Cat's Garden in Austin, TX

Well, I'm not moving but this blog is. I've had this blog now for quite a few years. I originally made it on Blogger as a free blog. Then I moved it to one of my domains. But now I have decided that its time for this blog/website to have a true home of its own. If you want to see the new site, you will find it at www.catsgarden.us . I have gotten most of the information from this site to the new one. For a while I will keep this site running while I make sure I have what I need on the other one. But if you want to see any new posts, you will have to go to the new site . Thank you for you patience and understanding. 

Yes the weather has been lovely, days in the mid 60-70, with an occasional 80 and almost 90 thrown in for good measure. The nights have been cool, upper 40-50's. But with lovely weather, lots of sunshine, the plants are growing. The peas have already started coming up, the fruit trees have had their flowers and we now have little apples appearing. Even the plus had lots of blossoms this year. If all goes well maybe we'll have plums later this year. We have a lot of blossoms on them right now.  So the growing season is looking up. The fruit trees we had in the green house, mainly citrus, developed blossoms while in there. Those are looking pretty good right now. Some of the citrus and the avocados that spent the winter outside in the ground did not fair well. We may have to pull them and either put them in pots and see if they survive or just consider them gone. If we have to pull them out, some of the fruit trees in pots will be put in the ground in their place. That's an...

We've had some warm, moist, humid, cool, stormy weather. Like that! We went from 60's to just above freezing, and back up to warm. We had dry, to humid, to rain, storms, and back to dry in the space of a week. My garden is trying to grow with this warmth. I didn't really get to cut back my fruit trees, so we'll see how they do this year. The apply trees are full of blossoms and when I was out there today it was just buzzing with bees. The plum trees look like they are getting ready to blossom too. I'm not sure if I need a pollinator for the Santa Rosa plum, but I may look into that. We have yet to get any plums from it. Though we did get a couple one year, the bugs or something got to them before we could. Last week since we have some dry days I turned up the soil in the veggie beds. This week I put in seed. I planted: beet broccoli carrot onion peas beans sweet pepper swiss chard spinach I need to get some lettuce planted too. This time I may put th...

This is how strange Texas winter/spring weather can be. The other day we were happily in the 60's - 70's. Two days ago we had a high of 77, and yesterday was a high of 70.  Right now, 4:15 pm it is all of 36 degrees.  We've been having some rain (0.20 inches yesterday and about the same today), and it is a cold rain. Tonight they are saying a cold of 33-36. Yet tomorrow will be mid 40's and Friday will be 60. By Saturday we will be 70. Unfortunately the pump for transferring water to the storage tanks isn't working. At this point all we know is there is a breaker or a GFCI that is popped and we don't know where it is. We did some searching and didn't find it. But since it is so cold and wet outside we will have to continue that search another day. Preferably when its warmer. DH and I have gotten the plants out of the greenhouse and uncovered everybody else. We did that last weekend when the weather was warm. I was even able to pick up some strawberry cro...

This is what KXAN.com has to say: "Temperatures dipped to a record-smashing 15º at ABIA, and 18º at Camp Mabry — the coldest since Feb., 2011. We saw rural valley thermometers on the LCRA network as cold as 1º in NW San Saba County." We saw a low of 14 last night here at the house. So far the only thing I know that appears frozen is the  rain water. That is not flowing at the moment. It could be the pump, but I'm going to let the day warm up a bit before I go out and check it.  Well the water did finally begin to run from the rain water. But we never got as warm as they said we would. They said 37, we got to 35. Its still cold out there. Its now 7 PM and already its down to 29. It was so cold I had to go into the garage to put some stuff away. DH had left the garage door open and it was cold. It was so cold when I opened the door to the garage I couldn't breathe. At least all I was doing was dropping off empty boxes. So I dropped off the boxes in the garage, ...

Last night we got down to 21.9. Tonight we might give down to 17. It will be cold. Late last night we got rain. it was all of 35 degrees at the time, but it was rain. I was worried getting that kind of wet, then getting cold. This morning I woke up to find ice on the ground and on all the surfaces. The driveway was covered in a thin layer of what appeared to be ice and then we got freezing rain (?). It was like getting hit by little ice pellets that bounced when they hit. Today we got up to all of 24 degrees. A friend came over and was able to drive up to the house.  Tonight though we will be cold and down to 17. That's just simply cold. With luck tomorrow the day time high will get up to 39, but we will again have a low of 19. But by Thursday both the day and night temps will be above freezing. That would be nice.

