Blackeyed Peas and Tomato Progress

The blackeyed peas (blackeyed and purple hulls) have been doing great! They've put out tons of pods. I've been picking and shelling a handful everyday.


After a week, I had a pound of fresh shelled peas. Dr. B doesn't like them, so I went to town.
What could be better than fresh blackeyed peas and hot buttered cornbread?
Delicious!
My grapes from are starting to ripen. These were a surprise because they were supposed to be a bronze grape, not purple. I had a bronze one ripen on one of the grapevines by the fence as well. They were both unbelievably delicious, with unique textures and potent flavors. You can really taste/feel the pectin (what makes it 'jelly'). Dr. B said it was like eating an eyeball. I loved them, and I can't wait for more. Hopefully next year the vines will all be established and they'll really start producing. I'm going to transplant the vine that I think tastes the best to an actual muscadine trellis this winter (vineyard style) over by the 5-gallon bucket tomatoes.
Speaking of which, the 5-gallon bucket tomato experiment is going very well. The photo above shows what they looked like shortly after transplanting, and the photo below shows how much they've grown in the short span of one month.

Almost all have flowers, and one of the Sweet Chelseas already has a little tomato. With any luck there will be a bumper crop this fall. Dr. B and I are hoping to make and can spaghetti sauce and salsa.

Bamboo Tee-Pees

Victor did good. He got 0.5-inch diameter, 7-foot long bamboo poles in yesterday. I picked up 30 for less than $1 each. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to do it, but I'll be tying and caging the plants as they grow. These poles are much much sturdier than what i was using. I put three in each bucket, and tied them at the top. They're very strong, and should hold up the tomatoes very well.

5-Gallon Bucket Summer Tomatoes: Phase 2

I thought for sure that some of the tomato seeds I planted in June would die. Every single one is now a healthy transplant size. I couldn't believe it. I had originally intended to grow 6 plants (two of each variety) in 5 gallon buckets, but with such seed-sprouting success I expanded to 9 buckets.I planted 3 of each variety (Arkansas Traveler, Sweet Chelsea, and Texas Wild) in a five-gallon bucket. To prepare the buckets, I drilled 8 1/2" diameter holes around the base, and covered them from the inside with window screen. Then I filled them up with potting soil. This will hopefully provide more than adequate drainage in the bucket. After planting, I fertilized with fish emulsion, and put several handfulls of mulch on top.


All the books and websites say to make tomato cages out of concrete reinforcing mesh, but it is way too expensive. It would cost ~$25 per cage, and I'm not going to pay it. For the short term, I put the skinny, cheap bamboo stick in the buckets, and tied them at the top to make a bamboo tee-pee. Victor ( Plants for All Seasons ) is ordering some more robust bamboo poles for me to make my own cages. It will take a little more work, but save lots of money.


I put the buckets against the east side of the house where they'll get good morning sun, but will be shaded from the scorching afternoon heat. I put them up on cinder blocks so it would be easy to mow and trim the grass around them.

After all this work, I now have 9 thriving transplants that will hopefully produce tons of tomatoes this fall once the weather cools down enough for them to fruit. I had 30 plants, and only planted 9, leaving me with 21 healthy plants to try to find homes for. I gave a bunch to Nick at church, but I still have 13 or so.

I'm a bad influence on children:

Pickles!

We've had so many cucumbers, I thought it was time to do something with them. I googled a no-cook pickle recipe, snuck off to the store, and got pickling.


I also pickled a small jar of jalepenos and banana peppers. These are all "refridgerator pickled". While they have to be kept in the fridge, they're also ready to eat after 24 hours. I'll let you know how they taste.

On a side note, my summer tomatoes are doing great so far. I'll be transplanting them to their buckets this weekend.

Fruits of Our Labor

The picture doesn't do it justice. I had an excellent home-grown lunch at work today. (Don't look Dr. B)

Our tomatoes have been the envy of all our friends, neighbors, and co-workers. We really didn't have to do anything. I didn't do anything special. I guess fresh picked is just that much better than store-bought.

