Our Backyard Homestead

Look what we found

Maybe I have been ignoring my compost a little too long because look what we found today!  What appears to be a thriving cantaloupe plant!   You see it was thriving until I decided it might fare better over in the good soil of the garden.  I mean, it was the perfect discovery since I haven’t yet planted the cantaloupe seeds.  Ever so gently, I attempted to lift the red crate (from which it is growing out of) and when there was no resistance, I assumed the roots were contained within the crate.  Unfortunately, within an hour of relocating the crate to the garden, the plant is no longer thriving.  Maybe it was rooted in the ground after all.  I gave it some worm castings in hopes of reviving it, but I am not optimistic.

 
Now I must decide on whether or not to relocate the surprises in the big bin.  Considering that the other seedlings are not sprouting through a milk crate, hopefully the outcome will be more successful.  I don’t know what to think about the pineapple, however!  It has been in the pile since before Easter, so one would venture to guess that it would be entirely brown by now, but instead, there is lush green sprouting out of the middle!

 

Almost done with the irrigation.  Still need to finish the mulching.  Oh and there are signs of life on the lone blackberry that has yet to sprout any leaves!!  Three tiny buds of green.  Hopefully it will have leaves by the end of the week.  Unfortunately, there is no good news to report on the struggling Santa Rosa Plum tree.

Learning Curves

I have a love/hate relationship with learning curves.  The perfectionist in me needs to study how to do something and do it right the.first.time.  Of course, the need know that I will succeed goes hand in hand with procrastination.  The garden almost didn’t happen because I was was so overwhelmed with all there was to learn about organic gardening in Texas.  Thanks to the flylady, for the first time I saw the light on how my perfectionism and procrastinating tendencies go hand in hand.  Therefore, I decided I would go for the garden this year instead of next even if it doesn’t turn out as I would hope. 

This does lead me to a point, I promise.  I attempted to finish the irrigation of the other two beds.  However, I found a perforated hose that I thought might work better.  After investing much time in planning out how to tie all three beds together, I was quite disappointed to conclude that the two different drip systems were not going to work together.  Thus, the learning curve.  The good news is that I learned something.  The bad news is that the beds are not finished as I had hoped they would be at the end of this most incredibly gorgeous day.  But there is always tomorrow.

My macro lens was returned and I had a little fun with it at sunset tonight:

 

 

We might actually grow something

I find it quite amazing to plant a tiny little seed and 10 days later see life springing forth!  The peas are taking off like crazy.  I believe it was Tuesday that one or two were barely poking though the soil and now there is an entire row growing faster than weeds!  I guess I will need to finish the trellis very soon.

Tomorrow I need to buy more bamboo so that I can built a trellis for the cucumbers that will be planted next to the peas.  I also need several more bags of mulch.  We had a nice rain-shower this morning and late this afternoon the mulched bed was still quite moist.  However, the other two were as dry as could be.  With temps topping out at a lovely 74 today, I can only envision killing everything quite quickly once the warmer temps hit!

Unfortunately, it appears that one of my mail order blackberries is not going to make it.  The other two have been leafing out gradually over the last week.  I keep holding out hope that the third will show some sort of green but alas, if there are no signs of life by Monday I am afraid I will have to put the mail order nursery to the test on how they will follow through with their live plant guarantee.

We planted lots of lima beans today since the first batch fell victim to the late frost we had in late April.  Also planted yellow squash, another acorn squash (in hopes of having some succession planting) and soybeans.

Amazingly, our beanpole tepee is still standing five days later.  I wasn’t so sure about its long term stability but if it could survive the fierce winds we had for the past two days, it might just make it!

Baking and Gardening Don’t Mix

 
Though I might be able to say they are actually chocolate cookies, the smell in my house would say otherwise!  I put the properly baked cookie in the center for reference.  I swear I set the timer on my ironman before I went out to the garden.  Note to self, do not get so engrossed in what you are doing that you forget why the timer is going off!  Fortunately, I did catch them before they were flaming!!