One Year Later...

Since my last blog post over a year ago life has been particularly challenging. I have experienced some tremendous accomplishments, some spectacular failures and some very difficult personal losses.

In November of last year I lost my darling Lola. I have missed her more than I ever imagined possible. Then in August of this year I lost my Grandma Ida as well. While Lola was a dog she was my constant companion and a great source of joy in my life. My Grandma was my last remaining grandparent and the one to which I was closest. Along with these losses I also suffered a couple of injuries to my right ankle/leg, one involving getting stepped on by a horse, these put a damper on my running at the beginning of the year but I have been working through the injuries and everything seems to be healing well.

In spite of these painful circumstances, I completed the Austin Half Marathon in February, ran my first Tough Mudder in April and climbed Mount Whitney (the highest peak in the continental US) in June. I am now training for the NYC Marathon in November and am signed up to do another Tough Mudder next weekend. When the going gets tough, the tough get tougher!

Now that we're caught up on my life, in the Spring of 2012, I added two new raised beds in my backyard. Unfortunately, when placing these beds I failed to do some critical thinking and realized too late that I put them under a tree, the tomatoes, peppers and squash I planted there just did not get enough sun to really produce. So for the fall garden I moved the beds to a sunnier spot in the yard and am hopeful for a better crop yield. Pictures to follow, CHEERS!

I'm back and filled with creative energy :)

So we finished session and have made it most of the way through a very hot, very dry summer. I also am now a year older meaning that I'm getting further from quarter aged and closer to middle aged. However, if 30 is the new 20, I'm 17 again and that is awesome!

Due to an extended vacation I took (Germany, Italy and Greece= INCREDIBLE!), I had to pull up everything in the garden, this was very sad but I am also excited that I get to start with some new plants and try out my hand at fall crops. I am currently seeding and will start preparing the bed when things start to sprout.

So far I am seeding kale, swiss chard, baby leeks, golden beets, spinach and some delicata squash. Here is a photo of my mish-mash seeding technique.

In addition to the garden, I have been exploring my creative side in a variety of ways, including cooking, learning to crochet, and a few household design projects as well.

Lemon Pepper Kale Chips!

Pineapple Almond Macaroons (I'm pretty sure I ate all of these by myself... they were so good)

My first crochet success, a baby hat! I am so excited for my soon-to-be-nephew to arrive and can't wait to be an Auntie.

I got these awesome bookshelves with a Groupon. My mom and aunt painted the little computer desk and I covered some cardboard with a great fabric and stuck it in an old frame, taaaadaaaa, new craft/computer nook.

Also, I finally got internet at home, so hopefully I will be better about this blogging business.

(Part 2 of 2) The Summer Garden

So now, we've been through all the terrible trials of May and made it through the regular 82nd Legislature. It's time for gardening, traveling, weddings, arts & crafts and most importantly SUMMER! (And unfortunately, Special Session)

I started running again this weekend, I am sadly very out of shape but getting back. Lola was with me (she's a good little interval runner, I will be taking her more often now). When I was about half was through my neighborhood jog, I trotted past a woman who was probably in her 60's with a glass of wine, flip flops and a house coat on, she cheerfully greeted me, protesting "It's cocktail hour in the garden!" I decided that I needed to go home immediately and make my very own cocktail hour in the garden, and that's exactly what I did.

It was a wonderful evening including a little caprice salad and a glass of Sangria. My cherry tomatoes are out of control and threatening to take over the other two bushes, the heirloom is having a little harder time and seems to be suffering some tomato blight which I am treating to the best of my ability and all three plants have lovely little green tomatoes fattening and ripening and getting ready for my dinner table.

I know it's very sad to look at the hole where my squash used to thrive. I'll have to figure out something that can take the 100+ Texas heat.

While we are talking tomatoes, I had several friends warn me about grub worms ruining my tomatoes and until today I had not seen a single one. Then while I was inspecting the ailing heirloom I saw this disgusting creature. I once again had to put on the garden gloves to "take care of him." I could not handle simply squishing him, so I dramatically flung him to the ground and stomped him with my flip flop. Ewww!

On to the peppers, as before, the banana bells are proliferating. I still have not really figured out the best way to cook them, but I read a great recipe for stuffing them and then wrapping them in crescent rolls, yum. Also, I really thought I bought a red bell pepper, turns out it's purple. Then my orange bell pepper is still green but hopefully will continue to ripen and get bigger.

(Part 1 of 2) The Garden in May

So with the end of session and beginning of special session, May and this first week in June were really crazy at work. Even with 120+ comp. hours worked last month, I tried to keep up with the garden and get a few other creative things done around the house. Plus, I had a couple of great family visits that rendered some new and exciting stuff!

Now to the garden, May was not the best month for gardening here in Casa de Nezda. All of my plants began to bear lots of fruit which was very exciting but not without tradgedy for some. Below are all the pepppers on the banana bell pepper plants along with some pretty tomatoes which I have now devoured.

I have never been a big fan of tomatoes and to this day don't really care for the kind that come on sandwiches at most restaurants, however, a garden tomato is totally different. Squeeze out the seeds, add a little salt and some olive oil and what a wonderful treat. Plus, these tomatoes seem to be able to reach a deep reddness that their store bought counterparts could never hope for. The heirlooms, had some pretty serious problems, including major drought/cold cracks that made them not look so pretty, even though they still tasted wonderful, and one of the two got attacked by pests and had to be thrown away.

