Color in Late November

 Hibiscus 

Cross Vine

View from the Kitchen Window

Although the sun light is fading, the veggie garden is still thriving.  I'm picking all my cool weather veggies and enjoying something fresh for dinner every day.  Last week we had another section of drip added along the southwestern side of the yard, along the side of the house and along the back of the house where there is deep, deep shade (my fern garden).  I will appreciate this next year.  I'm trying to follow SAWS recommendations to only water every three weeks or so if there is no rain.  The veggies are getting irrigated twice a week.  Rain is predicted over the weekend......

View From My Kitchen Window--Early November

The vegetable garden is thriving with the cooler/moist weather.  I've made my third cutting of Swiss chard with more greens to come.

Green Peppers--Finally!

Finally the bell pepper plants are setting fruit.  We had 3.5 inches of rain last night and one large branch broke of from the pepper plant.  It was loaded with baby fruit.  I will add to my garden salad for tonight.  There still are plenty on the other plants to last for weeks, including the freezer.

What a blessing to receive 3.5 inches of rain last night.  We did have some erosion issues but not bad for the heavy rainfall.  The rain barrels are full.  I'm thinking we will not need to use the sprinklers for weeks.  This bodes well for spring flowers and blue bonnets.

Cool Weather Greens

Tonight I fixed a beautiful salad all from greens from the vegetable garden.  The temperatures will be warmer this week with night time lows around 70 and day time highs in the mid 80s (lots of humidity).  I hope this leads to some rain later in the week as predicted.

Also the pepper plant is fruiting and has tiny green peppers.  Maybe we will get a crop yet this year.

The morning glory, cross vine, yellow bells, duranta and lantana are blooming profusely.  The monarch butterflies are migrating through and seem to really like the duranta.  We fertilized the grass last week.  With the shorter days, the grass is not growing as quickly.  The Turk's cap are beginning to fade to to lack of sunlight.   Until it freezes, we should have lots of color in the yard.

Sunny Faces

Sunny faces from Mexico.  Yve and Raphie Ramos gave us these faces in exchange for three  room nights.  They really brighten up the exterior of Joe's rock shop.

This morning it was 47 degree.  Yeah!  The nights are so much cooler and the days are shorter.  I can see a real change in our hot weather plants as they begin to fade due to less sun light.  On the other hand, our cool season plantings are thriving especially the coleus.

Veggie update:  Calvin Finch recommends using regular lawn fertilizer on your cool weather veggies every three weeks so I went out and fertilized everything today.  I volunteered at the Herb festival for the BCMG and was the booth's best customer bringing home monster spinach, Swiss chard, thyme, artichokes and greens.  I've been thinning out the radish, beets, carrots, and lettuce greens and adding them to salads.  I make up a big bowl of salad greens which lasts us for a few days.  To help with the process I purchased a salad spinner.  It works so well spinning out the moisture.  I noticed a cabbage looper with the radish greens (and very eaten up leaves) so I have got to start spraying with BT.

Sad news about the green pepper plants.  I was told by another avid gardener that the plants are high because they are not getting enough sun.  She thought the leaves also looked diseased and thought the buds may never come to fruit.  I'm very disappointed and will be glad to tear them out at the end of the season.  I'm still going to give them until the freeze to produce but I'm not expecting much.

We found a great sale at Lowe's and I picked up several split leaf philodendrons.  Joe dug out some Turk's cap to transplant and what a thick mess of roots.  Lesson learned about how invasive they can be and how thick and deep the roots go.  I also picked up an allamanda plant and a hummingbird bush.  It's the perfect time to transplant.

October Rains Bring April Natives

It's rained almost two inches in the the last week.  With night time temperatures now in the 50's and daytime in the 70s, it's perfect!  This is when I love living in South Texas.  I'm transplanting something every day now. ..Mexican petunias, firecracker plants, ginger plant, Turk's Cap, Pride of Barbados, cactus, etc.  Lowe's had many great plants 50% including split leaf philodendron, hummingbird bush, tropical plants.  Some lady friends from church are coming over in the morning to help themselves to all the transplants they want.

Veggie Update:  The cold weather veggies are thriving with the cooler nights.  I've been picking lettuce, chard, radishes for salads.  I pulled out two tomato plants suffering from a virus and planted more beets and radishes.  The other four celebrity plants are fruiting even though they have the disease.  As long as they are producing, I'm keeping them.  Very soon the peppers and eggplants should be loaded with fruit.  I'm trying to fertilize every couple of weeks.