippings., mulching, peppers, tomatoes
Compare the garden beds from the “Too Much Sweat” post to now. A lot is going on. On the right hand side I am about 3 weeks into the solarizing effort to eradicate the Bermuda grass….. I hope! The left side is beginning to show signs of life. I have a nice Serrano Pepper Plant with lots of blossoms. A squash plant is emerging, the pole beans are beginning to climb and I have
three fall tomato plants struggling against the heat. In the background my asparagus ferns are cranking a ton of energy back into the roots for storage. I am so looking forward to the bounty of spears for next year;
“From these “ferns”, the mature plant manufactures food and stores it in “storage roots.” This reserve supplies the energy necessary to produce spears the following year.”
Click on the photos to see them in larger size.
I am mulching like crazy. I have been using the grassclippings and a big pile of leaves left over from the fall collection to conserve moisture. We are on mandatory water restriction here in Kingwood now. We are over 20” of rain behind for the year.
I am still sweating though. Between the beds I am poring 2’X2’ squares of rock looking concrete. The mold handles about all of an 80# sack of cement. I am adding a buff color for grins and have to say that it should look nice when done. The pouring and finishing of the squares sucks the water out of the body! I sweat through one T-shirt per square.
I am always amazed at how the beans always twist the same direction when they climb. Yesterday I swear that the two climbing now grew 6 inches overnight. My guess is that I will pick beans before the end of September. That will be the second crop for the year. I love fresh green beans. We sure could use some help for rain……please, dance, chant or pray for rain……even nice thoughts will be appreciated!
TTFN
Bishop
August 6, 2011
Bishop
Composting, Gardening, Vegetables
asparagus, beans, compost, gardening, tomatoes, vegetables
I lost count of the T-shirt changes to get my garden make into some sort of change, but, it is well above 25. I went a little beyond but it will be worth it down the road. I pulled out the old 2X4’s used for the raised beds and went with 5/4X6 corral board to give me a little extra depth.
Rented a roto-tiller to speed the process up and sweated like a big dog. I worked some aged compost in both beds while I was at it. The right hand bed was the worst of the worst of the 4 for Bermuda grass invasion. I pulled out a huge pile of Bermuda grass and roots. Unbelievable how the roots run. Next week I will tightly cover this bed with clear plastic and “solarize” the weeds – i.e., kill them without toxins….. I like a chemical free garden for my veggies.
I have planted two tomato plants visible in the far left bed. They have been in for 4 days and seem to be handling the heat pretty well. I will add some fall potatoes in the day or so to this same bed. I have wanted to experiment with trying to grow some fall potatoes. I have about a pound of fingerling potatoes, cut and scabbed – ready to go in the ground. All of the commercial sellers look to be sold out so I am using store bought….. Not the best choice but it is just a $3.00 experiment.
I you look to the far back right in the photo you can see the dense growth of asparagus ferns. It appears that I should have a great harvest next year. I added a handful of 2 year old crowns the the existing bed in an effort to create a long term asparagus bed. If managed well this bed should produce for 20 years or more.
I also planted two mounds of zucchini squash. I have never had any luck but heard that if started in the heat of summer I may avoid the dreaded squash beetles. The other tip I heard was to plant hundreds with the likelihood the beetles will get some but not all of the vines. Well, my beautiful and loving wife has not approved the land purchase so I will be forced into plan C, D of F as I try my squash growing skills. The poles you see on the left will support my Kentucky Wonder pole beans. I love fresh green beans and they seem to produce well here in the Hoston area.
TTFN
Bishop
August 3, 2011
Bishop
berrries, Composting, Gardening, Vegetables
blackberries, environmentally friendly, peppers, tomatoes, vacation, worm poop, worms
The Big Freeze
I have been making progress removing the summer jungle growth from the garden. My eggplant plants (is that redundant?) looked healthy but the blossoms were not setting so out they came. The bed they were in was in pretty good shape and not overrun with Bermuda grass. I spent the morning getting it “really” weed free and water saturated, preparing the bed to receive two new tomato transplants. I selected a grape tomato and a beef master to place in the ground after sundown tonight. This bed has never had tomatoes so I am hoping that they take off. To help them along I put about two cups of worm poop at the bottom of each hole prior to dropping the plants in.
