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Of winding paths and weeds

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imageOne of the many things I fell in love with when we first toured #countryhouse was the landscaping around the home. There’s a lot of space, given the house is one story and has 2,400 square feet. But the (now previous) owners obviously had done a lot of work. Outlining the entire house, patio and some of the nearby garage is a crushed gravel path. Perfect for admiring the many flowers, plants, shrubs and small trees carefully planted and surrounded by mulch/bark.
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I’m finally a country girl again

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Yep, four months ago, we moved into what I affectionately call #countryhouse, a 20-year-old ranch home on 5 beautiful acres in central Texas. For most of the time since moving to Texas in August of 2014, we lived in a new house in a new subdivision. The house was OK, the lot was teeny-tiny. Picture standing between your house and your neighbor’s and being able to touch both houses with your arms stretched out. Well, maybe not that close, but you get the idea. I hated the closeness.

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Summer tomatoes a success

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It was a good year for my tomatoes, even though I don’t have many photos to prove it. My raised beds (above) have been cleared of their remnants for a couple weeks now. But for several months before that, I was able to pick enough to eat daily, whether on salads, BLTs or just cut up in chunks and sprinkled with salt. I had a few issues with birds eating the tomatoes, but I avoided most of those problems by picking the fruit as soon as it started turning yellow. The leaf-footed bugs stayed away from the tomatoes, too, and while I had problems with slugs on the lettuce, they also ignored the tomatoes. Continue reading →

Gardening in central Texas still a challenge

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Now in my second season of gardening in central Texas, the adjustment continues for me and my little patch. The weather and the bugs (not necessarily in that order) are the biggest contributors to my frustrations, although admittedly, those levels are lower than last summer. Continue reading →

Oh my gosh do I have tomato plants!

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Two months ago, I transplanted a few tomatoes I had started from seed in the house in late January. For good measure, I tossed a few more seeds in the dirt from the open packets. Why not, I thought. The extra seeds would just get thrown away at the end of the summer anyway, right? Continue reading →

Early garden greens up backyard, spirits

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The warm winter and spring here in central Texas has kept me busy the past 6 weeks. Yes, those are peas in my raised garden beds! I direct-seeded peas and lettuce on Jan. 31, during a warm spell in which the two-week forecast called for maybe one or two days of freezing temperatures. Because neither veggie seed was likely to sprout for 10 days, and the forecast after that called for above-normal temps, I decided it was worth the risk. Continue reading →

2015_Day 365: Lessons learned and successes, failures noted

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I made it! When 2015 began, I decided to write a blog post each day no matter what. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. But with everything going on in my life — a cross-country move, a new job, a different climate to test my gardening skills just to name a few things — I figured I would have enough to write about. Continue reading →