Been feeling a little down lately about life, friendships in your 40’s, and kids acting all summer crazy, so I had a little therapy today…. any by therapy I mean I got a burr up my rear to go outside in the heat of the day and take care of some garden “projects” that have been piling up, mostly because I lack the effort to put into them and it’s full-blown “Summer in Texas” out there.
The heat and wacky weather have really taken a toll on my veggies, mostly the tomato plants but some of the others as well. Then the spider mites jumped on the bandwagon and I fought that losing battle for a while before I decided to just give up and pull the plants struggling and wait until cooler fall temps to replant a few of them. I have a few tomato plants I’m babying along until fall if I can, and quite a few pepper plants that have just now started somewhat producing.
So out I went and spent 3-4 hours pulling stuff up, fixing beds, planting stuff I had that I kept thinking I should plant but never found time to do it… which led to putting together a new succulent hanging basket for the front, creating a trellis structure for my golden raspberries, a few other general garden/yard/patio clean ups, and then watering it all before collapsing inside like the limp sweaty noodle I was.
But…..
A “few” peppers and pollinator favorites:-)Plumeria “teens”, plus some herbs, peppers, and tomatoesMore Plumeria and SucculentsGone are the plant tents I had my squash and zucchini in to protect them from SVB, but I am still loving this bed and my “young adult” plumeria area!Up against the house for (not shown in this photo lol) added shade from the brutal afternoon sun.
I am SO PLEASED with my work, and even better, too tired to be feeling down and cranky. 🤣🤷♀️ we’re going to be headed to the beach fairly soon so I’m leaving the big bed the way it is, but I plan on converting it (half of it at least) to another Plumeria area for some of the older seedlings. I have several hundred more coming up in the lights inside, so fairly soon I’m going to have to think fast about a solution to keep all these seedlings from going dormant this winter!!! 😳😳 Accepting all thoughts, ideas, and suggestions…. 🤣🤷♀️🤦♀️
For years I’ve toyed with the idea of “suburban farming” – growing my own produce in raised beds of some sort. I love spending time working with the decorative plants around my yard but just never got around to the whole vegetable/fruit part of the equation. There has always been some other pressing home improvement project that bumps the raised bed gardening down lower on the list and we just never really gave the idea much traction.
This spring I began mentioning it to the hubs again, and for some reason this time the idea took hold in his head (maybe it’s his growing love for a nice ripe tomato slice on his hamburgers? 🤣) This past weekend he built me a little prototype raised bed to see how I liked it based on some designs I sent him that I liked and a few other random ideas that popped into my head for maximizing the not-huge space we could allot to it.
We decided to level them out and step them down the fence line here to allow for easier netting should we need to keep the critters out. First things first, however, was fixing the mud pit that over half our backyard had become (it’s always something, isn’t it?)
We were supposed to be off work today to help with a fish survey in the neighborhood lakes, but due to circumstances beyond control those plans got scrapped and we decided to go ahead and get this huge project finished off. Two and a quarter pallets of St. Augustine sod, 28 thirty pound bags of beach “pebbles” (they’re ROCKS people, calling them pebbles doesn’t make them lighter), and a crapload of sweating, swearing, and me having to crawl under the trampoline several times later, we have a completed backyard project. It’s funny, I knew the muddy mess in the shaded areas under our huge bald cypress trees looked bad, but I didn’t realize exactly how bad until we got the sod and the dry creek bed done and it looked freaking amazing!!!
So I got to work hand-watering all that sod, and hubs set to work installing the bed and making sure it was completely level by digging out the ground underneath. When he got it level we placed some cut branches in the bottom to help with drainage (and also to cut down a little on the amount of soil we’d need to fill it) and filled it with good quality gardening soil. First one is in!!!
Box 1, Phase 1
We did some calculating and planning and decided on a total of 6 boxes for this first phase, 5 of which will be stepped down this fence line, and the other will be placed beside the kids’ playhouse cottage as the “Children’s Garden”. Of course I couldn’t wait to put some plants in this so I went out and bought way more than would fit and we probably can’t get the other five boxes made for 2+ weeks 🤦♀️🤷♀️🤣.
This box got three red beefsteak tomato plants with supports and I read on Pinterest that basil makes a good companion plant to tomatoes so I planted two of those in the front of the planter. Waiting on the sidelines now are one more tomato plant, four big Bertha green bell pepper plants, and two good-sized strawberry plants. Hopefully they’ll make it until we can get the additional boxes made, though I may put the other tomato plant in a large pot with a support and see how it does there. Why not experiment, AmIRight? 🤷♀️🤣
And of course, I had to go back and get a second sweet basil, because there MUST by symmetry or my brain will start screaming, so here I am at 10pm at night putting another plant in… 🤣🤦♀️😜
Ahhhhh, that’s better 🤣
I hope to catalog my “journey” here along with trials, successes, and failures to share with others who may be interested in growing some of their own produce in a smaller, more confined place. More power to the suburban farmer!! ❤️❤️❤️ Updates coming soon (and hopefully more frequently than I’ve been posting in the past 🤷♀️🤣)
Still working on the Keto thing, but so far I’m really proud of myself for giving up carbs and sugar. It hasn’t been easy but I’ve stuck it out so far! I’ve been having fun experimenting with different foods and recipes. Last night I made salmon and asparagus foil packs and it turned out really well! I’ve never cooked salmon in my life so I was super pleased I didn’t screw it up!
Tonight I decided to try making a chocolate avocado pudding I saw online and it ended up being pretty good, though still a slight bit avocadoey- I read if you refrigerate it that minimizes that, so we’ll see how it tastes tomorrow. 🤣
Otherwise it’s been kind of a boring week with the exception of a couple things.
1. I got bit by a green anole the other day. I was trying to grab it and save it from the cats (which I’m sure would have been hilarious to watch because those damn heifers are fast) and when I finally grabbed it the dang thing bit me on the arm for my trouble. It’s not like it hurt or anything but it caught me by surprise because it basically grabbed a hunk of skin and shook it like a dog. 🤣🤣 Who knew?!!
Not here to sell car insurance…
Then today my daughter insisted we let the cats nap with us, which is fine if they’re sleeping and not acting like fools. I woke up to see this…
If you look closely you’ll see it’s actually two cats. Beans’s head is down by her hand, and his feet are actually propped up on her face. Look between her face and his legs and you’ll see Raisin, happily sleeping stuffed in there under the covers. Lol!!! I can’t believe it lasted long enough for me to snap a photo!
Monday we start a huge home updating project, Phase 1 – we have a TON of higher end wood paneling and trim in our home straight out of the 80s. I’ll be adding some before pics this weekend and also progress pics through the week! Although it wasn’t my choice to update all this I’m trying to imagine the pretty modern farmhouse look we’re going for and I think I’ll like it in the end. Guess we’ll see!!
