My Garden in 90 Seconds - 02-23-19

Please excuse my shameless borrowing from CBS This Morning Eye Opener ... Your World in 90 Seconds.  It has been almost 40 days since my last blog.  So … here's my garden in the last 3 plus weeks in 30 pics, more or less.

It got down to 34 degrees the morning that the Four Season showed signs of frost.  None of the other lettuce varieties showed signs of frost.  Why the Four Seasons only?  I guess we'll never know!  Lettuce will handle temps down to the upper to mid 20s before showing damage.  Broccoli can handle the low 20s.  I'm down to the last couple Bell Peppers from my 01-19-19 final harvest.  Those Yolo Wonder Peppers were planted almost a year ago on 02-24-18.  I started picking peppers in late May 2018.  So that's 8 months of tasty Bell Peppers available for the picking whenever I wanted.  Not bad huh?

Comparing the pics on the left to the same beds on the right … what a difference three weeks makes!  You can clearly see the Four Seasons, Yugoslavian Red and Sunset seedlings which are finally starting to grow.  Most of the larger lettuce in the left hand photos has been picked for salads or given away to neighbors, fellow (please ignore the sexist language) workers or friends at church.  Also, note how there is very little difference in the Four Seasons & Yugoslavian Red lettuce in the early grow stages.  I might note, the Sunset lettuce grows much slower than the other two varieties.  You can see a mature Sunset with the deep crimson red leaves in the top left picture of bed 1.

The purple Ageratum has bloomed all winter.  It hasn't grown much, but has survived!  And the Euryops are blooming again.  There's something special about these yellow African Daisies.  Just takes one or two blooms to cheer you up.  And the Sun King Broccoli is done for the season … initial crowns picked as well as larger side shoots … time to remove in preparation for spring planting.  I think Cucumbers will go in that spot this year.

How do like the cute little water feature for the front porch?  Heckle & Jeckle always on the go … when the power cord is plugged in of course.  Friendswood Hardware has a number of delightful small water fountains and wind chimes as well.

www.facebook.com/friendswoodhardware/

Picked up some Geraniums for the front porch.  With the mild winter, it looks like the Hibiscus will make it.  Generally, it just takes one light freeze to take them out.  Didn't happen this year so far … and in another week or so winter is in essence over!  The main difference between Four Seasons & Yugoslavian Red is that Four Seasons will not ball up in the middle as it matures.  Yugoslavian Red does … almost like Iceberg lettuce in a sense.  The lettuce in the center of the ball is white and not as tasty.  So next year it's Four Seasons & no Yugoslavian Red!

You will note that some of the Daylilies are starting to reemerge now that spring is near.  But not all daylilies die down during the Houston winter either!  Some daylilies are evergreen (don't die down in the winter), semi-evergreen & dormant.  I have all three types.  By early April the Daylilies will start to bloom.  Then this website will be 75% daylilies for the next two months or so.  This will be second season for the backyard daylily bed than runs along the brick wall.  They were gorgeous last year … could be even better in year 2 if that is possible … pretty please!  For a neat article on daylilies, click on the link below.

www.finegardening.com/article/desirable-daylilies

Last but not least … You'll notice there are now not 4, but 5 beds of lettuce.  You might also notice that there are some green stakes in Beds 1, 2 & 3.  What gives?  In this case, some Four Seasons, Yugoslavian Red, Salad Bowl & Green Ice seedlings that were transplanted to Bed 5 (formerly a Broccoli bed) to make room for 6 Big Boy, 6 Sweet 100, 9 Early Girl and 2 Grafted Celebrity tomatoes to be planted on March 2!  The plan is to plant the tomatoes among the lettuce.  It won't take long for the tomatoes to take over … hopefully the lettuce will have been picked by then.  Time will tell.  Next blog will be after the tomatoes & bell peppers have been planted.