Poor little greenie!

I have been trying to grow some vegetables from seeds with very little luck so Sunday night I went out and bought some real plants: a cherry tomato plant, eggplant, zucchini squash, yellow squash, chili peppers, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, and a few others. I was happy to find that the ground is much softer than it was last year.

We had to rototill the ground last year and add bags and bags of soil builder. This year, I got my son to help me dig and plant the little plants as the sun was setting. The winds were really strong and I worried about them. In the morning, when I checked on them, they all looked good.
I watered them again and went to work. I took these photos Monday afternoon. However, Tuesday morning, we had a cold spell. My thermometer read 32 degrees. It must have been so, because when I got home to water the plants they were completely wilted and black, all but one, a white eggplant. My garden is a bust! I have some onions that came up from last year and two bee balm plants that are still growing well from last year but everything I just bought, all $60 worth, all gone! Poor little things! Here are the onions from last year. At least they're doing well.
Here's one of the Bee Balm plants and the little white eggplant (sole survivor!). Here's a close up of the eggplant.

Poor little greenie - song: Aladdin Sane, artist: David Bowie, album: Aladdin Sane

Color me doubtful

All weekend, I felt really tired and out of breath from coughing. However, I did manage to weed out the garden- three foot high weeds! (I am such a bad blogger! I should have taken a better picture. This was a huge pile but it doesn't look it, does it? All those weeds are at least two to three feet long.) I was amazed at the growth. The last time I looked it was all barren. Now, to get my vegetables planted. Where I live, we don't plant until after Mother's Day because there's always a cold snap at the end of April, early May. Matter of fact, just yesterday morning, it was only 38 degrees. By afternoon, we had a balmy 78.

But I don't know if my horses are ever going to lose their shaggy winter coats. Here's Yalla! With the lighting in this photo she almost looks like she's going to be gray, doesn't she? But I think it's just the washed out color of the photograph. She's actually sort of dun colored. You can see how she's shedding in some places more than others.

Here's her buffalo coat.

She still has stripes on her legs.

I tried to show how black her tail is but it didn't photograph correctly with the over bright sun. She doesn't have any white hairs, although it certainly looks like she does in this picture.
She's also got a lot of brown hairs in her tail. But they're at the sides, like grown out baby hair. She has no light hair at the bottom or undersides.
Here's a nice head shot. Again, trick photography gives her a strange color mane. It's actually black with a touch of brown hairs.
I'm wondering if I should try out my clippers on her...

Color me doubtful - song: Real Cool World, artist: David Bowie, album: Cool World soundtrack

Sit in the garden- part 2

This summer my neighbor and I planted a garden. See here for previous story. In the beginning, I was picking romaine lettuce daily. Then the jalapenos started ripening. Boy, are they hot! I have a recipe for jalapeno poppers that I love. Wearing plastic gloves, I cut the jalapenos in half, lengthwise. Take ALL the seeds out and fill the little "boats" with a mixture of half cream cheese and half grated mozzarella cheese. Bake in 350 oven until the tops are very lightly browned, about 10 to 15 minutes, I think. I always forget to actually time it. sorry! The cheese eases the burn and boy are they good! These guys are really hot! One time I touched the insides of them with my bare hands when I was cleaning them. Then I washed my hands really good. About an hour later, I touched my nose and my nose went numb!I have been getting baseball bat sized zucchini. I like to deep fry it. Easy recipe- make pancake batter, add a little garlic and onion powder, dip slices of zucchini, and deep fry until lightly browned. Serve with marinara sauce (spaghetti sauce) or ranch dressing.

I have been picking onions, peas, yellow squash, chilies, jalapenos, garlic, and LOTS of tomatoes! I've also had green peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, and corn.

I declare that our garden is a success!

Sit in the garden - song: If there is something, artist: Tin Machine coveringRoxy Music, album: Tin Machine

Sit in the garden

My neighbor, Ruth, and I have been talking about growing a community garden this summer. My son also expressed interest in growing a 'salsa' garden.

So, last weekend, we got busy. First we chose the spot. I have an unused dog run that is fully fenced and fairly close to a water pump. My son, Ross, cleaned it up. Then the three of us drove to town to rent a rototiller. We rented one for 24 hours., knowing that we had a big job ahead with the hard ground here.After working at it for an hour we decided that the rototiller wasn't powerful enough so we drove back to town for the BIG one.

My son makes it look so easy doesn't he?
But, believe me, that thing bucked! While we were in town we bought vegetable plants and bags of soil builder.

We laid out all the plants and proceeded to plant them.

Then we watered them being very careful not to upset the plants and dirt walls.We covered the new plants with some old hay for protection against the harsh sun.

Ross really has a green thumb in this picture!

We planted tomatoes, lettuce, onions, yellow squash, zucchini, green peppers, eggplant, jalapenos, sweet peas, corn, cantaloupe and watermelon. We also threw in some herbs: dill, cilantro, and bee balm. We planted zinnia and marigolds here and there to help fight the bugs. I threw moth balls around the perimeter fence too.

I know this garden isn't going to be economically efficient. I mean we can buy lots of vegetables, and fruits too, for the hundreds of dollars we'll spend on it but it'll be fun. The produce will be healthy too.

Sit in the garden - song: If there is something, artist: Tin Machine covering
Roxy Music, album: Tin Machine