Our sitting place

 This weekend went a whole lot better than last weekend. We did a little of this and a little of that and a whole lot of nothing. I got some work done.  I took a nap; both Saturday and Sunday (I know! How cool was that! Why am I using so many exclamation points!). I unpacked a couple of more boxes. You know, I did stuff.

One of the things that JR and I did was a little yard work. Of course, we had to do it before 9am because the heat and humidity after that is just too unbearable.

We transferred some of the herbs from pots into a small garden bed next to the backdoor. They ought to like it there. The soil shouldn't be as hot as the pots. Herbs like to keep their feet cool. I don't blame them. I like my feet cool also. You can see we did plant a couple of tomato plants, a pepper and a trio of zucchini plants in a pot. The zucchini may not like it but I'm pretty sure the tomatoes and the pepper will.

We cleaned up, planted some tropical and some annual plants and laid down some bark in our Sunday morning spot.

No matter where we live we set up a sitting place. Somewhere that JR and I can sit out on weekend mornings or weekday evenings. When it's not too hot that is. Lately it's been too hot but we've got it all ready for when the heat dies down. Which should be in October. Or maybe early November. 

What do we do in our sitting place? We drink coffee, tea, cocktails or mimosas. We read. I paint. We talk about the upcoming week or we are quiet. No TV to distract. Just JR and I and the dogs. 

Have you got a sitting place?

Love,

M

Oh Joy! Mad container gardening skills.

Right at this moment we live in an apartment. We thought this was going to be okay. Mmmm, not so much. It is close to our places of employment. It has 3 bedrooms. It has the mandatory 2 bathrooms. It has space for a dining room table. What it doesn't have is storage, OMG it is so lacking in storage, it is not funny. Don't laugh. I store all kinds of crap. 

What it also doesn't have is very much outdoor living space. This wouldn't be too bad if; 

1. we didn't have the dogs. Giving them up is a non-issue. They are not just companions but getting a dog is a responsibility. Yikes! I almost went into pet responsibility lecture mode. 

2. It is hard to seat 2 people on our excuse for a patio. During the fall and spring JR and I like to sit out on the patio, drinks in hand, chat about our day or he reads and I paint. We miss this. Seriously miss it.

3. We can't garden. Much. Or barely at all. We have some gardenias that we put along the fence that is 5 or 6 feet from our door but what about veggie and fruit? Where do we put those? And, basil? Please God, don't make me give up my basil. It is life to me. It is my drug of choice. If we don't count wine. For this example let's not, m'kay?

What were we to do?

We put up a set of wire shelves to hold pots of plants. Herbs mostly.

This is lemon thyme and Flat Leaf Parsley

Yummy

We did pot up a few strawberry plants. 

Lookee how well they are doing.

JR loves strawberries.

Maybe not as much as peaches. 

Peaches are his favorite,

but strawberries come in a very close second. 

Plus, they are easier to grow in a pot. 

Though we do have a peach tree in a pot. 

It's just not doing as well. Something we'll have to work on.

We have my beloved basil.

We had to put in new plants a couple of weeks ago.

The freeze killed off my last bunch. It was a sad day in the Dog's Life household.

I'll be planting basil seeds in that bare front area tomorrow.

Basil loves to be in pots. Loves to be bunched up with its buddies. Loves the hot humid weather of southeast Texas. 

By this time next week we will be snacking on these plants and the seeds will be up.

We also have oregano, rosemary and sage. 

Do not think that this situation will persist. We are moving in July to a bigger townhouse with fenced front and back yards. We will be making good use of that place. I have been plotting (steeples fingers and taps them). Because while the new place has 20 times more area to work with I want 40 times more veggies and herbs. Here's what we are going to do; we're going vertical. I have plans for those fences to become garden space. I'll keep you all posted. Though I'm pretty sure you don't really care about my mad planting/gardening plans I'll tell them to you anyway. Because I'm like that. Mhahahaha.

Love,

M

Kiddie Pool Garden What Survived the Big Freeze of 2010

Remember back in September JR and I got all ecological and economical and any other "e" word you can think of? The boy was about to go off to college and we were going to tighten our belts. Very optimistic.

Remember when I posted about feeding your family for less? Where I talked about buying less processed foods, eating less meat, and growing your own. In that post I attached some very lovely links on Kiddie Pool Container Gardening. Very informative.

Remember this post? Where you all got to see JR's pasty white Irish gams. Very attractive.

Where I showed you how we had put in 3 kiddie pool gardens. It was a how-to post. Very educational.

Remember when I taunted you with updates on how my garden was growing. It was taunting with love. We're going to call that encouragement. Very motivational.

Then we had big freeze. Three nights under 30 degrees. (no hate comments about how 30 degrees isn't that cold. I'm in Houston, TX we don't get that cold. Like ever.) Very cold.

I despaired that my garden would be no more. I worried that I would go out there to see brown slumping plants. That my coveted herbs would be piles of rotting leaves and twigs. Very anxious.

I walked out to the garden yesterday to access the damage. Look what I found......

Broccoli

And more......

broccoli

And more.....


Did I mention that I love broccoli?
No?
Well, I do.
And JR does too.
It's a good thing because we are eating broccoli for the rest of the weekend.
(Ya may not want to plan a trip here this weekend if you know what I mean. wink)

How did the herbs come out? I was really surprised to see that the parsley and cilantro are doing remarkably well. I was actually going to buy some this weekend and now I don't have to; score a point for my grocery bill. The oregano, lavender, rosemary, and sage are all holding their own. The only thing I lost was the basil but that was to be expected. It's a very tender plant. It's loss is already being felt. I love fresh basil. I'm not going to go out to buy it though. I'm going to go through basil withdrawal for a few weeks then replant. Then another 4 weeks of anticipation while it grows. Then I'll be back to my twice a day basil monkey-on-my-back until the next time it freezes around here. Which from all the local accounts is like every 5 years.

How did ya'll make it through the freeze?Kath and Linda, I've seen some of your pictures of snow and ice. Does anyone else have pictures? If so leave the link or email me a few and we'll do a regional Big Freeze of 2010 post. Because really, who doesn't want to relive that one?

Love,
M