Sick Tomatoes

I started out thinking my tomatoes were suffering from neglect. I had been gone for two weeks this last time and everything had been watered with timers and sprinklers. Yesterday I decided to take pictures and remove everything questionable. 

Two small but healthy tomatoes.

Three weeks ago this was a healthy plant.

One very healthy tomato in the middle and two yellowing tomates on each end.



Well- the picture speaks for itself.

A very healthy tomato but if you look at some of the outer leaves they are starting to curl up.

I don't know what is going on. I have never had this much trouble growing tomatoes. I am starting to wonder if I will get any this year.

Anyone have any idea what is going on?

Harvest Monday - 25 June 2012

It was a great week in the garden. I am so excited to participate in Daphne's Harvest Monday. Stop by and check out what others are growing. 

The first of the carrots - Dallas couldn't wait.





Squash

Squash

And More Squash!

The first Tomatoes.

I pulled the onions that were falling over.

I still don't know what kind of garlic this is. It is some that I picked up at the Farmer's Market last year.

One of the cloves cleaned up.

The first Cabbage of the year! It was wonderful. We baked it last night with a little butter, salt, and pepper.

Getting Back to Normal

We have spent this weekend trying to get everything back to normal. We cleaned house, did laundry, went to the pool, and caught up the yard work. Dallas and Alex even pitched in. They needed a little help with the turns but they mowed the front yard together.

Now they just need get big enough to edge, weedeat, and pull weeds!

22 June 2012

Thank God it is Friday.

On Monday we were told to start packing - we had orders to Dyess AFB to be near David's Father.

On Tuesday I started house hunting and planning our move.

On Wednesday the Air Force said...Sorry - your orders home are cancled PLUS David gets to deploy for 8 months this fall. Then I found Tank in the Corn bed. Yup- Wednesday Sucked.

Thursday just happened. Nothing Good and Nothing Bad.

Now it is Friday and life is starting to return to normal. I am behind on cleaning the house and my poor garden has been all but neglected. I have watered and that is about it. Today I am going to play catch up with everything.

Wish me luck- I am really going to need it!

Hmmm.......

The day after my husband's Mom passed away, we were approved for our hardship move. A little late, huh? Well, we found out today - WE GET TO GO HOME!!!

Harvest Monday - 18 June 2012

I was so happy to actually have a harvest after being gone for two weeks!

Here is the first broccoli of the season - Unfortunately it had gone to flower before we got home. So this went to the worms.

We ate this broccoli! It was so much better than anything I have ever bought at the store.

The first of the Fire and Ice Radishes. Tank was able to eat these since they were way past their prime. I am replanting the radishes today.

The first of the Garlic came out. I am not sure what kind it is - I need to check my garden map. It is a purple variety but it did not get a large as the garlic from last year. Maybe it was the strange weather we have had or maybe it is because all of my watering has been done by timers this year instead of by hand. The spring was just too crazy.

Somehow I did not take pictures of the onions, yellow squash or eggplant. I don't know how I missed them.

Harvest Monday is a day to share your harvest with other gardeners. Stop by Daphne's Dandelions to join in!

Home at Last

The last two weeks have probably been the hardest of my life. My Mother In Law - MO - passed away after a short, hard fight with cancer. She was diagnosed with lung and bone cancer in March and spent almost every day since then in the hospital. It was just so fast. Thankfully David and I were able to be with her until the very end. We spent the last week planning her funeral service and making decisions with David's Dad.

The Air Force has really bad timing. We were approved for our hardship move - the day after she passed away. We are required to report any changes in the situation to whoever makes these decisions. Our orders home will probably be canceled. I don't know how I feel about this.

I feel like I have aged ten years in the last week. Hopefully tomorrow I will start to feel like myself.

Grass Update

I feel like I am always working on the grass in the backyard. When we built the house we thought it would be nice to start out with a completely blank slate. No grass. No sprinkler system. Nothing but bare ground and a fence. I still think this was the right choice for us, but I am so tired of Bare Dirt.

We chose to plant buffalo grass in the backyard. It is perfect for our dry hot climate. The only problem is how slow it grows. So very very slow! This isn't a problem for the main part of the yard but, for the animals, it is not going to work. Tank can eat three or four heads of lettuce in one day. David bought 12 landscaper squares of fescue on June 1. Just enough to help with some of the dirt in the dog pen. Our wonderful nursery gave us 10 squares for free - They said they were just taking up space! I love our nursery!

David used my tiller and loosened up the dry, hard dirt and we started laying the grass.



About half of the dog pen will be this wonderful checker board pattern. I am hoping this will keep JD from digging as much. Plus I think it looks cool. I only had enough pavers to do this little bit but I will buy more soon.

This is the side yard for the dogs. The pavers will go up to the grass and then run down the fence line. The little shade structure will stay dirt. Hopefully it will give JD a place to dig without killing the grass.

This is Tank's yard (until the buffalo grass is established). All of his grass was free. I finished leveling the front part and layed a little more after this picture was taken. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it finished.....

This was the buffalo grass on June 1st.

Our grass today (2 months after planting)! We actually mowed it last night! It is really starting to spread out. We have started walking on it but I will have to keep Tank off of it for a little longer.



I tilled, leveled, and removed rocks from the other side of the yard. It now has buffalo grass seed raked in and has started the four times a day watering. I just wish mother nature would water it for me a little more often!

Harvest Monday - 4 June 2012

It was a crazy week trying to can all of the apricots and peaches but I really did not harvest a lot from the garden. I pulled four little onions to use in our hobo dinners and I fed Tank a lot of bolted lettuce and a little mustard greens. I think he is getting more out of the garden than anyone else.

4 Onions

Part of the Peaches I put up this week!

Tank enjoying his salad.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, stop by Daphne's Dandelions to join in.

Peaches and Apricots

The peaches and apricots were finally ready at my in-laws. They are small this year but are worth the work. They are the perfect balance of tart and sweet. I need to spend some time working on the trees. I do not know if they have ever been trimmed or fertilized. The only water they get is rain, and West Texas hasn't had regular rain in a long time. We had to build braces for many of the limbs - The weight of the fruit was just too much. I am afraid that many of the branches may not recover.

I have spent the last week canning everything we picked. I ended up with 28 pints of apricots, 16 quarts of peaches, 8 pints of peaches, and one large cobbler.  

Apricots

Peaches

Peaches



Apricots

What could happen......

If an 8 year old decided to run through a cactus garden in the dark? Nothing good can come from it.

Dallas tried to cut through the rock/cactus garden to get hugs from Granny. Somehow he missed the barrel cactus. And he missed the Devil's Pin Cushion. But his foot found the Century Plant. The thorn went through his baseball cleats and stabbed into his big toe. He was running too fast to stop and broke the plant off. Dallas was rolling around in the grass by the time David could get to him. We made it worse every time we tried to take his shoe off so David brought in the seat belt cutter from my car. Paw Paw held Dallas' foot down and David cut the shoe off.

Almost half of this thorn was buried in the side of Dallas' Big Toe.

We were lucky the thorn hit the side of his toe and did not stab into the end of his toe. His toe was swollen and very sore for a couple of days but he is doing much better now.

I think I need to find some lights to go in the cactus garden.