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A Distant Garden Surprise

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Too hot for much in my garden – cucumbers and the sunflowers are loving it! I will share some pictures of the sunflowers soon. I will need a ladder as some are above the roof line of the garage.

So what is going on in a distant garden? My wife Kathy was off in California visiting family and friends. It seems every year there is a hummingbirds nest built on one of the outside light fixtures. This year the hummingbirds were back and my wife discovered another nest in a Ficus in the yard. She took a ton of pictures and this one was so funny seeing their little beaks poking out from the nest,

The hummingbirds from the nest on the light fixture fledged while she was there and she snapped a couple of the mother feeding the fledglings.Look closely and you will see the youngster perched and the mother hovering near the open beak of the youngster. They are fun to watch and I can't wait for our own local migration in September. Hope all is green and growing. Bishop

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Freshen up the Pizza

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Pepperoni size Juliet slices
Juliet, Roma tomatoes and Pizza

Brought in some fresh tomatoes this morning. The Juliet tomatoes are making a statement – using a President Obama term – this one plant wants to "Kick some Ass" and is loaded with tomatoes….. was that a bad political joke? Yes it was- just couldn't resist.
So, back to the freshened up pizza. I am a bachelor for another week – I do have my 15 year old suffering through my attempts to keep him fed, the dishes washed, floors swept, laundry done – Kathy I sure do appreciate ALL that you do for me…. wink, wink! It does not seem to ever slow down! So, Joe went off to soccer tryouts at 5:00 PM and I had to fend for myself.
I had a California Kitchen frozen pizza – they are thin crust, pretty tasty and relatively low cal! This one was spinach and cheese – BORING! – I had some turkey pepperonis in the fridge but I looked over at all "them maters"  – those Juliet tomatoes when sliced are pepperoni size and probably better for me. Looks pretty good doesn't it. Well it surely was!
So, what can I freshen up tomorrow? – I have a ton of cucumbers – hmmmmm – Google recipe search coming up!
 Bishop – TTFN

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I am back limping into my garden.

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My Gecko Helping Patrol for Pests
Mmmmmm Good My Blackerries
Bunches of Juliett Tomatoes - Can't Wait!!!!
Cucumbers are Getting Big

I am back limping into the garden and enjoying the veggies. The weeds got a little ahead of me but the Gecko is keeping most of the bad bugs scared off.- I wish LOL. He still looks good even if he does not eat much.

Everything is growing so well! My Roma and Juliet tomatoes are kicking butt. Unfortunately my Brandywine plants are green, healthy and tall – but won't set tomatoes. They taste so good but I may not get any this year.

At least the blackberries are doing very well. Lucky for me that my wife Kathy is out in California because she loves fresh berries. I do too but I really like to gather enough to make jam. I have a gallon in the freezer, have snacked on the fresh ones and will probably get another gallon or two before we head off to Australia. The strawberries have slowed down but there is an increase in blossoms so I should have another round of the luscious red delights very soon.

A cluster of green Juliet tomatoes. They do incredibly well in the Houston heat. One plant will overwhelm a family so that's all I plant. They are so tasty and look a lot like a miniature Roma tomato. I hope the Brandywine's will at least set a few for me!

Now another bounty! The cucumbers are kicking in and as always I have planted more than we can eat. So friends and neighbors bet to share in the bounty.

My experiment in my friends backyard is doing OK. It was doing very well, his dog was ignoring it until …….. until I added some fish emulsion. Well, his Golden Retriever Pismo dug up the spots where I placed the fish emulsion several times but now the scent is gone and the plants are undisturbed. John has used some of the Rosemary and we have a few tomatoes setting as well as the cucumbers beginning to stretch up toward the supports. Salad components soon!

I'll be back!

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Repairing a Bad Wheel

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Rehab underway -
Small incision for the repair parts.

The garden is calling my name and I can't go out and see her. I am relying on my wife and son to do the picking and I hope they are doing it right!!!!!!

I finally got to the point where I could not put up with the pain and the limitations caused by the knee grinding itself up. I went in Tuesday the 27th of April. Wow! It is not easy but they all tell me it will be worth it. Here it is, Saturday and I think I am seeing some progress. But just to add to the challenge the weather is turning warm…… good for the tomatoes and others but the Decker household has lost the downstairs AC unit. It is comfortable upstairs but I am definitely confined to the lower floor and feeling it!

I can see just a wee bit of the garden through the entrance trellis. The plants are very green and have jumped up many inches in the short week I have been horizontal. I am glad the plants tolerate the heat and humidity as well as they do….. At least I hope they like it.