I've planted more cucumbers, summer/fall tomato seeds, and more green beans (the first ones quit producing). My plan is to try the summer tomatoes in 5-gallon buckets on the side of the house where they won't get scorched. I'm trying 3 different sizes: Arkansas Traveler (big heirloom), Sweet Chelsea (plum-sized cherry), and Texas Wild (small cherry).

Next up: Building trellises for the green beans and cucumbers, and finishing burying the water line to the soaker hoses.

Our Produce

Just thought I'd post some pictures of our veggies. I forgot to take a picture of the green beans before I ate them. I've been getting one raspberry per day, and will have to make salsa so all the tomatoes don't go to waste. I think I'm going to start weighing all the vegetables and fruit we produce, and find out how many pounds of food we can squeeze out of our backyard. Yesterday I put in the soaker hoses, and I'll spend this afternoon after work burying the supply hoses.

Expansion!

Major expansion. Or at least major for us. This past weekend I put in eight 2.5'x8' raised beds in between the fruit trees. I've already transplanted the peppers, and have planted summer squash and black-eyed peas. Everything is going really well. We've had more tomatoes than we could eat (3-4 per day), and 5 huge cucumbers so far. I've only been able to pick ~ a half pound of green beans, but hopefully production will pick up. If you look closely in the picture, you can see that the beans have grown up into the gutters on the porch, and are almost 10 feet tall. All the peppers we've picked so far have been delicious. (and hot!) The bugs got one of our bell peppers, but there are few more still on the way.

Next up: Soaker hose irrigation system

Hydrangeas

The Endless Summer Hydrangeas we planted are really doing great! Three of them at the front of the house have some really pretty flowers. The first and third ones are blue and the second one is pink. The fourth hasn't bloomed, but I think it might need a little more time. Originally I wanted them to all be blue, but the pink one is really pretty. 

I do think it is odd that the plants next to each other aren't putting out the same color blooms. The color should be dependent on the pH of the soil. They are close enough together that I would have assumed they would be the same color...I guess I still have some things to learn about these particular flowers. For now I am just happy they are thriving and blooming. 

Progress

I can't believe how well things are growing. Our tomatoes are HUGE, and are escaping the confines of their cages. We have several tomatoes on the plants, and I think the Coreopsis planted in front of them discourages stink bugs.

We also have two new addtions: a Fuerte and a Mexicola Grande avocado tree. If we can keep them pollinated, we should have avocados all but 2 months out of the year. I think they've got some growing to do before they fruit, but we're hoping for the best. I'm going to keep them in large pots for the time being. I'll put them in the ground if another tree fails.



Our blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries are doing very well. We've got several large blackberries, and they've started to change color from green to deep red. They have also started to put out new canes for next years cropt. We have just a few strawberries, but they're still blooming, and the raspberries are just beginning to bloom. The raspberries seem to be doing extremely well in their pots, unlike the blueberries. I've lost two so far. They may need to be planted in the ground with peat moss to really take off.

Look at all the lemons!

Our big bell pepper

Our pole beans are taller than I am.
We've got Monarch Caterpillars on our butterfly weed!
We still have a few pests to deal with though.

Herbs

Peppermint, Fennel, Garlic Chives, Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Thyme, Epazote, Lemon Catnip, Lavender, Basil, and one other I can't remember. These perennials make up our new herb garden. This weekend I went to the Arbor Gate (big selection of healthy looking plants) and picked up 12 herbs. I had hoped to plant parsley, cilantro, and tarragon, but I couldn't find them. Even more disappointing was the cats' reaction to the catnip. They didn't seem affected by it at all. Perhaps it's because I got Lemon Catnip, which is reported to do better in our humid climate. It also wilted after Dr. B planted it, but she didn't water the herbs after tranplanting them. As of this morning, it looked like it was perking up very nicely, and all of the herbs have grown noticeably. In addition to the culinary value and unique scents, most of these are self seeding and attract beneficial insects.

I'm beginning to worry that some of these aren't actually perennial. The signs at the Arbor Gate said 'Perennial', but I noticed some of the little plastic labels on the plants said 'Annual'. We'll see what happens. Even if they are annual, we still get to enjoy fresh herbs all spring and summer long, and they're pretty cheap any way. And if they are truly self seeding, they won't need to be replaced next spring, they'll just come back in the same place.

