I do hope so. Jenny says Winston is eleven, covered in freckles, and has a total disdain for authority

Looking back at the last post.. wow. That's some major grammatical errors. Usually I like to leave the errors in because that's how it was written and it's a reminder to me to double check my work. However, this time I'm almost tempted to edit and fix.

I also noticed that some of my pictures are gone. I keep/kept my pictures at Flickr and I had a pro account there. I haven't put pics up at there in well over 3 years so I decided to let my pro acct go back to basic and I lost some of the pics which obviously affected the links. My anal retentive side wants to fix it so that the pics that are missing are back but... eh... that's a lot of work.

The weather here has started to cool off and we've had a bit of rain. It's still coming either in buckets or none at all which is making my grass if not me develop a twitches. The golden sage I bought is doing surviving but the the pineapple sage did not last a week. The citronella I bought also died and I kept that in the container. I think until I am very far along in maintaining my yard, that I will stay away from container plants. Growing plants in containers is not as easy as everyone makes it out to be. You have to be aware of the nutrient level which apparently is too much for me to remember.

The rosemary is doing ok in spite of being a ground cover and having a dog who is determined to kill everything in my backyard. Tobie, who has done damage before, decided to go behind me and yank at the rosemary. Of the 5 I planted, she yanked at 2 of them to the point that they look like they are about to die because their roots got so exposed I've decided to just leave them be and so far they are lasting.

I've also had a revelation of sorts. It's really hard to grow things with Pecan trees. I constantly, constantly, constantly have to rake with Pecan trees. If they aren't dropping nuts, their dropping leaves or twigs or entire branches. At least mine are. These trees are very old. We've been here for 19 years and the trees were mature trees when we bought the house. Our house was built in 1957 but I don't know if they are that old. Anyhoo, with the constant raking, it's really hard to establish ground cover underneath the trees but I shall persist!

A friend told me that this winter is suppose to be a La Nina year here. I don't put a lot of weight into the whole La Nina/El Nino theory. It seems like every year someone is saying that it's La Nina or El Nino season. There does seem to be some buzz in the air that this winter will be a wet one and I am really hoping so. Of course, I haven't put in my rainwater collection system yet and am hoping to do that next year so of course, this will be the year we get tons and tons of rain.

Captain's Log: Embarking into hostile environment. Kowalski! We'll need to win the hearts and the minds of the natives. Rico! We'll need special tactical equipment. We're gonna face extreme peril. Private probably won't survive.

This summer hasn't been as bad as the last two. To date, I think we've had a week of 100 degree weather as opposed to three months so far. Lake Travis is only about 80 feet down so we still need the rain. My backyard is still dirt mounds and mostly dead (insert Princess Bride voice here) grass. Since I built my little retainer wall we have had some rain and since the grass is mostly dead, which means its slightly alive, I've decided to water my little patches of green to try to keep them... well, green... and the wall is working wonderful! Not only is the dirt staying off the porch, but the water is barely getting through as well which is a welcome sight to see because that means the ground is absorbing it and that it isn't just washing the topsoil away.

Anyhoo, since I  have a zombie lawn that is trying to stay on the alive side, I've decided to help it and I've been watering it. I saw a pin on Pinterest that if you burn Sage, it will keep the mosquitoes away so I went to a local nursery to search for some. Unfortunately, for the most part, I go to the big box home improvement stores. My experience has been with the small business nurseries is that their customer service sucks and I put customer service at the very top it not The Most Important Reason to shop at a particular store. Anyone can sell a product, only those who treat the customer right will be successful at it.

So anyway, I decided to go to local nursery to look for Sage because big box home improvement stores usually only care popular herbs and only during the spring time. The one I went to, Red Barn Garden Center was pretty cool. The guy who helped me had never heard about sage being used to keep mosquitoes away. He asked me why I didn't want to just pick up some Citronella and I told him that I thought you had to crush the leaves. He said that was for Lemon Grass; Citronella is like Rosemary in that its scent releases easily when the wind blows or by just brushing your hand against the plant.

I told him I tried growing Citronella before and it promptly died on me. He asked if I kept it in at least partial shade to which I replied with a firm nope. He said I must have gotten it from a Big Box because what he's noticed is when he talks to the customer's who have killed Citronella, they didn't know that it doesn't like sun because Big Boxes don't help you select plants and when you do ask, they usually don't know.

I went ahead and picked up some Golden Sage because it only grows about a foot in height which will work perfect where the wildflowers were going to go . I also got one Pineapple Sage because it attracts hummingbirds and butterflies but it grows about 2 feet in height so I don't know where I'm going to put that. I'm thinking I'll put it in the center of the raised bed by where the grill used to be. I also picked up one Citronella plant to see if I can keep it alive. My backyard is westwardly in direction. Matter of fact, in the Summertime, the setting sun just broils my backyard so I won't be able to plant the Citronella back there. I'm thinking of planting it in my front yard but I haven't really thought about the landscaping there so I don't know. I might try putting it in a container.

Speaking of Rosemary up there, while I was at Red Barn, I noticed Huntington Carpet Rosemary. It's Rosemary that can be used as a groundcover. It grows about 1-2 feet high and can be cut back after blooming in the spring. Husband LOVES the smell of Rogsemary and guess what?! It is a very hardy plant, does excellent in direct sun (desert like temps) and also keeps mosquitoes away! I LOVE IT! I get a great smelling groundcover that is very hard to kill that repels insects! The only thing is that it does attract bees when blooming. We have this dirt mound that is completely uncovered so I've planted the Rosemary there. So far (it's been like 3 days) it's lasted well so I think I'm going to go buy some more. Oh, looking back at that post laying out the landscape, I forgot I had originally thought about planting Alyssum to replace the grass. I'll had to research that again. Wiki is saying that Alyssum is an annual plant where as Rosemary is what I call a forever plant. It isn't a perennial in that it comes back year after year because it never really goes away. I think technically it's called an evergreen?And besides, it isn't really my grass that has come back as much as its the clovers. I don't know, I kind of like the romantic look of my yard being covered in nice smelly rosemary and green soft clovers.