I just put Joe to work to feed the worms….. Hope they had enough to carry them over for a few days. I will try to get my walker out into the yard this next week and share some pictures.
TTFN
Bishop

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The Garden Blossoms

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StrawberryBlackberriesTomato BlossomsSnap Peas

Blossoms in the garden. I am looking forward to the fruit ……. already getting a few strawberries and we have been loaded up with the snap peas. I have seen some of the tomatoes beginning to set fruit. The Roma tomatoes and the Julliet cherries are going to be abundant pretty soon. Cucumbers are well spouted – I am trying squash again – it usually succumbs to the beetles. Peppers and cantaloupe are looking good! My experiments with potatoes under mulch and the hanging tomatoes are looking good….. I have so many blackberry blossoms that we may be overwhelmed! More photos to come.

Had some roasted beets at lunch today and then had snap peas and beet tops with my chicken tonight. It is really a treat to have the freshest veggies! I will need to eat well as I rehab from this pending knee surgery. Tuesday April 27th I get the left knee replaced. Could be 6-8 weeks of recovery to get back to 80% normal gait and strength. May have to use hired help in the garden.

TTFN 

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Need a little Balance in your Life?

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So what is this photo doing in my gardening blog? Well that is me in my younger years balancing a log but not wise enough then to understand what balance in my life should have been. Balance then was just having enough money for beer, playing a little Rugby and maybe catching hold of a young lady or two.

Now that I have begun to figure it out, yes – I still have a few things to learn, I use my garden as a big piece of my balance! After I have been out on the road with my work I can't wait to get back and check on the plants, the compost pile and see how the worms are coming along on their job digesting the kitchen scraps.It is part of my chill out therapy. See dear, I am also happy to see you & Joe and I do appreciate you checking on the patch while I am gone.(I have to be honest and truthful because she actually reads the blog!)

Tonight for dinner I felt like I made some connections for others about my "gardening jones" – see earlier blog. I planned to roast some fresh beets from my garden and also prepare the tops as greens. As I was prepping dinner my good friend John came over to give some input on the height of the new mirror we were hanging and to try a bottle of the beer I had just finished brewing, bottling and aging. I was anxious to share this new ale with my friend.(another part of my balancing). John tried the beets and they were as good as he remembered from his youth but he wasn't too sure about trying the greens.  It was a simple recipe but he couldn't believe how good they were. Now I had to convince my wife to try both the beets and the greens. She was a little too quick and ate the first beet before she heard me tell her to peel the skin off before eating. She ate it and did not seem to mind the skin. And, best of all,  the flavor of the greens surprised her.

Now my favorite part …. John picked from my garden last summer when we were away and I had tried to convince him to plant a veggie patch at his house. He didn't bite on my suggestion but he did enjoy the fresh eating from mine. His yard is situated much better than mine when it comes to sun exposure. It is really perfect, in fact I would even manage it for him. After he ate both the beets and greens he said, "Bishop, I guess you can put a garden in my yard….. another convert, yee haw!

Now I can help put a some balance into my good buddy's life and yard….And maybe I'm a little closer to convincing my wife that I need something bigger to balance…. no, not  bigger log but, maybe, just maybe a real acre or five!

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Companion Planting vs. The Smörgåsbord Approach

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I have been out pulling weeds, removing early berries on the strawberry plants, checking on the blackberries and I just loving seeing it all grow!!!!!
Here is a picture of a mixed bed. I have heard that there are some real benefits to utilizing the companion planting techniques. Problem with that is-  there has to be a plan….. I sometimes just group stuff by height and width…. makes sense to me. So… if you look closely I have;
Swiss Chard, Romaine lettuce, garlic, carrots, asparagus ferns, beets,a few small weeds, potatoes way out in back and empty plastic jugs waiting to be put in service…. they will be mini greenhouses. I call it Smörgåsbord grouping. I can pick a salad without taking a step.
I was down at the farmers market this morning and saw Romaine lettuce going for $2-$3 per head and they didn't look nearly as good as mine. Swiss Chard-  bunches of 5 leaves for $3 to $4 an bunch. People were carting out bags of the stuff. Makes me wonder if maybe I can have a fourth or fifth career selling organically grown veggies….. Hmmm. Maybe I should pull out the business plan forms I picked up a couple of years ago and give it a try. The booths selling eggs ran out by 9:30 AM except for one and the line was 10 back…. $3/dz. for white eggs and $4/dz for brown. Same feed, same pasture, same bugs to eat….. there is not an advantage to buy brown eggs, they taste the same …….. the farmer likes the perceived differences!!!  
Check out my new photos from today's garden visit, Oh, by the way, my latest batch of beer is ready to drink – Farmhouse Ale…. go figure. Even my wife liked the finish, not too hoppy- just right.

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A Gardening Jones……….. And Other Craziness!!!!!

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An obsession; a burning desire. The undeniable passion or love for someone or something.