Its just after midnight and the cold has arrived. Its now 35 degrees outside and light rain. We're supposed to get down to 28 tonight. Tomorrow, technically today, is to get to a high of 30 with a low of 19. I would say we have a definite wave of cold. Originally Wednesday was supposed to be cold, barely above freezing. Now it looks like we may get up to almost 40. But the night will still be cold, like 29. The good news is by Thursday it should be warmer than originally stated. Thursday now looks like it should be 43 for a high, and a low of 37. And Friday look like its back up to 55. That will be nice. We will be leaving on Friday and its good to know the weather will be good enough for travel. In the meantime I wonder what the morning will bring. We have wet on the ground now, and the temperature is still dropping. It should get own to 28 tonight so this rain could freeze and turn into ice. I know a few businesses have already sent notice that they intend to close tomorrow d...

Last night we hit a low 30. And for tonight they are saying a low of 28. The next few evenings will be cold. We are expecting everything from 25, 38, then down to 27 and even 21 degrees at night. Ironically, most of the days will be in the 50's. Only next Tuesday will be cold all around. Next Tuesday we expect a high of 32 with a low of 21. But by next Thursday we should be just cold - high of 43, with a low of 37. Now that is all due to change depending on the weather, but all in all not too bad. Especially since by next Friday, a week from today, the high will be 64. Just Texas winter weather.

We have a new cold front coming in. I was out at a lesson, and in the time it took me for my lesson the temperature dropped a good 10 degrees. Withing a short while after that the wind picked up. We've gone from 68 to 42 in about two hours. They are saying tonight will get cold - down to about 32. Tomorrow daytime will be mid 50's, but tomorrow evening will be about 29. Then Saturday night should be even lower - 24 degrees at night. The days will stay somewhat moderate, but the nights should be cold for the next few evenings. By a week from now the evenings should be above freezing. We'll see what happens. This is just the way winter works here in central Texas.

We got up to a balmy 53.6 degrees today. Last night only got down to 21.6. That was warmer than the 19 they predicted. So we may be finally warming up. At least during the day. The next few nights are still cold - well below 40. We'll see how they go.

Happy New Year to all. We are cold here for Texas. We hit a low of 22 degrees last night. For Texas, that is cold. We've got a hard freeze warning for 3 days. The high for today might hit freezing, 32 degrees. We'll see.  I'll keep you posted. Okay, our high today was all of 28. Its 10:30 PM and we are on the down hill slide. They are saying 21 for our low tonight. Tomorrow they say we should hit 34, but we'll see. Tomorrow night may well be all of 19.  We'll see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

We have a good cold front coming our way. Its now Saturday evening, we had a high of 63, we've dropped down to 47 and its still dropping. The temperature is due to drop another 10 degrees tonight. Tomorrow, New Years Eve we're due to get down to 23. It doesn't get much better for a few days. Starting Sunday night, and on thru Thursday night the evening low will be in the low 20's. Monday and Tuesday during the day will be right about freezing. Welcome to central Texas winter. At this time we're hoping we've got the entire yard ready for this cold. Pat helped get the yard ready. He drained hose bibs and drained hose lines. Today we went thru and covered those hose bibs that were attached to the house. We made sure the hoses are disconnected. We also looked for standing water and dumped it. That seemed like a good idea. With this kind of cold any standing water will freeze. And I don't want to worry about it freezing, expanding, and breaking something. Sin...

Its been an interesting month. I was gone early this month, and it snowed while I was gone. Not for long, but it was enough to stick. Apparently it went from record high to snow the next day. then it warmed back up. That is a true cold front. Well, we've gone from warm to cold. It dropped 30 degrees the other day. It went from the mid 70's to the low 40's. That was on Friday. Last night Christmas Eve we got cold again. It got down to 30. We'll be cold, for Texas, staying in the 40's, and we're expecting rain. So it will be a cold rain. No great warmth coming this way for the next few days. At least the fruit trees will be happy. The garden has gone into winter time cold. That will be good. I don't know how long this cold will last, but I'm glad it finally came. The only bad thing is with cold the mountain cedar will begin producing pollen. That's the way cedars are. They need cold, then a warm spell in order to produce pollen. And they those cond...

