Cat's Garden in Austin, TX

Yes, its been a while.  I know.  I haven't posted as much as I should. So what's been going on here?  Well, we've had some cold weather.  We had a week long cold front with night time temperatures down to 24.  Some day time temps that barely made it above freezing.  It kept us cool/cold with temperatures around 30 degrees below our normal.  But it has had one advantage - my tomato plant has finally died.  I was going to keep it wrapped up and warm but I decided not to.  I don't want it in that same place next year - its in a plastic raised planter.  But the planter got moved from one stop to another, and its not in a good spot at the moment.  So I left it unwrapped and let the cold freeze the plant back.  Its not a nice dead looking plant.  Now I can try to get the tomato cages out of it.  The tomato plants had grown into the cages so well I couldn't get the cages out until the plants died.  So now when we get ...

What weather we've been having.  We've started having freeze warning.  We've been covering plants.  And so far so good.  Yesterday I picked 2.5 lbs of tomatoes from the plant.  But considering todays weather, that may be the last I will get from it.  Its 10 AM and its 38 degrees and raining, blowing rain.  Let's just say this cold came earlier then I thought it would and I didn't get the plants covered last night.  I thought we were supposed to get cold tonight, not last night.  So it looks like I'm off one night, and I may not get any more tomatoes because of that.  That's okay.  Its not the end of the world if I lose the plant.  There's always next  year. update:  Its now 5pm, 35 degrees and a wind chill of 28.  We went out and covered the plants since its supposed to stay cold. Down jackets helped a lot.

Tomatoes are ripening!!  Today I picked tomatoes.  I'm making home made tomato sauce, with home grown tomatoes.  I probably need more tomatoes to do this with, but we'll use what we have and see how it goes.  Since I'm only feeding two, its not like I need a lot.  I guess its spaghetti for dinner tonight. I'm also trying desserts for Thanksgiving.  I've read recipes that use puff pastry so I'm trying puff pastry topped with sliced apples, sugar and butter.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm hoping it goes well.  we'll see.  But if it does, its incredibly easy to make dessert this way.  Literally, put the puff pastry down on a sheet pan (I lined it with non-stick aluminum foil, didn't have parchment paper), top it with sliced apples, sprinkle with sugar, dot with butter then cook at 400 for 40 minutes.  Easy!!  Now I just hope it tastes good too.

Good news, we have a bridge.  We now have a way to get over the "creek" we get in the back yard when it rains.  Its a wood bridge, about 8-10 feet long, with a slight arch, and about 3 feet wide.  It sits on a concrete base on one side, near the house, and on blocks on the other side, near the garden.  Its unfinished wood so it will need to be sealed some how.  That's not happening today.  We are due for rain Monday thru Wednesday so we'll get a chance to see how well it works. Other bits of good news:  the tomatoes are ripening and we finally ate the watermelon.  The watermelon was only about the size of a softball, more a personal size then a family size.  But it was sweet and good.  We'll try to grow some again next year.  The tomatoes are now starting to ripen in larger quantities.  I plucked over half a dozen to day and there are many more getting color.  There are still a lot that are green, but it looks like we ma...

Got another drencher last night.  Right around 4AM we got rain.  In about an hour we got 2.3" of rain.  At least everything is well watered now.  There's still a small chance of more rain today, then our next chance of rain in Wednesday.  Then we have 50% chance for it.  Could make for a messy Halloween for the kids. This year we should have a few kids trick or treating.  It seems our neighbor is doing a hay ride for their kids to take them around the neighborhood to trick or treat.  Since we don't have many kids in the neighborhood, it would make it easier for the parents if they all get together.  Bill's thinking about driving the tractor down to the bottom of our driveway in his gorilla suit to hand out candy to the kids.  The kids might like that. The yard is slowly shaping up.  Our bottom drainage problem area seems to have been fixed.  The regraded the area, got rid of the rocks and gravel, laid down seed then a mat t...

Yes, I know its been a while since I've posted.  But the last few weeks have been running by me fast.  I left on a trip and was gone a week, 8 days but who's counting.  But we still have somewhat weird weather.  Last night we got down to 46 degrees.  Definitely cool weather.  Where it may feel nice, its not so great for my tomatoes.  Yes, I am worried about my tomatoes.  I still have a load of green tomatoes on my plants.  I would like them to survive and ripen. While I was gone I'm not sure what the weather did.  But I can tell you what I came back to.  My lovely acorn squash plant is not doing so well.  Most of it looks like it died.  With all the rain, I wouldn't be surprised. But I do still have one acorn squash growing.  Also it has another flower, though I don't think that will amount to much.  My small watermelon and cantaloupe are still small and I'm not sure they will grow much now.  My string bea...

The weather has gone nuts.  In the past two weeks we've had rain.  Not light drizzle rain, think deluge.  For instance, last night we had well over 4" of rain in about 45 minutes at about 1AM this morning.  And about 10 days ago we had something similar, but over 5" of rain then.  This is Texas hill country type of land.  We have a little bit of soil, over rock.  The water doesn't just flow, it runs off this land. We just came back from Home Depot.  On one of the road you could see where flowing water had deposited grass about a foot up a wire fence.  Some areas of roads are still covered in mud from water trying to drain away.  Yes, we need the rain.  And yes, it means the trees are getting a good watering as are the rest of the plants outside.  The deer now have lots to eat from all the new growth.  But that's a lot of rain in a very short period of time. The other interesting thing about this weather, is our high te...