Worm poop! During my month in California the worms were left unattended in the garage. I had placed the top bin on the nearly finished bottom bin just before I left. They had no food, no visitors and no monitoring…… I expected the worst! I was pleasantly surprised when I began the poop harvest yesterday. Both bins looked rich with dark black worm poop, odor free and no apparent food scraps available for the little guys. From what I had read, the environment could become toxic – killing the little guys. They were absolutely thriving! As I dug into the bins there were still remnants of newspaper and cardboard…they still had some food! I wound up with about 15 lbs. of the richest looking fertilizer that the little guys have ever produced for me. Oh yes, odor free means that it has no offensive odor…. really it just smells like damp, rich soil. The Meyer lemon barrel with surrounding strawberries enjoyed a worm poop banquet tonight as well as the pepper plant in the other barrel.
My last task this evening was removing this year’s dead blackberry vines. This year’s growth is starting to kick in nicely. I am being a little more diligent in pinching off the terminal growth as the new shoots hit 3+ feet or so. This forces lots of lateral growth in hopes of an abundant 2012 berry season. I hope to make my wonderful blackberry jam before the December 2012 Apocalypse! The photo on the lead-in is from the February freezing rain followed by an extended few days of bitter cold ( at least bitter for Houston). I am convinced that the lingering freeze hurt my harvest. For whatever reason only the terminal buds produced. Go figure.
Tomorrow or Thursday is tilling day. I will take my most Bermuda grass laden bed off line for 6 weeks. I will attempt to solarize it under a clear plastic sheet to kill the roots, rhizomes and other bad weed seeds. Three t-shirts today and it looks even uglier over the next three days. Yes, I hear all y’all, drink lots of water. I will!
TTFN
Bishop
July 28, 2011
Bishop
Composting, Gardening, Vegetables
asparagus, compost, cucumbers, garden, gourds, peppers, tomatoes, vegetables
A month away from the garden and strange things happen! My
daughter Ashleigh is to be commended for her diligent hand watering of my
backyard patch. So, thank you Ashleigh. As a result the cucumbers survived the
brutal July heat, the tomatoes limped along, the asparagus ferns look stout,
the eggplant did well, but the real stars were the gourds. Wow is all I can
say! They literally overran the garden, over the fence and up the wall of the
garage.
The weight of the big gourds pulled my Creole tomatoes to the
ground and smothered the vines. Up until we left on vacation the Creaole vines were prolific producers. The upside is that I have some very interesting and very large
gourds for ?????????????? Maybe our friend Beverly can think of a themed
painting scheme to go along with the shapes.
The 150 strawberry plants I put in the ground the first of June all perished before we left on vacation. I will try a fall planting to see if I can get them well established prior to next summer’s heat hits. I would sure like to get a few of those Santa Maria patented varieties. The problem is the minimum order is 10,000 plants……. Just a few more than I need. I have considered hiring one of the midnight suppliers to rustle up a dozen or so. I could then begin propagating my own! Dangerous but it could be worth the effort.
Started the garden clean up yesterday – it is going to be a lot of work. Managed to get the gourds and vines out – just a two t-shirt day. Piled them up and shredded the vines with the mower before putting them into compost bin today. Today I pulled out 5 past their prime tomato vines and transplanted a bell pepper over into one of my wine barrels. I tidied up some drooping cucumber vines, pulled a bunch of weeds, gathered up some new red potatoes that I nearly forgot about and made a cucumber salad with blackberry balsamic vinegar. All in all a good day.
It will probably be another few more days before I can display the after pictures. I promise that they will be PG rated, suitable for all gardeners.
(click on an image to enlarge)
TTFN
Bishop
May 7, 2011
Bishop
Gardening
beans, fresh, marinade, Speckled Trout, vegetables, worms
Too many green beans.
