More Things Discovered

Who Knew Peppers Would Survive the Blazing Summer Sun?

I had a most pleasant surprise when I cleared the morning glory vines off the spring garden in September. There, still struggling to put out fruit, were the two green pepper plants I had put in April. I found three peppers that were beginning to turn red (and now you know why red peppers cost so much in the grocery stores - they are actually green peppers that have been left on the vine to ripen - it takes longer), which I picked. Now that they no longer have to compete for sun and water they are continuing to produce, there are at least 5 - 6 peppers at various stages of growth. Some look like they are even ready to pick.

Gifts from Hurricane Ike -          The next two pictures were brought to me thanks to hurricane Ike.

 These sunflowers now grow in profusion in the cracks in the concrete between the garage and the neighbors fence.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This WAS a Chinese Elm tree. They produce an inordinate amount of seeds every fall and can really be described as a weed tree.  There are baby Chinese Elm trees in a great many places they do not need to be around our property.
 

I can still remember asking my DH to remove that little tree in the corner of the garden before it got too big.  Well, it was about 10 - 12 inches across when Ike came blowing through and he broke off a number of branches, it being a soft wood.  A friend offered to cut it down for us and we took him up on the offer.  Since Ike, the stump has been busily trying to send out tiny, thin branches all around its edge, that is until I tried something.  A friend of mine shared with me a technique she uses to remove old stumps from her property.  She piles a mound of lit charcoal briquettes onto the offending stump and just keeps lit coals on the stump until eventually the stump is just burned away.  I'm quite good at putting the lit charcoal on the stump but I am not so good at remembering to keep adding new charcoal.  The first time I did this to the stump however, I did manage to kill it and now it has stopped sending out thin little branches.  I've even noticed that the bark has fallen off.  I think I'll try burning the stump one more time and then if I haven't cleared it completely, I'll let the termites finish the job.

 

The Fall Garden 2010

The weather here in South East Texas is beautiful. My tomatoes have been planted for a few weeks now but is wasn't until last week that I started to grow them vertically. My vertical support system took a beating this summer with the weight of the morning glory vines so I had to do some hunting around to find fittings and poles that were still straight and undamaged to create somthing for this fall. I love the nylon netting they have a Home Depot, the squares a wide enough apart that I can weave the tomato vines in and out of them without difficulty and without using twisty ties. This is what is looks like.

In front of the tomatoes are 9 broccoli plants and 18 butter crunch lettuce plants. The white strips are old window blind strips. They say if you don't have a square foot garden marked in square foot blocks it's not a square foot garden. The fall garden is in my second grow box, behind it is the spring grow box.