Tis the season for spending time in the yard and soaking up cooler temps before another hot Texas summer is upon us. Sadly, March temps have felt more like May. However, I have been telling myself for months to expect 100 degree temps by Easter so that I won't be disappointed when we have a warmer than normal next six to nine months. I am not planning for a big season in the garden because with very severe watering restrictions in place and the potential for another scorching summer, I just don't think it is worth it. I am thrilled with the outcome of my cool season garden and will work harder in the fall to have a better planned winter garden for next year. We have been harvesting lettuce since January and if I had put in kale in the fall, I think we would have had a bumper crop. The Swiss chard has been amazing and the cilantro that I planted in February is providing quite nicely. If anyone has suggestions on drought tolerant ideas for the garden, I would love it if you leave a comment with your ideas!
I have quite a bit of work to recover from the fact that I ignored the weeds in the garden for the warmer half of the summer and fall. In an effort to be completely "real" I thought I would post a picture of the true state of terrible mess the garden was in before we went to work on spring clean up!
Last spring, I mulched the other side of the garden with the chipped mulch of a Bradford pear tree that we had taken down. I ran out before getting to this side and the thin layer of mulch I had down was no match for the likes of Johnson grass and other invasive weeds. We lost another Bradford out front (no loss as it was planted much too close to the house) and I now have another pile of mulch to put to use on this half of the garden. I also requested that if the tree service needs a place to drop off another pile of mulch, I would be quite grateful for one more load. A little extra effort to prevent weeds and make my space pretty is what I am all about!
It appears that I might be evening up the score in my kale wars with the rabbits. It makes me a little nervous that I may be jinxing myself to post about it, but thus far the rabbits have left my new kale plants alone. Unfortunately, at the rate that spring is heating up, the growing season left for kale will be very short.
In other exciting news, we bought a new mower for the homestead. We were quite appreciative to benefit for several years from a riding mower passed on to us by my father in law. It was a great mower, but it has been in use for at least 15-20 years and we were finding that every spring we were putting enough money into fixing it up and keeping it running that we could have nearly paid for a new one of the same model by now. Our kind neighbors previously let us borrow their John Deer when our mower was in the shop and it was amazing the difference. With the new mower, Hubby was able mow our yard in about half of the time that the old mower took! We planted winter rye and with our warm and wet spring, we are beginning to get a taste for why many people are quite against winter rye. Given the right conditions, it grows amazingly fast!! Now that we have the new mower, hopefully our neighbors won't be hating us quite as much.
But this reminds me, I must get off of the computer and go move my pile of mulch. Not thinking, I had the tree service dump it right in front of our gate. There will be no further mowing of the front yard until I get that pile moved!! It is only about 100 wheelbarrows worth....no need for the gym this week! Hopefully, there will soon be pictures of a much improved, deeply mulched and weed free garden.
Hey Stephanie, Can you private message my on fb what tree service was ind enough to dump mulch for you. I assume it was free?
Blessings,
Sharon
Posted by: Sharon Koehn | 03/29/2012 at 09:50 AM