I returned home to my garden, my refuge, my place of calm and inner peace after two weeks in California. My wife took very good care of the veggies and berries in my absence, save for the green beans. The beans went wild.
I had planted poles in such a way as to lean forward from the fence to the front of the raised bed. I had hoped it would make picking a lot easier. In theory it looked like a success in the days before I left. I had lots of blossoms, a good number of early beans and many more on the way. In my absence the growing conditions must have been ideal. The vines hit the end of the 7 foot poles and still wanted to reach for the sky. The result was a mass of twisting and twining vines that drug the support poles down and snapped several off.
I picked a load of beans my first day back, had tons that went well beyond the stage to eat or can. I also had some bush beans planted in the area. They too were loaded. I have more beans than I can possibly eat fresh. I hope my worms can process large tough bean pods.
I was thinking back to what my gardening friend Jane had told me about fresh green beans…….she got $8.00 per pound for them. I probably had 8-10 pounds, excluding those that were no longer tender eating size. I can see how a market grower could have a great cash crop with beans…….as long as they manage them well.
So, why the picture of my son Joe holding a nice fresh caught Speckled Trout? Last night I grilled the trout after marinating in a mixture of olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, fish rub with garlic and some sea salt. We had the grilled filets with my wonderfull fresh green beans and broccoli. A simple yet an elegant meal. I paired my meal with the Imperial Stout Ale I recently brewed.. I was joined for dinner by my daughter Lisa. We had a nice visit and spent the evening watching the Mavericks put the Lakers into a deep hole. Kathy was off to New York City and Joe won’t eat what he catches.
I am planning a new technique for a bean tower. Last year I made a teepee structure and it worked well. So, why mess with success? I guess I have a need to know firsthand what doesn’t work so well! Hmmmmmmm, what can I come up with next? Maybe I need to consider the concept of “design of experiments” and use a control to test against…..the teepee? No that would take the fun of failure away!
TTFN Folks
Bishop
April 20, 2011
Bishop
berrries, Canning, Gardening, jam and jelly, Mason bees
asparagus, beans, beets, berries, blackberries, cucumbers, gardening, strawberries, strawberry jam, tomatoes, worms
I think my wife really does love me. I was out of town on a job in the Midland and Lubbock areas of West Texas and unable to tend to my gardening chores. I flew home early last Saturday morning and she surprised me with a big basket of my home grown strawberries. Wow, what a gal!!!! I finished filling one of the 1 gallon freezer bags already partially filled in the freezer and started a new bag. I need to make another batch of jam this week and may fill the next bag by the end of the week….. I will be swimming in my heavenly strawberry jam – Yum!!!!
Today was a partial day in the garden and I only sweated through one T-shirt. I weeded, watered and finished pulling up the last of my Detroit Red beets. I still have a very beautifully leafed beet variety that I forgot the name of yet to harvest. Very nice looking tops and we will see about the beet taste soon. I made a pickled beet recipe today to eat like a cold salad – it is pretty tasty.
I used about 3 + cups of skinned and sliced up roasted beets. FYI – drop the hot roasted beets in ice water and the skins nearly remove themselves. I boiled ¾ cup of cider vinegar and ¾ cup of beet juice….. I poured almost a cup of hot water over the beets in a bowl to make the beet juice. Once that mixture was boiling I added 2 tbs. sugar, 2 whole cloves, 3 whole black peppercorns, a bay leaf, about ¾ tsp. of sea salt and about a cup of chopped red onion. Brought it back to a boil and poured over the beets. Refrigerated for a couple of hours and man, they are pretty darned good! Recipe is almost exactly like one I found in allrecipes.com. Great recipe resource!
Updates;
The Mason Bees. They are rapidly depositing eggs and filling the tubes. I have about 11 of the tubes filled and sealed. Should have quite a few more next season.
The worms. I checked on the poor guys Saturday when I returned and they were trying to escape. I had neglected both the food they need and the bedding necessary for their comfort. I was able to feed them a big a big batch of strawberry parts and tops – see the comments about my lovely wife above, some old bread, beet cuttings and other veggie scraps….. They seem to be back to work and not complaining now.
