A wall of esperanza.....

A friend was telling me about her plans to grow a wall of esperanza next year, and I immediately thought of this site. This is the Native Plant Garden put in by our Master Gardener group a while back. It has grown and grown, and today is very pretty.

I love to see a young mother with her children sitting in this bench while she reads to them. The library is located in this building, and it just seems right to me.

This is a busy place, this little garden. Children love the little bridge, everybody loves the bench, and we have so many butterflies in this garden that lots of people come just to look at them.

The Master Gardeners will be out there on Thursday, pulling weeds, digging out grass, and planting seeds.

I love this little garden. It does my heart good to see it thrive.

Wandering from blog to blog.....

I was looking at Donald's Texas Garden, and I have decided I need some miniature crepe myrtles like he shows in his flowerbeds. They look wonderful, and I could use them to fill some of 'those spots'. I have developed a deep dislike for bare spots in my garden.

Check it out, under the plumerias. and the sea oats.

Grafting those old tomatoes,,,

I took a vegetable growing specialist training course through the Master Gardeners at the beginning of August, and one thing we learned is how to graft tomatoes! I couldn't believe this, but it is true.

The reasoning behind this is the heirloom movement. The old heirloom varieties have such wonderful flavor and excellent fruit(flavor-wise, size-wise, texture-wise) and they produce an abundant harvest PROVIDED disease doesn't get them. They have very little if any resistance to any disease or virus. So, commercial growers are now grafting the heirloom tops onto the roots of the more modern varieties. We grafted Brandywine tops onto Celebrity roots, which is resistant to almost all diseases of tomatoes. It is easy to do.

You have to have a little grafting clip like these, which I have ordered from Johnny's Selected Seeds. They come in a couple of sizes, and there are also clips for stems of squash and other thicker stemmed plants. You cut the top off the heirloom tomato, pinch the clip and slide it over the stem. Then cut the root stock, pinch the clip again and slide it over the stem, pushing the two stems together until they meet firmly.

Keep your plant watered, and IN THE SHADE. It takes about two weeks for the graft to grow.

Click here to check out the clips more thoroughly.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/subcategory.aspx?category=292&subcategory=649

a whirlwind trip to town.....

We went to town today.
Bobby needed stuff for the roof, and I needed paint for my house. The INside of my house.

We went to check prices on flooring at the discount lumber place, then made the obligatory stop at Sears tool department. We couldn't possibly go to town without stopping to look/purchase a tool or two from Sears.

Then, on to Lowes. I wagged Bobby all over the store, showing him the flooring I have decided on, and the Bosch dishwasher I want. He wouldn't let me purchase the flooring today, as I am not finished painting, but that is o.k. It is something they keep all the time, so I know they will have it.

We picked up the roofing stuff he needed. Then he wagged me all over the tool department. This man has a 'thang' for tools!

We went to WalMart for my paint. I am using the Kilz paint- mixed like any paint, but it is sealer/stain-blocker/color all in one, and is wonderful! It is guaranteed to cover in one coat, and BY GOLLY! it does!

That doesn't matter though. I will never get finished painting, I don't think.....LOL

From WalMart, we went to Verizon, where I got a new cell phone. I had a cell phone, and it was fine, but Bobby thought I needed one that takes pictures.....
Then we went back to Lowes, and I went in for just a second to purchase some chemicals for our pond. Bobby stayed out in the Suburban, and when I came out, he had the hood up and the whole area smelled like something was burning! It was! My AC compressor burned up. AND IT WAS HOT AS HELL TODAY!

Soooooo. We went on to the obligatory trip to Harbor Freight, to pick up a tool for pulling a vaccumn, and got some other thingie for checking the compressor deal. Bobby assured me he NEEDED these. Who am I to argue? He is going to fix my AC, he NEEDS tools!

A stop at the Auto Parts House, as Bobby calls it, and I am the proud owner of a new compressor, drier, and orfice, along with 64 oz of coolant, and 16 oz of oil. We only need 11 oz of oil, but it is packaged in 8 oz containers, so we will have a few oz left over. I wonder what you do with the excess oil?

Let's see. Sometime during the day, we went and ate fried catfish, and it was real good. Also, we went there because it was just down from the Tractor Supply, where we were also, because Bobby NEEDED bolts, and bacon flavored treats for the dog.

I love a day like today. It was all good and fun, except for the AC going out, and that can be fixed. Bobby doesn't go to town all that often, so he makes the most of it when he does go.

He worked on the AC until dark, then cleaned up and he has a good cooking show on right now. He is alternating between the 'fixin' up cars' shows and the cooking shows tonight. This is much better than watching surgery live and in color. We are sharing a warm cantaloupe, seasoned with cracked black pepper. I may do a little organizing in my office tonight.

It rained on my garden last night.

Life is good.

I was just minding my own business...

I pulled into the WalMart parking lot in Edna, Texas the other evening, and was flabbergasted at what I saw . There was a big rig pulling a trailer loaded with some de-lectable auto types. I am an old car nut, anyway, so I was quickly out of my vehicle, snapping pictures as fast as I could.

. The man in the picture walked over to me and I asked where they came from, and where they were going and he told me the middle one was his.

"My name is Porch" he said, "and that's a Porsche." He said he found it in Florida.

I asked where the Rolls was going and he advised it was going to California. My only concern was that it should be covered; flying debris or a rock could injure that pretty paint job or shatter that windshield. I wonder what a replacment windshield for a vintage Rolls Royce costs?

Click to get a better look.

Too sad, it hurts my heart.

I mentioned our drought in my last post. It is very disheartening to see my beautiful Texas look like this. The pastures, if not irrigated are all like this.



This is a different pasture. Click on a picture to get a really good look.
We did get about 2" of rain a couple of days ago. We need a lot more, but it kept me from having to water for a day.

One thing is good, the cows are still in pretty good shape. I have seen them much worse, and not such a bad drought then, too. I think many ranchers have sold off lots of cattle. Hay is being trucked in from the DFW area, as they have had rain, and the hay is very good.

I forgot to mention that these pastures are in a river bottom! Usually the bottoms keep a little green!

We are praying for rain.