I'm offering to put you right back into the game.

June 14, 2010. Wow, that was almost two years ago. So why so long between updates? If memory serves me well, illness came through the house in July, 2010. And my gardens got some kind of infestation. I tried to get rid of it but it was to no avail. Pretty much within a week, everything was dead or dying. We had a week-long family vacation planned in August, 2010, so that killed off anything remaining. Winter 2010/2011 was a really dry Winter and Summer 2011 was brutal. Trees were starting to die because they weren't getting any water. We lost one tree in 2010 and another one possibly two last summer. As of right now, Lake Travis, the main water supply for Travis county is down about 100 feet. Last summer it reached the lowest point since something like 1954. Considering that the Mansfied Dam was built around the 1940's, I think that technically, this is the lowest Lake Travis has been since it was filled up.

Everything I had done the summer of 2010 was undone. The little trench I dug; gone. The raised garden beds are still there but they've been overgrown with grass. The few drought resistance plants I planted; died.

So why am I updating now? With the weather we've been having, the pets have been attacked by fleas. I found out about Nematodes and decided to give it a try. The only thing is that it is suggested that any "mulch" be removed as they have problems getting through it. So I had to go through and rake up all the leaves in my backyard.

And there was another problem. To refer to the potential/eventual layout of the backyard that was done in this post, the corner of the patio by the purple, the ground around that pecan tree furthes away from the house is actually higher than the patio. So when it rains, we get a mudslide right into the porch. I decided to put up a little retainer wall to keep the dirt off the porch but have been waiting to get the bricks. Well, it dawned on me last week. We have pretty much stopped using our awesome brick grill. It was just too hot last summer and this summer looks to be a repeat of last summer. So I've decided to re-purpose those bricks into the retaining wall. I've been working on it for the last week and it's turned out pretty good if I must say. It's not a high wall, only about 3-4 rows of bricks at its highest. I can't wait for the next rainstorm though to see how it lasts. Although if the weather is like it's been so far, I may have a long wait for the next rainstorm. We were suppose to get thunderstorms this weekend and we got about 30 minutes of light rain. Of course in March, we got something like 8 inches of rain in 6 hours.

So anyway, hopefully next week I'll release the nematodes!

Never Give up! Never Surrender!

You beat Randy in the turd toss?!

It seems like forever since the last entry - I am going on 2 weeks - but it has been insanely busy. I had 2 nieces and a nephew graduate from high school and I went through my own first "end-of-the-school-year" at the same time. Who knew finishing up the school year was as busy as it is. I knew it was chaotic, but busy?! Who'd a thought.

Anyhoo, while I was down picking up seaweed, I also pick up some cow manure. One of the benefits of living in a small town is that your neighbor could very well be goats. Or in my sister's case, cows. Her backyard butts up against a cow pasture and they have a gate from their fence giving them access to the pasture. Why, you ask, would you want access to the cow pasture? There is a pond back there not to mention the probably the biggest private meadow any kid would want.

So while I was down there a couple of weeks back. I picked up cow manure and seaweed. As I was driving back home, I felt and empathetic...chagrin... to all motorcycles I passed. The smell coming from the back of the truck must have been unique to say the least.

But I got some top drawer fertilizer! Or let's hope so a least.

He took a GI Joe and packed him in a bunch of ...seaaa weeeed.

A friend loaned me his F150 for a couple of days so I made plans to go visit family. I was raised near Galveston and in my time on Google, I've discovered that seaweed makes for an EXCELLENT fertilizer/mulch/tea. The main benefit of seaweed is that it develops a strong root system and it is excellent for moisture retention within the soil. There is a seaweed season from mid-May to about early August where it washes up at least knee-high on the Galveston beaches. The kind that washes up is called sargassum. It's somewhat spongy and stinks to high heaven. It appears to be viewed as a bane in the seaweed community as it is highly invasive, grows quickly and appears to prosper from high waste output from factories, humans and animals. But then again milkweed is by it's very name viewed as a weed and it too is seen as invasive 'round these parts. But it is also the only source of food for Monarch butterflies. So I decided to take the approach that one man's trash is another man's treasure and decided to give it a try. I got just enough to put on my gardens, I didn't want to get too much because I still have to "process" it for lack of a better word once here. Because it stinks so much I'm definitely not going to use it as mulch but I think I'm going to use it more for my next crops because the main benefit seems to be early on. Before the next planting, I'll probably work it into the soil to really build up the soil. We are planning on going to the Annual Sand Castle Competition in Galveston so I'll probably pick up more then and just put it in plastic bags.

One thing about using seaweed. It's suggested that you rinse the seaweed before storing it for use because of the salt content. I've not found any real direction on how or how long to rinse the seaweed. Some opinions even say don't worry about rinsing because you don't want to put a lot on your gardens to begin with due to it's overall high nutrient value. With these variances of opinions from "OMG RINSE!RINSE! RINSE!" to "The amount of salt contained is determined by nature and thus good for your garden", I think I'm just going to wait until the next garden so that I can do some more research and see how my garden takes without the seaweed benefit. Then once I use it, I'll have something to compare it against.

Hello handsome! You're a good looking fellow do you know that?

This morning's walk of the garden revealed this


I also found a visitor


I half expected to see a little trail of smoke with a caterpillar and a hookah at the end.


I'm trying to stay away from the obvious Alice in Wonderland reference but it may be inevitable.