Cat's Garden in Austin, TX

A lot has happened. Jan 12th my dear significant other had a quadruple bypass. This was totally unexpected. Nobody may expect the Spanish inquisition (thank you Monty Python), and we didn't expect this. So far he is doing well. Surgery went well, he's been home healing, we were able to get a friend to come help (well worth the money) and he's even in cardiac rehab. Such a relief. But he's still healing, still can't lift over 5 lbs, and sometimes get exhausted easily. But he's doing better and that's what matters. Consequently, the yard has taken a bit of a back seat. But fear not we have not forsaken the garden. We did get a new walk path put in. To give you an idea how unexpected SO surgery was we had planned for the walk path to be started the day he landed in surgery. But we had a landscaper do the work and it came out great. I have high praise for Abey and his group (Austin Creative Landscaping). They've been working in this yard since we bou...

We got hail.  Not sure where it came from, but it came.   Its actually still sitting in mounds in the dark. Kind of strange weather we're having.

Okay, it got cold again. As in yesterday it was in the 70's. Today mid afternoon, after 4 and it's only 39 degrees. Oh, and we just had rain and hail. At least it was short lived. This morning around 8am we had one of those cold fronts come through, and we got rain. Then again around 11 we got more rain. Between the two we got just over an inch of rain. The wind has been blowing since last night. The strongest wind gust was 29 mph. But we're not done with the cold yet. We have cold weather for the next week.  He ten day forecast shows nights around, just above and just below freezing. At least we're better off than the Dallas area.  They got tornados. About 8 people are dead from those tornados. I guess we'll just take the rain and cold. Though the east coast has had unseasonably warm weather.  Not much you can do about the weather. And our current weather patterns attest to that. Funny note.  Christmas Day Las Vegas got a smattering of snow. Wonder what the odd...

Go figure. We've had a couple of cool nights, down to 33 last night, but now we are back to warm weather. Warm as in the 10 day forecast says highs in the 70's, with a possible 80 thrown in for good measure. That means the nights will be in the low 50's. Maybe rain on Christmas day, but we'll see. Getting sorry we picked all the tomatoes. Though some of the plants I left look great. The bok choy never looked better.

Ever wonder what they mean when they talk about a cold front moving in. Well hopefully this will help explain it. This happened last night. Yes we had temperatures in the 70's most of the day, actually pretty much all day, then the temperature just dropped. Yes as the temperature dropped we got rain. About two inches of rain. What is interesting it we had a few cold days a couple of weeks ago, but mostly the weather has been nice. So far its been overall a fairly nice autumn. And that's not always good.  We did have a previous cold front come thru a couple of weeks ago, but the cold didn't last. The concern is the almanac said it would be a cold winter. So far it looks like we might have nice weather for Christmas. After the rain last night the skies have cleared up. The garden took a beating from our previous cold front. The watermelon and other squash plants are pretty much died and gone. They got pulled out of the ground. Some of the tomato plants have been pull...

We left Mid October for a trip, gone 3 weeks. We left, and the rain began. The house got rain, enough to fill our almost empty water tanks. It almost kept the temperatures in the mid 60-70's. The plants loved it. We came back to happy and healthy plants. I don't think we lost anything. Then last night, we got our first freeze. Last night we hit a low of 31.8 degrees. We are due for the same tonight. It looks like the weather is changing. We'll warm up for a few days, then nights will cool down. They aren't expecting more freezing nights, at least not in the 10 day forecast. Most nights will be in the 50-40's. We were lucky enough to have our friend come help cover plants before the freeze. He also picked the produce we had ready or ready-ish to pick. He picked a lot of green tomatoes. I'm thinking of trying to make pickled green tomatoes. I found a recipe online that looks easy enough - greens tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, and then a brine. I might try it wit...

It is still hot over here. But this week we are due for some cooling weather - down to the 80's. And possible rain. But the real way you know the weather is changing - the tomato plants are coming back to life. I pull out the dead corn, cleared out the cucumbers, and cut back the marigolds. I need to cut back of the the melons, but it was just too hot. But this weekend I did some weeding and feeding in the garden. Which is good because it looks like its growing season again. It seems too hot, but I'm found a lot of new growth on lots of the plants. Since I cleaned out dead stuff I went ahead and planted more seeds. I put in bok choy, beets, beans, acorn squash, fennel, carrots, and some broccoli. According to Mother Earth News app this is the time to start planting these guys. I also got some seed for cabbage, swiss chard, and onions. I'll put those in the ground tomorrow. I may put in some other things that should grow this time of year too. Some spinach would be nice. I...