Saturday, April 30, 2016

A little about the vegetable patch last year

I had a post last year about my little vegetable and herb garden. I was starting back after a long break. When I had a vegetable patch about 10 years ago, I had only cucumbers, okra and some cantaloupe. The crop was great, and we had to give away some of the produce. Then life got busy and I didn't pursue gardening at all for a few years. I did have a few succulents and a few flowers,  but I didn't venture into vegetable growing.

Last year, a couple of great people inspired me into getting myself a raised bed. With the help of some muscle from my husband, who supports my whims and takes keen interest in the progress, we made trips to Home Depot and soon I had a cedar plank raised bed.

Advantages of cedar is that it is untreated wood, and it does not rot or get infested like other kinds of woods. A raised bed exposed to the elements will easily last about 7-10 years, I am told. The plank was 10 by 2 and 16 feet long. We got a bed of 6 by 2, giving me an area of about 12 square feet. The disadvantage of cedar is that it is a little expensive, and not all stores carry planks that size.

Soon, I had 2 cherry tomato plants growing really well in the bed, along with a Serrano pepper and a bell pepper plant. The other half of the bed was herbs. Genovese basil, Thai basil, and Sweet basil. There was also some Oregano that I barely saw until it was September, and some garlic chives that didn't make it beyond 2-3 weeks. I had overcrowded the bed without knowing it. The cherry tomato yield was fantastic, we had at least a bowlful of tomatoes everyday for two months. The peppers got crowded, and bell peppers didn't produce at all until fall, only after the tomatoes were pulled out, and it got a little cooler.


The herb garden was a big success. I even managed to get two jars of pesto from all the basil. Thai basil seasoned a lot of summer salads, noodles, and a healthy version of Basil fried rice. Chives, rosemary, and mint also made it to the kitchen every now and then. I got a little bit of lemon grass from a friend and that took root easily. Soon, it was a good bush. We had a mild winter, but lemongrass tea provided relief to neighbors and friends every time there was a complaint of a scratchy throat or a stuffed up nose.

I had planted zucchini squash earlier on in April, and it seemed to be growing well. It produced a lot of flowers, only male ones initially, and female flowers after about 6 weeks. Yet, it was a total failure. I didn't get even one squash from it. There were 4 plants and they grew enormous leaves and a great number of flowers, but no fruit. I am still not sure what went wrong.


These Zinnias as companion plants to the zucchini seemed to be doing very well.


These lovely bell peppers grew in late September after temperatures had cooled a little. I was happy with the size. I got a few more until December. 


I have learned a few lessons and my vegetable garden this year will be a little bigger and hopefully the yield will be better than last year. There will be a few additions to the herb garden.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Birding- Lifers and Lists

Some events that could be categorized as challenges presented themselves earlier in the year and they kept me from updating the blog as often as I would have liked to.
In an attempt to counter the effects of those stressful situations, I took to visiting nearby places that I hadn't visited in all the years we have been here on the Texas Gulf Coast. The Birding group I have joined on Facebook always has suggestions to offer and a host of information on migratory patterns and sightings. Visits to Surfside, Port Aransas, The Brazos Bend State Park, and Galveston were a result of these recommendations.
Everyday you learn something new is an adage which rings true all the time. Every time I visited the Facebook page of the group, I would see people using words I hadn't heard before.
"This one was a 'lifer'",
"How many in your 'list' now?"
Soon I learned that the first sighting of any species was a 'lifer'. People kept elaborate notebooks with life lists or e-lists that included details of all bird species they had ever sighted along with information about where the sighting took place, date and time and additional information one would consider useful. While I am an avid birder, I had no such list, so I decided to make one. I just added names of birds and where I had seen them. I had over a hundred names already.

Some of the names on my wishlist were Sandhill Cranes, Whooping Cranes, and Wood Storks. While I have yet to see the latter two, I managed to get a good look at a very large flock of Sandhills. They were together with a much bigger gaggle of Snow geese. It was like hitting a jackpot. I had been looking for them for a while. I heard their call and sure enough, there they were! Dozens of them! Coming so close to the sighting of Roseate Spoonbills that had put on quite a show for me at Surfside, this was indeed the icing on the cake.