Two Birds…One Stone (Bottle)

-



 It's been a while since I've written anything on Lil's Garden. Both gardens were not very successful in 2022. Between the late frost and the early 100 degree weather, gardening did not get off to a good start. The drought and the heat of the summer made it almost impossible to grow anything, even with the irrigation system. I have a lot to learn. I did learn that zinnias, basil, peppers, and eggplants are the most tolerant of extreme heat. We even harvested a watermelon for Thanksgiving this year.

The recent freeze has taken everything except a lavender bush and some oregano. 

 



I'm attempting to refresh the herb garden. We got an attachment for our BCS Walk-Behind Tractor that chips wood. So we made some lovely mulch for the paths. All the landscape timbers are rotting. So the next step was to replace them. We are also finding it difficult to recycle glass in our area. So...



since glass doesn't decompose anyway, we decided to recycle our glass bottles as edging. Two birds, one bottle. We'll see how that works out. We're starting over—taking inventory, buying seeds, planning beds, and hoping for a little more rain and moderate temperatures. Happy New Year!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." Matthew 9:37

-
Image
As I listened to the lectionary reading from Matthew 9 this morning at Dayspring Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, via Facebook Live, I had to say "amen" to verse 37. Robert and I had just returned from the garden with the daily harvest — some okra, green beans, squash, and two huge baskets of tomatoes. Although we had hoped to share this "big garden" experience this summer with family, friends, and students, social distancing has changed the plans a bit. We have been able to share the produce with friends, neighbors, Floresville Food Bank, and the San Antonio Mennonite Market. But the harvesting has been left to Two Little Gardeners . (Our neighbor, Sally Gaertner, gave us this Little Golden book, first published in 1951, the year before we were born.) We have enjoyed the work. It usually takes us about an hour and a half every morning or sometimes every other morning to pick the produce. It's such a thrill to find what's waiting for us. The...
Read more

Shades of Green

-
Image
We did complete the construction of our new garden. We made six raised beds and filled them up with winter greens. We are in the process of adding more gardens around the fence to grow tomatoes. Here are the many shades of green that we are enjoying,   Shallots, onions, sugar snap peas, and mustard greens   Spring onions, sweet peas, and mustard green Turnips, cilantro, spinach, parsley, bib lettuce, and dill Broccoli, Brussell sprouts, Swiss chard, mesculin mix, and carrots Kale, red and green cabbage, beets, and romaine lettuce Poppies, spinach, Crawford lettuce, and radishes Romaine lettuce Cilantro Dill Spinach Bibb lettuce Romaine lettuce Sugar snap peas Mustard greens Second growth of broccoli Red cabbage Beets Green cabbage  
Read more

It's Harvest Time

-
Image
The garden is looking really good. It's a daily job to keep up with the harvest. I've been sharing some with neighbors and with the San Antonio Mennonite Church "Market" on Saturday afternoons. If you are local, I would love to share some of the produce with you. Here's what I harvested this morning.  This is our first sweet corn.  We have a lot of scalloped squash and yellow squash.  There is also a variety of small tomatoes. The big ones are not ready yet.  I pick a basket full of green beans almost every morning.  The zinnias and marigold are beautiful and plentiful. Yesterday we harvested the last of the potatoes. We had a few that had sprouted, so I think I will be planting them to see if I can make potatoes in the summer. The okra is just coming on, and we will soon have melons and cucumbers.
Read more