Its almost December and the temperatures are in the balmy 70's, some days hitting 80. The garden is growing, squash is still on the vine, even the roses are still blooming. WHAT HAPPENED TO WINTER!! Well, winter will show up some time. We've been preparing the yard for its arrival. We've begun pulling up the tomatoes, removing the beans, and putting in new seeds. We've been moving plants around. We have some dead trees along the fence line, they need to come out. We have some trees around the fruit trees that also need to come out. Since the fruit trees are doing well, no reason to keep shade or wind trees around them for protection. So the spare trees are being taken out and planted elsewhere. Actually the spare trees are being moved to replace the dead ones along the fence line. Seemed a reasonable action. I admit I have a fear. We're having such mild weather, I'm afraid when winter comes it will hit with a vengeance. Even if we only get cold weather for...

Its not exactly winter but we have had a cold front. Yesterday we hit a high of 80 degrees. Last night we hit a low of 42. Today we hit a high of 61, and it should cool down again tonight. The next few days should bring temperatures in the 60's to the mid 70's. Not winter, but kind of autumn. We'll see how this new weather change plays out. And yes my garden does still have tomatoes, thank you.

How crazy is it you ask? Well we are in the high 80's, my tomato plants, that that are alive, are producing nicely. Still picking fresh tomatoes. My tomatillos are producing, and since we had half an inch of rain this week, my potato plants are growing. Last week we had about a third of an inch of rain with fairly warm weather. We have had a few days of cool weather, but overall the past week has been warm. Strange weather. I'm sure winter will show up, but right now its anybodies guess when and how it will happen. The forecast says by mid next week, well into November, we should cool down to mid 60s, about a 15 degree drop from current temperatures. We'll see.

Yes, we are picking some wonderful cantaloupes and watermelons, in October!! They were ripe sweet and delicious. Life is working in strange ways. The weather has been warm, high 80's to low 90's. The nights are warm but not too warm. The nights are still in the 70's. We're supposed to get a cool down, we'll see. We truly have a second season here in this area. And we're getting it now. Part of the fun will be our new additions. We just adopted two new dogs. They're Morkies - Maltese and Yorkshire terrier mix. They are little brothers, and about 5 years old. We got them from a dog rescue. They don't seem to be in to tearing up the yard. We just brought them home yesterday. Unfortunately, today I took a fall trying to get over the makeshift doggie fencing inside. I don't think I broke anything, I landed on both knees and both hands. But I'm sore all over and won't be up to doing much for a few days at least. In addition I've been sick...

It looks like fall is trying to make its way into Austin. It may not seem like much but the nights are getting down into the 60's, albeit the high 60's but that's better than it was. Even the days are a bit cooler - high 80's to low 90's. No triple digits right now and that is nice. Its still humid after all the rain we got, but that's to be expected. That's not the say I enjoy it, but with all the rain we had any heat will make it humid. But at least most of the plants seem to be doing well. That rain got everything nicely watered. And its been more a light breeze than any real wind. So Austin has a chance to recover a bit from the storms. I've noticed some trees and limbs down in the area, so tree services will be kept busy. One other recent problem that seems to be occurring since Hurricane Harvey - run on gas. A friend warned me that lines were long and that some gas stations were running out of gas. I didn't quite believe them. But just to b...

We started Monday, August 21 with an eclipse. I wasn't here, I had to go out of town so I don't know how much of it was visible from home. But by Friday evening our area, and south of us, was in hurricane survival mode. Hurricane Harvey landed in Rockport, TX on Friday night. Even here in Austin we are feeling the effects. Yesterday, Saturday we had 4 inches of rain. Today, Sunday we've already had over 2 inches and we are still getting a slow steady light rain. Last week we had a high of 94 degrees and yet today it has barely made it to 72. At 5:30 pm we sit at 69. Harvey is large enough (landed as a category 4 hurricane) that even parts of Louisiana are getting rain. And at this point, Houston is practically underwater.  What a difference a week makes. A slow steady light rain may not seem like much, but the ground is now saturated. And they expect rain for many more days to come. Flooding is happening in many areas. Here where we live we're actually okay since we...

Its been nothing but a hot summer. We have been in the high 90's here at the house. Austin itself has been triple digits. Heat index has been triple digits even here at the house. Not my favorite weather. I planted seed, salad, lettuce, squash, and some other things. With the heat they are coming up, but its taking lots of water to keep them alive. Such is life in Texas during the summer.