First Day Canning Peaches

Today was my first day canning peaches this year.  Last year I made 22 pints.  Today, 4.5 pints from my cling stone tree.  The ants have been horrible on the peaches this year.  Because of the droughty weather...?

 

Blackberries have also started to ripen up in the last week or so.  (from a few days ago)

 

Passion Vine

Passion vine were particularly beautiful this year! This was a gift from one of my nursery customers, and I didn't think it would be hardy here in Lubbock so I planted it in a protected space by my front door but it has handled the our Lubbock winters just fine!

Click HERE to learn about the symbolism of the passion vine!

Oh, my blog has been so sad the last several years.  With blazing heat and scorching wind and nothing awesome to show for my efforts, it has just been too depressing to post much.

It has actually rained a few times this year, and comparatively it feels like living in an oasis.  My vegetable garden is just pathetic, so I have largely abonded it to experiment with other planting sites around the yard that have 1) fresh dirt from the farm or 2) less exposure to the intense sun and wind.  So far, direct seeding in these areas has been encouraging.  Time will tell.

Herbs have been doing well despite the drought - Italian parsley, rosemary, oregano, sweet basil, holy basil (Thanks, Candy!), sage and some kind of mint.

Here are some recent pics.  So what do the Swinging Singles do on Friday nights?

Cool off our feet, watch the grass grow, and take pictures of the dogs...

Trigger the Digger who came from the pound in Breckenridge, TX.  Poor boy, he'd been at the pound for five months!  He needed a home, and I needed a good dog - we both lucked out!!

Huddy Girl is 12 or 13, but she just keeps on keepin' on.  I think Trig has livened her up some since she's taken to chewing up stuff, just like a pup.  I thought he would learn from her, but I think she's learning from him!!

The hillbilly fountain is still going strong and is accented with Four O'Clocks growing next to it.  Four O'Clocks are easy to grow from seed and have fragrant yellow and pink flowers that open in the evening.  In Lubbock, they need some afternoon and evening shade to perform well.

Summer Bummer!

I can't believe it!  After I just said yesterday how important proper pruning is so that you have a nice, strong branch structure on your fruit trees, I came home today and found this:

It split right down the middle.  The weight of all those peaches was just too much for my poor tree.  This is what I get for bragging, I guess.  I'm so bummed.  I guess you can have too much of a good thing.

My only consolation is that I've heard that my dear old dad was kind of a slum lord with his purple martin houses this year.  Oh, well...

Peaches

Peaches are about the only thing I got out of the garden last year, and it looks like it's going to be the same again this year unless I get a few late-season habaneros and tomatoes.

They're still a little green, but Sam and I ate a few tonight anyways.  They're tart with just a light sweetness.  If I can keep the ants off of them, they'll make for good eating soon!

(These are Elberta peaches, by the way.)

These two pictures show the branching structure of the tree (as well as how it looks like it's about to split in half from the weight of all the fruit!).  You want to prune fruit trees so that they have open centers with branches at wide angles which makes them nice and strong so they'll bear the weight of the fruit.

Take that, Dad - loads of peaches!

Peppers!

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been taking pictures!  So...  I'm going to see if I can start getting caught up now that's it's cooling off (we may have our first freeze tonight!), and I'm getting things wrapped up with the garden for this season.

Here are some of the beautiful, delicious peppers I've been harvesting.

These haven't been washed yet, so they have some water spots on them.  Pictured here are Costa Rican Sweet (red, upper left), Pablano (green, upper right), and Habanero (orange, lower right).  There are also a handful of tomatoes - Roma (long) and Sun Gold (cherry).

All of these were started from seed from Burpee except for the Romas which were leftover from last year's Wal-Mart seeds (which are just fine too, Burpee just has some unique varieties).

Costa Rican Sweet pepper

Costa Rican Sweet peppers make a good substitue for bell peppers.  This was the first year I grew them, and I was really happy with the production levels.  I got many more peppers than the bells I've grown in the past.  The flavor isn't particularly distinctive, but they're good when you want a sweet pepper, and a bit of char helps bring out the flavor.

Pablono pepper with a handful of Sun Gold tomatoes

Pablanos have become my standout favorite this year!  They have a distinctive, almost pungent flavor and more heat when they are green (my preference) than when they are red (also good but sweeter).  They are fantastic in omlettes!

Habanero peppers

Habaneros are known for their smoky flavor, but frankly I'm not sure my palette is discriminating enough to detect this - I mainly find them hot!  But good hot!  According to Burpee, the habanero is 100 times hotter than a jalapeno, so be careful when handling.  The habs in the upper portion of this picture have been sitting in my collander for a few days and have ripened more developing a deeper orange hue.  The lower ones were just picked tonight (to escape the freeze) and still have some green on them.

