Lettuce and spinach can handle freezing temperatures just fine. Love not having to buy it at the store in the winter. Like cilantro, I wish it grew here in the summer too.
Planted seed on Oct 28. Sprouted by November 3rd. Ready to start eating by December
But Kale makes lettuce look like a fragile soap bubble. Kale handles 15 degrees and not a burnt leaf in sight!
I always grow some lettuce and cilantro in pots. A couple of years ago we were having a mild somewhat warm winter and then the cold weather hit. It killed the lettuce, so now I make sure to have some backup. Lettuce and cilantro are heirloom in that they come back true from seed. I harvest the seeds in late spring and plant again the next year. It’s a miracle really.
Deciding what to cover, but first harvesting just in case some plants don’t make it. Forecast says it may get down as low as 13 degrees. I think cilantro, lettuce, carrots, kale and onions will be ok, but broccoli and cabbage may turn to mush.
Chinese broccoli
Broccoli heads are not fully formed, but going to harvest just in case the coming freeze kills them. Six little broccoli heads.
Chinese cabbage
I should have plenty of veggies for a couple of tasty and nutritious meals. Now if we can just keep power on through this freeze.
This is my first year with lemons. Tree is two years old and we got a lot of lemons this year. I love cooking with lemon and recently read about a neat way to preserve them.
Start by picking the lemons:
Then squeeze out the juice:
Pour the juice in ice cube trays and freeze the juice. Each ice cube is two tablespoons. Perfect for cooking!
I used my first cube to make Buerre Blanc sauce. No pic.
This picture is of the veggie garden on December 21. Kale is going strong. Need more kale recipes… Broccoli is big but is not forming a head yet. Spinach, lettuce and pak choi is ready to eat. Bonus is the blooming blush rose in the background. Mild winter and rain made that possible. I’ve never seen this before! Such a beautiful surprise and smells so good.
Here are some pics from November 8. Everything was so tiny!
Cilantro seed planted on October 28. Seeds sprout in just 10 days and ready to eat by December 7. December 21 it is going strong. I love being able to just trim cilantro when we need it. I truly wish cilantro grew here in the summer.
December 21December 7sprouted by November 8Planted seed October 28
Chinese Broccoli also planted October 28. Harvested January 13, before the big freeze. You will notice a few holes. That is natural if you don’t use pesticides.
Planted seeds on October 28. Here are some pics of its progression.
January 13January 13December 17December 8December 3November 8
20 days after planting the seed, Pak Choi is ready, or almost ready if you like the big white bulb at the bottom. I prefer the leaves. You can cut the outer leaves off, and the plant will continue to sprout from the middle. This way of harvesting is sometimes called “cut and come again”.
Planted October 28December 17
This plant is relatively easy to grow and is good in soups and stir fried with some garlic. I like the leaves better than the white base. One problem I ran into this year was worms, likely cabbage worms. I don’t mind a few holes in the leaves, but if it gets too bad, you can use BT. It is safe to use, just rinse your veggies well before eating them. Always do this, even if you have not sprayed with BT.
Ok, so we planted on Oct 28th and the picture below is on November 6th. Hope springs eternal! It looks like they sprouted a couple of days ago. At this point I am watering with a watering can with a rain nozzle (very common) so that I do not wash the seeds away or disturb the very young plant.
November 8th below. Still growing. Watering overhead with watering can.
November 18, thinning day! I potted up some of the “thinnings” and gave them to friends and family. You can eat them now too. I guess at this point they are called microgreens. I admit. I ate a few. I love picking fresh veggies in the garden.
December 3 after being thinned again. You can eat the pieces that you thin out. Like microgreens, but a bit bigger.
20 days after planting the seed, Chinese Cabbage is ready. Like Pak Choi, I prefer the leaves. You can cut the outer leaves off and the plant will continue to sprout from the middle. This way of harvesting is called “cut and come again”.
Planted on October 28th, we saw the first seeds sprouting below on November 4th. Hope springs eternal! Water overhead using a watering can with a rain spout. You don’t want to use a hose yet, because it could be too strong of a stream and may damage the little seedlings.
October 29November 4
November 6 and 8 below, and they are really coming in. Keep watering overhead. I’m watering every other day
November 6November 8
By November 18, below they are starting to look like cabbages and ready to be thinned. I potted up the plants that were thinned out and gave them to family and friends. On December 3rd, I planted onion sets around them. Time to plant onions!
December 7, they are ready to start harvesting. Applied some BT for the worms…
December 17th below and they are still coming along!
Her disguise is to look like bird poop. So interesting! I am going to let her live on my Meyer Lemon tree. From what I’ve read, she will do minimal damage to the leaves. I’m rooting for her. Come back and visit when you are a butterfly!
Time to pick Lemons. Two citrus trees that I can recommend that you can easily grow in pots, are the Meyer Lemon and the Mexican Lime. I have had these for two years and had a great harvest both years. We did not eat any of them last year because I was advised not to due to the pesticides on newly purchased trees…but this year has been wonderful.
If you leave limes on the tree, they turn yellow. They taste so good!
Made some delicious meals with homegrown lemons, limes, red onions and lemongrass. Why do they call them red onions when they are certainly purple?