My Green Beans. The Kentucky Pole beans are leaping and now blossoming. The bush beans look to be on the same time table.
Asparagus. Slowing down and will let them fern out. I put some Martha Washington in a few weeks ago and they are sprouting.
Tomatoes. Slow but setting fruit….except my Brandywine – I do have a few blossoms on one but I have my fingers crossed. The Juliet tomatoes and Creole tomatoes are doing well.
Cucumbers. I put up twine to let them climb this morning….part of the sweaty shirt stuff. My cucumbers in my friends backyard ( I put a 4×4 patch in his yard) are blossoming and way ahead of mine! Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Enough for now, hopefully blackberry news soon!
Bishop
April 9, 2011
Bishop
berrries, Canning, Gardening, jam and jelly
blackberries, canning, strawberries, strawberry jam
Over the first few weeks of my strawberry season I have been able to gather and freeze enough of the berries that weren’t eaten fresh to make some jam. The first picture show the beginning of the process – the thawing of the berries. I just love how they smell as they begin to thaw and give off the wonderful aroma of “real” Strawberries. They may not look quite as pretty as those in the store but they make up for it in flavor.
Last night – Friday the 8th of April was my canning night. It takes 6 cups of berries to make the jam and I had thawed a bag containing about 7.25 cups. It is very important to accurately measure when making jam so I scooped out the excess and added it to the bag in the freezer being held for the next batch. Can’t hardly wait to make more jam!!!
I use “Sure-Jell’ powdered pectin labeled for less or no sugar jams. I use the” less” sugar recipe, 4 cups of sugar vs. 6 used in regular jams. Not a lot of difference in sweetness but a noticeable improvement in the fruit taste. It gels nicely and is oh so good on my toast in the mornings. I may get frisky on the next batch of strawberry jam and try using a complimentary spice for some variety ……. any suggestions …… drop me a note and I will give it a try. Look for report back in a future installment.
A peek at the future – my blackberry vines are beginning to set berries. I have 3 varieties and the season should be a good one. I should start picking at the end of this month and stop near the end of May…… Blackberry jam is my favorite!!!!
TTFN
Bishop
March 28, 2011
Bishop
Gardening, Mason bees, pollination
blackberries, environmentally friendly, Mason bees, Meyer lemon, pollination, strawberry, tomatoes
The honeybees are taking a break. I was down at my local nursery a few weeks ago and was asking about flowers that I could plant to attract honey bees for pollinating my blackberries. I picked up some great advice from the folks working at Kingwood Nursery. Rather than count on the honey bees, as they are having problems, they recommended ordering some Mason bees. It jogged my memory and reminded me of an article I read a few years back recommending the use of Mason bees.
I bought a bee house and was sent 6 males and 4 females from http://www.masonbeesforsale.com/
A week after I installed the bee house I see that the females are gathering pollen and laying their eggs. My early blackberries are being serviced and pollinated. I have blossoms on my Meyer lemon, tons of strawberries, tomatoes and other ornamentals to keep the bees busy. I think my tomatoes and strawberries are self-pollinated but I think the help won’t hurt. A little Google search confirms that strawberries are primarily self-pollinated but respond to help from the bees. Oh, by the way, I have a few blueberry blossoms but I am a year or two away from having enough to pick.
The female Mason bees are fun to watch as they lay eggs and move forward in the tubes before they seal them off. I am amazed at how quickly they do their work! I spent a few minutes observing this evening and saw probably 3 of the females working three different tubes. Four tubes are plugged at the end already. They lay the female eggs at the rear and the males near the front opening. I wonder how they know the difference? The males exit first and eat their way out thus preserving the females. The bad news, from a guy’s perspective, is that the males emerge first, mate and then die!!!! I was hoping they would get to fool around for a season but it just doesn’t work out for the guys!
The bees aren’t cheap but it appears that they are preparing to multiply in a big way so it is an investment with multiple returns.
TTFN
Bishop
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