All of these have been super easy to grow here in Lubbock.  Stick 'em in the ground, and just add water.

Seriously.

A Weed by Any Other Name

My bird seed has gone to the weeds.

The birds in my yard always shoot bird seed all over the place when they are eating, and some of it always goes to seed.  At least this year I got something sort of nice out of it!

I don't care if it's a weed - I like it.

(The not-so-glamorous view.  Yes, I've been mowing around it.  Busted.)

Alternative view:  Points of interest can be found in the most unexpected places!

'Sungold' Cherry Tomatoes

Tomatoes are in full production mode right now!

Here are some of the 'Sungold' cherry tomatoes I grew this year from seed I ordered from the Burpee catalogue.

They're supposed to be yellow tomatoes, but they look red to me.  Either way, they're very tasty - I love 'em, and so does Samson!

Yes, Sam loves all manner of produce from the garden but is especially fond of tomatoes, zucchini, and cantaloupe.  How weird is that?!

The Praying Mantis: One Cool Bug!

They praying mantis is a cool bug!  I've seen several around my yard lately, so I did a little research and found some interesting facts. 

There are over 2,000 species of praying matis worldwide.

Praying mantis on my back door.

Strictly carnivorous, they are the only insects that can swivel their head a full 180 degrees.  What's more, they have very keen compound eyes capable of spotting their prey a full 50 feet away!

Most random fun fact?  Most mantids have a single ear in the form of a slit near their legs.  The ear has two eardrums tuned to 26-60 kHz which allows them to hear ultrasonic sounds such as bats which are natural predators.

Cool, hu?

Here's a little baby praying mantis I spotted on my grill one afternoon.

Click here to find out more about the praying mantis.

Crape Myrtles

Crape myrtles come in a variety of colors and sizes to add punch to your summer landscape.  Below is a standard 'Natchez' crape myrtle from my landscape that was planted about three years ago from a five gallon from Sparkman's Nursery.

White bloom on the 'Natchez' crape myrtle

Hot pink bloom of the 'Carolina Beauty' standard pink crape myrtle.

Standard crape myrtles will typically grow 12' to 15' in our area.  Also available are the Indian series crape myrtles (8' to 10' tall), dwarf crapes (4' to 6' tall), and weeping crape myrtles (15" to 18").  All are available in shades of pink, lavender, and white.  The taller varieties can be pruned up into a tree form or can be allowed to grow unpruned as a large bush.

Crape myrtle in the background with 'Cabaret' miscanthus grass, rosemary, and marigolds in the landscape.

  

Crape myrtles exhibit an interesting characteristic called exfoliating bark which can be seen below.  This is healthy and natural for the plant and will add layers of texture and interest as your crape myrtles mature.

Exfoliating bark on a crape myrtle trunk.

Crape myrtles are deciduous which means they lose their leaves in winter, and they will typically give you some yellow, orange, and purple fall color in autumn.

 

The Melt-In-Your-Mouth Peach

OKAY...  Debbi totally ragged on me tonight for not updating my blog lately, so...

My wonderful Elberta peach produced the most magnificent melt-in-your-mouth peach this year.  Yes, peach.  As in one.

In all fairness to the tree, it was only its second year.  They don't typically produce until they've been in the ground for a couple of years, and the first year was a pruning year.

Here it is!

The one peach was as big as my fist, it smelled like heaven, and it almost literally melted in my mouth.  Wonderful!  I can't wait to have have a big bunch of peaches next year - a homegrown peach really is fantastic.  Please, plant one today.  You'll be glad you did!

There, Deb...

Garden Update: July

How does my garden grow these days?  Not so great actually!!  Yes, it's green enough, but my tomatoes and peppers have been stunted.  I'm not completely sure why, but I suspect it may be related to the scorching heat we had for several weeks.  With the recent rains (6" to 10" over Fourth of July weekend!) and milder temperatures, things seem to be growing again.  Here's an updated picture.

Zucchini towards the back, tomatoes and peppers toward the foreground (with marigolds, obviously)

Figured I'd better snap a picture of a cherry tomato while I had the chance.  I haven't had many this year, and this one was so red and pretty, it didn't even make it into the kitchen - I ate it right off the vine!

Red Yucca

You're probably starting to notice the unique blooms of the red yucca all over town.  Scientifically named Hesperaloe parvifolia, red yucca provides easy color in the landscape. 

Grown primarily for it's tall, pink showy blooms, the foliage is evergreen and does provide some interesting texture year round.  Once established, it doesn't require much care.  Enjoy the summer color, and then remove the bloom spikes once they are spent.

Irony

In a world of uncertainty, you can rely on certain steadfast truths such as the following:  Mother Nature will shoot you the bird.  On a regular basis.  As with this marigold growing by my front door.