by bdunn on April 30, 2012
in Garden
Tropical hibiscus plants rarely fruit, at least in my experience. But you can cross-pollinate their flowers by using a little moist paintbrush, like from a child’s watercoloring set. If you’re lucky, a knobby green fruit will develop from the base of the mother flower. With further luck, the fruit will ripen and dry up, yielding [...]
Here’s the answer to the question Do beets grow in South Texas? These are some of the second harvest of a couple rows we planted in January. Next year, more rows starting in November. A few weeks ago we roasted some individually wrapped in aluminum foil and drizzled with olive oil, then served with crumbled [...]
Spring has sprung hard, and everything is undergoing the sort of giddy-yet-near-scary upheaval that only this season can introduce. There’s a lot going on, and not just field and garden. I shall remain mum on specifics for now, mostly because my time is short and the list is long, but also because I don’t want [...]
This morning I ambled out to the overgrown back garden overlooking the river, and the sparkling beauty of the moment – cloaked in blue-puff clouds pushing up from the Gulf, the contrast of the bright spring green of the empty lawns and the muddy rising water that they lined, the swoop of the hawk and [...]
Our first freeze of the year arrived last night, one night earlier than predicted by the weather guys but still anticipated well enough in advance that we harvested some good stuff from the garden before they got zapped. This included a couple dozen Jamaican Hot Chocolate habanero peppers, most showing plenty of green instead of [...]
Now is the summer of our discontent supplanted by an honest Fall, complete with fog and mist and even genuine rain, enough to soak our grounds and command the grasses to grow once more. (Not enough, though, to fill empty Texas reservoirs, many of which are below 40% capacity in evidence the dreaded drought continues [...]
by bdunn on October 6, 2011
in Garden
The weather has cooled here somewhat, beginning Oct. 1, not enough to call it fall yet, more like Summer Jr., with highs still reaching close to 90. However, the evenings have been pleasant enough that the hibiscus have begun blooming again, and I’ve finally started the fall garden. In a usual semi-South Texas year, you [...]