Thank you Jesus, we started receiving rain again in October. Drought is scary. We are on a well, so we try to only use rain water on our plants and trees. So when the rain stopped and we ran out of rain water, it was hard to watch our plants die. At least they looked like they were dying.
Well, the good news is that many plants are bouncing back now that we have had some rain. Many do not look very attractive, but I can see new growth at the base of the plants, which means they are not dead!
Here is a walk through the garden towards the end of October. It is cooling off and looking better. I realize these are a lot of pictures, but it has been so hot and dry. I feel like every picture of a live plant is a miracle!
Loquat blooming
Beautyberry
Other blooms. We can safely say all plants that are alive are bulletproof after this summer
Here is a cute video of a bee on an Autumn sage. Big bada bee!
Thirsty bees. They drink more water that you might think. I’m getting ready to refill it. It is interesting that they like the scum on the rocks it seems. Maybe they have better footing on the scum, but when I flip the rocks over to expose it, they love it.
This has been a miserable summer. It started off so wet and mild. Tomatoes and other fruits and veggies were wonderful. Then the rain stopped and triple digit temperatures arrived and stayed.
Here is a very sad casualty. I planted a Fuyu Pomegranate this year and in April it bloomed and started to produce fruit. I took pictures as the fruit grew. I was so looking forward to eating that fruit. When the heat and drought set in the tree suffered from sunscald. It just got worse and worse as the triple digit heat stalled. In August, I removed the shriveled, scalded fruit to give the tree a chance. In Oct or Nov, I will move it into a pot and eventually move it to a shadier location.
April fruit forming:
August fruit scalded and shriveled, so I fed them to the deer. Haha, you can see my tooth marks on one of the pieces. It is not that my teeth are huge. The fruit is just that tiny from drought. It tasted pretty good…
In spite of the drought and heat, I have had the pleasure of some wonderful things, like seeing a painted bunting! Until now, I only saw them on the game camera drinking water. This one is on our feeder!
Looked out the kitchen window and spied a hawk hanging out near our bird feeder. I am pretty sure he is hunting. Circle of life gets up close and personal sometimes.
I-258 Fig. Planted a cutting of this last year. It is fruiting the first year. I’ve only had a couple, but so far they are living up to their reputation. They are sweet, big and able to produce in a 5 gallon pot! It does not get any better than this!
Two year old black sea jujube. Fruit was smaller than I thought it would be. Covered in fruit, but small. Maybe they will get bigger with time.
Here are some pics of the jujube flowers. They have an interesting look and some interesting pollinators.
He is a little late, but there is still some pollen left for him on this plant. This plant is aptly named bee balm. Although the plant is fading, it still has pollen for this little guy, so don’t prune off the “ugly stuff” too early. Wait until they have gotten all of the pollen they can. I caught a quick video of this little guy. There are so many different kinds of bees and wasps out there if you take the time to look closely.
Did not get many dragon fruit flowers this year and zero fruit. The weather was mild and then got really hot and I don’t think the dragon liked that. Disappointing, but sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. That’s life.
We have had such a mild spring so far. Lot’s of rain and cool weather. But, it looks like Texas is trying to make up for lost time because it is getting really hot. Plants don’t like these extreme temperature shifts. It is supposed to get up to 107 this week. Oh my. Note: We must remember to provide water for the animals out there. Pets, frogs, lizards, bees, deer, rabbits, birds. We are all a part of the circle of life.
Here are some pre-107 degree weather pics:
Long beans. I normally say that long beans can take the heat. We shall see with the weather that is headed our way. I love long beans. They are tasty raw, even when the seeds start to swell. They are sweet and crispy. I planted long bean seeds on March 20. Sprouted by March 27.
March 27April 6
Growing bitter melon and jelly melon on the same trellis.
Jelly or horned melon tastes like a lemony cucumber. I eat it like a grapefruit with a spoon. It is really tasty and it can take the heat…the hotter the better….and very productive. Handle with care though. Very sharp spines.
Persimmon tree planted this year is coming along. It has fruit!
Trombone squash
Cucumbers. I planted two types from seed this year: suyu long and armenian
Frogfruit, an excellent wildlife plant and groundcover. It is really thriving now that it is in the full sun. I sure miss the our Red Oak shade tree that we lost in the last winter freeze, but it does not.
First peaches came in from La Feliciana peach tree
Other things going on in June
Lemon drop watermelon – I will not grow this one again but it was fun and tasty. Interesting thing is that it was under pressure and as soon as I cut into it, it popped and cracked open. Surprised me a bit.
The good news is that I did not have any issues with SVB this year. I grew my squash up a trellis. Zucchini was the tastiest. I recommend growing vertically. I trimmed off the leaves as they got big. It allowed pollinators easier access to the flowers. Also, I think the SVB larvae got cut off before it could reach the stock. Eventually the squash gave in to the heat though, when temps sprung up and fried everything.
The bad news is stink bugs. I first noticed them on the bluebonnet seeds that were forming. They were very little, just out of the larval stage. Then they multiplied and turned into this. This was not a great tomato year. Stink bug damage made dry, thick skinned tomatoes. Wah.