Now for the really terrible news, the dreaded squashvine borer... I was warned by a very nice gentleman at the Austin Garden Club that these little pests would be a problem but when I read about them, all the articles said not to worry until June or July. Apparently this is not true in Texas, in Texas a gardener needs to worry about squashvine borers at the beginning of May. Basically, these wasp like creatures lay thier itty-bitty eggs on your squash plants and they are barely visible. When they hatch, they burrow into the the healthy stems and begin eatting. One day the plant looks vibrantly healthy, the next it's wilted, then it's dead. These evil little larva managed to kill all 5 of my lovely squash plants. As soon as I knew there was a problem I tried to help the little plants by cutting open the stems, digging out the white worm looking larva and popping them (yes, they pop), very disgusting, I was very glad for gardening gloves. Here is the damage, very sad.

Healthy, squash stem or so I thought.

Wilted squash plant.

Dead squash with the exposed stem where the borer ate the middle.

Ants!

It's been too long since my last post. In the last few weeks some very exciting things have happened! I had my first two tomatoes--they were delicious--super flavorful and fresh tasting. I also got my first squash and he was wonderful as well, even though I think I may have picked him sooner than I should have. That said check out all the peppers and tomatoes that are working away. I have lots of banana peppers, a couple heirloom tomatoes and a bunch of cherry tomatoes.

Even with all these lovely looking plants and all the veggies coming along, I have noticed that my squash plants are being inundated with ants. I had been noticing them around the gardens edge and pouring boiling water on them to kill them. Unfortunately, they just moved right into the garden. I don't know how to kill them without poison or boiling water. They seem to be doing some real damage and I think may be related to why the blooms on the squash keep dying off so quickly.

I do think that so far the garden experiment has been a success and am very proud of all the growth my little plants have shown and I'm exciting to have plants to harvest all summer long.

Out of Control

The plants are getting huge! All three tomato plants have little green tomatoes on them and are about 3 and half feet tall. The pepper plants are a little smaller but getting little peppers as well and the squash have these huge lovely green leaves.

That said, I keep getting little squash fruit with beautiful yellow blossoms then right after they start to fatten up some thing is attacking them. I have been killing ant mounds all around the garden for the last week by dumping boiling water on them (organic pest control) but today I found ants in one of the squash blossoms and no mound around for me to wreak havoc on. I'm really not sure what to do in the way of better pest control. I suppose its time for more research. My other failure this week was with the lettuce. I managed to pick and eat two heads of lettuce and give away a third but the other three just kept growing and I think will be too tough to eat (not mention they are three feet tall and about to blossom themselves). Moral of the story here-- garden is growing fabulously but maybe a little too well, hope friends will welcome free tomatoes, peppers and squash (if it stops rotting off the vine).

In addition to the vegetable garden coming right along, the front garden is full of little plants that I am very hopeful will be flowers. The heat has already come to central Texas, so I don't know how well they will fare but my fingers are crossed.

And finally, because I realized there was not a single picture of her on here. I decided to take one of Lola in the freshly mowed lawn. I am so proud of her- loving, loyal and beautiful. What more could a dog-mom ask for?

Gardens Are Not Vegetarian

First off, I did get a whole lot more time with the plants this week, which is great because they are getting so big. It's like a sped up version of raising children, except you eat them at the end. And speaking of eating them, check out the first head of lettuce I got!

While I have some pretty wonderful pictures on the progress my little plants are making, I do have to lament the loss of one of my 6 zucchini plants. I think it got flattened in a storm, I came home and it was completely snapped off at the base of the stem. Then again, at then end of the day this is probably a good thing because each plant apparently can yield between 60 and 100 squash. I still have no idea what I might do with 300 zucchini but some of you lucky folks might be seeing it at your dinner table.

Now to the title of today's post. To make my plants strong and lovely and maximize fruit bearing, I have been fertilizing them and reading about the different organic fertilizers and pest repellents available. In all this research I found it some what ironic that often the best "organic" fertilizers are made from animal by products. Bone meal is good for roses, and blood meal is good for tomatoes, and then in my own garden I've been using something that was explained to me as ground up fish and seaweed (yum vegetables!). Now, I'm sure corporate farmers have more options than these, like manure and compost, but I still thought it was somewhat odd and maybe a good warning to my organic loving vegetarian friends. All that said, look what the fish guts have done for my plants! The zucchini leaves are the size of dinner plates and my tomatoes are two feet tall!

Now onto the project this week, I have now made 2 attempts to grow more veggies from seed. I keep getting to small seedlings then they die. So this week I invested in a seed starting green house. It was amazing to see the little seedlings sprout up practically overnight. I hope my investment keeps them all from dying off after a week of life. I also must say, it really is amazing to me every time I plant a seed and then look at my strong healthy plants and realize they came from such tiny little starts. Pretty awesome how much potential is in such an itty bitty package.

Finally, the plants I did manage to grow from seed. Basically, I did this randomly and just dumped 4 packages of seed into freshly tilled dirt. Look at all those little plants coming up. Soon they will be flowers and the bed is going to be incredible. Unless the heat gets them first, in which case next year I'm buying bushes.