"Basketball Jones, I got a basketball jones, I got a basketball jones ooh baby…"
Well, I got a gardening jones and just gotta have it, ooh baby…..!


The picture looks out of place relative to the title…. but just keep reading!


I have been traveling and have not been able to get my hands dirty in my little patch back home in Kingwood TX. I have called my wife to check on the plants, worms, rain/weather and – oh yeah – how she is doing and how the soccer match went and to tell her that I love her and miss her!

I spent a couple of days with my mother in Los Osos CA doing a few honey-do's around the house and in the yard. I trimmed some run away ground cover, repaired some sprinkler heads and tried to unclog the rain gutter conduit out to the street….. got some flow but it needs to be pulled up and properly flushed and reset. As I was working I couldn't help but notice some wonderfully bare ground ……….. That bare ground, let me tell that story and then I will get back to my jones for this bare ground.

June of 2009 my mother had a wonderful  80th  surprise Birthday party that she had spent months planning – LOL – Her children attended with spouses, her grandchildren (15) and two of the three great grandchildren were in attndance. And yes, there were a few great grand children in the oven. She invited 100 or so of her friends from the park she lives in….. great bunch of friends that will always take a free meal and hope that Grammie Glo will entertain them… Well the family provided a very large work crew to do some clean-up at Grammie’s place the next day. Now the story….

 

My brother-in-Law Bill was on a chain saw massacre mission. I thought that maybe the nieces and nephews would get a chance to witness how badly flesh can be damaged by a chain saw… no such luck for flesh but before the chain bound up there was considerable damage to vegetation and the drip sprinkler system (well maybe he just added more drip locations????). Several months later the remnants of once healthy plants were removed, eg. The lush green juniper to the left of the chainsaw in the picture.

 

There is now a bare area just begging for seeds and transplants. It is deep sandy loam. I wanted so badly to get some carrot seeds and create an edible border coming up the walk. Those carrots would have had lush green tops and nothing to put those ugly forks in the roots like I have with the Houston clay that makes it so hard for me to grow carrots…( run on sentence). It just screams at me to create an edible landscape…. But, I left jonseing for a chance to give that bare spot some love – Mom said no and like a good son I resisted the urge. She said something like the deer would eat it…. I would share… wouldn’t you?

 

OK – next I stopped at my daughter Melissa’s house and she shares my jones….. I felt better after getting some Camarillo dirt on my hands, seeing the berry plants, checking out her new raised beds and the veggies taking root. I feel better now!!!! I may be able to hold off until I get back to my little patch now.

 

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The first berry of Spring 2010!!!!!!

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Wow! The first berry of spring and I picked it the day before the official first day of spring. I was not expecting a ripe berry so early because of the wet and cool spring we have been experiencing. I noticed lots of blossoms in my sunniest patch but this was an early surprise.

I noticed something else after I picked it and took a closer look. See the heart shaped image of the berry. Pretty cool huh! I wonder if there is a message here? Hmmmm……

As with any good berry it meets the same fate. I did offer the first bit to my wife Kathy but she deferred that honor to me. – Thanks Hun…… it was so good. The home grown berries just have so much more of the "real" Strawberry flavor. It compares well to the wild strawberries I used to pick in the fields surrounding Fort Lee, Virginia.

Here is the first berry of the spring nestled in amongst the leaves, blossoms and the early berries that have set. It looks like it will be a good and sweet spring. I have found a good organically safe slug and snail deterrent so I hope to share fewer berries with the slimy little buggers. 

On another note….The new June bearing varieties are doing very well. They are establishing themselves well and looking very healthy. The garden is beginning to hop now… The pole beans are up, potatoes looking good, the lettuce so good and lots of snap peas to munch on. The cucumber plants were slow showing through the layer of leaf mulch but I see they are now breaking through. My asparagus, first year, is spindly and needs staking – next year I may be able to get some spears!

Get out and grow something…..

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Redfish and Salad

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Ben's Redfish March 13, 2010
Fresh from the Garden Salad

Ben, my oldest son, went off fishing on Saturday the 13th and landed this very nice Redfish. He is using the fisherman's trick of extending his arms to highlight the size ( I coached him on that). It was right at the upper slot limit of 28". Very nice fish. He also brought home a nice speckled trout so we will have several fish meals this week. Cooked up one of the fillets last night along with garden fresh steamed Swiss Chard and Snap Peas. What a real treat.

Today I built a very nice salad featuring 4 varieties of lettuce and some fresh snap peas  from the garden. Bell peppers are store bought….. I am 5-6 weeks away from harvesting my own and by then the lettuce will have bolted. The freshness just can't be beat.

A little rain today for the garden but not so much that it turns to a quagmire. The hanging tomato plants seem to be looking good so my experiment for a cheaper "topsy turvy" planter may be successful.

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