Lemons and Limes

While at Caldwell's Nursery, I also picked up an Improved Meyer Lemon and a Mexican Thornless Key Lime. They didn't look very good, but the price was right. The leaves on the lime were a few, and mottled green and yellow as if it needed to be fertilized or was suffering from some sort of mineral deficiency. Most likely nitrogen. It did have several little blooms, so hopefully all is not lost. I'll see if I can revive it with a little attention and Osmocote.

The lemon looked just OK, but it did have several small fruits beginning to grow. Hopefully they'll be ripe and ready in August. I haven't seen any more blooms, but more may appear as the tree becomes established. I planted both in large pots so I can bring them inside when it gets cold. They're supposed to be dwarf to semi-dwarf varieties that do well in containers, with fruit that makes excellent pies and margaritas.

Peaches

This weekend Andrew and I drove down to Caldwell's Nursery in Rosenberg, TX to look for Cara Cara Pink Navel oranges. The two they had in stock didn't look very good, and Andrew wound up getting one for free because it looked so bad. Despite the poor state of the citrus, the had a some very nice looking peach trees. I picked up a Tropic Snow and a Red Baron. According to Urban Harvest, the Tropic Snow ripens before the peach's main insect pests can get it, and the Red Baron is just an awesome cultivar. If all goes well, we should have peaches from mid-May to mid July! The Tropic Snow already has one peachlet, which I'm afraid is probably all we'll get this year. With proper pruning and care, hopefully next year will be the year of the cobbler.

Blackberries!

The blackberries were the first thing I planted this year. They are Kiowa blackberries, reported to be the largest, thorniest, best tasting, and most Houston tolerant cultivar available. Dr. B and I bought the last three they had at the Arbor Gate. They didn't look like much, just little thorny sticks. However, it didn't take them long to become established and start flowering. In retrospect, I probably planted them much too close together, but they don't seem to mind. I can always transplant one or two if needed.


Most everything else I've planted will most likely require a year or so to become productive, but not these guys. Earlier this week I noticed small berries beginning to grow. As of last night there were five, and the plants are continuing to blossom and grow. I may only get a handful of berries this year, but that's pretty exciting for someone who has never been able to keep a plant alive before. Dr. B suggested we save as many as we can and make a cobbler. If we don't have enough this year, we'll definitely do it next year.

Apples and Blueberries

Yesterday afternoon I had another package from Ison's waiting for me. The apple trees and the blueberry bushes seemed to be packaged with a little more care than my previous order. The plastic wrapping was filled with moist wood pulp to keep the roots from drying out.

I honestly hadn't thought about trying to grow apples here. I didn't think it would get cold enough, and that is the case for most cultivars. However, Anna and Dorsett are reported to do well here with a minimum of chill hours required. Anna requires Dorsett to be a pollinator, so I bought one of each with the intention of planting them next to each other.

Unfortunately, I had not yet cleared the site or prepared the soil. To keep them alive until this weekend, I potted the trees in 5-gallon buckets. (I drilled holes drilled in the bottom) I was low on potting soil, so I made a mix of 50% topsoil, 50% potting soil. I think this actually gave the trees a little more stability than purely soft potting soil would have. After being potted, watered, and just decompressing after being packaged, they didn't look half bad. I even noticed a few little blooms on the Dorsett. These varieties are ripe in June, so I don't expect any fruit this year, but I hope by next year they will be well established and well positioned to give us a good crop.


The blueberries looked a little dry, but in alright shape. I wasn't sure what variety to get, so I got one of each reported to grow well in Houston: Climax, Premier, Tiftblue, and Brightwell. For whatever reason, Ison's included an extra Tiftblue, but I'm not complaining. I hadn't prepared the site for the bushes yet, so I potted them in potting soil and gave them a little Osmocote fertilizer. Once I finally get all the brush cleared, I'm going to plant them under the tall pine trees by the shed. They require acidic soils and heavy mulch, and the pines should provide both. I'll head over to Walmart this weekend an reload on mulch and get some peat moss to mix in with the potting soil.