Growing Your Own Food Not Allowed
And the government having this authority is good why?
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Garden update.
Howdy all,
Time for a garden update. Mostly good and a little bad. First the bad. All my corn is gone. A fierce rain storm knocked it all flat! I guess I didn't have the Texas rainstorm variety planted. Come on three inches of rain in a storm is normal here! So out it came and I replanted the beans that I had mixed in. The rest of my garden did great! Here's the pics of my garden as well as some of the other plants around my house.
First the black berries.
Getting ripe now as I picked about twenty yesterday! Sorry birds, but those are mine! The birds get the blue berries and the wild black berries.
Speaking of blueberries!
They are ripening nicely after the rain. I'm still letting them just grow for a couple of years before I net them in. Its off to the pick your own farm next week for me. The same for peaches as I don't have any of those trees.
I expect some bananas this year as the frost wasn't bad enough to knock them back. These herbs are over twelve feet tall. This will also be their last year here. I plan to redo my garden this fall and winter and they will be in the way. Sacrificed for progress! I just don't have the room for them and they don't produce that much so out they will go!
Next up? Peppers! Both my sweet green and my hot peppers are being harvested. I have two beds of sweet peppers and a small bed with Hungarian hot wax peppers and hot red peppers.
OMG! Have my Tomato's gone crazy! Three crowded beds of roma's and one with cherry, pear, and tomatillos! Its a crush and will be difficult to harvest, but i will enjoy doing it!
My strawberry patch has recovered nicely too! Big and sweet.
What?
And lastly, for the edibles, a nice cucumber plant full of future pickles.
Now lets look at some of the other plants around my house that I use to block the hot Texas sun. I have a major south exposure. If I did nothing it would look like my neighbors with a nice high cooling bill.
First I planted Chaste trees mixed with Knockout roses under the window. The thorns on the roses will deter thieves!
In the front I have two nice mesquites to replace the trees knocked over by hurricane Ike.
Lastly the front. Its covered with a couple of nice Cape Honeysuckles! When they bloom the hummingbirds are in heaven.
Thanks for viewing
Ken
Time for a garden update. Mostly good and a little bad. First the bad. All my corn is gone. A fierce rain storm knocked it all flat! I guess I didn't have the Texas rainstorm variety planted. Come on three inches of rain in a storm is normal here! So out it came and I replanted the beans that I had mixed in. The rest of my garden did great! Here's the pics of my garden as well as some of the other plants around my house.
First the black berries.
Getting ripe now as I picked about twenty yesterday! Sorry birds, but those are mine! The birds get the blue berries and the wild black berries.
Speaking of blueberries!
I expect some bananas this year as the frost wasn't bad enough to knock them back. These herbs are over twelve feet tall. This will also be their last year here. I plan to redo my garden this fall and winter and they will be in the way. Sacrificed for progress! I just don't have the room for them and they don't produce that much so out they will go!
Next up? Peppers! Both my sweet green and my hot peppers are being harvested. I have two beds of sweet peppers and a small bed with Hungarian hot wax peppers and hot red peppers.
OMG! Have my Tomato's gone crazy! Three crowded beds of roma's and one with cherry, pear, and tomatillos! Its a crush and will be difficult to harvest, but i will enjoy doing it!
My strawberry patch has recovered nicely too! Big and sweet.
And lastly, for the edibles, a nice cucumber plant full of future pickles.
Now lets look at some of the other plants around my house that I use to block the hot Texas sun. I have a major south exposure. If I did nothing it would look like my neighbors with a nice high cooling bill.
First I planted Chaste trees mixed with Knockout roses under the window. The thorns on the roses will deter thieves!
On the back half I have Star Jasmine growing, but no picture, sorry. I do have a couple of trees! A nice mesquite that shades my quail coop and a chinese elm.
In the front I have two nice mesquites to replace the trees knocked over by hurricane Ike.
Lastly the front. Its covered with a couple of nice Cape Honeysuckles! When they bloom the hummingbirds are in heaven.
Ken
UPDATE of update! Here's today's harvest. A whole bunch of large green peppers, two big handfuls of hot peppers and tomato's and enough cucumbers for about three quarts of dill pickles!
ken ;-)
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Lori's BBQ Chicken or Meatballs.
This is my wife's recipe for Bar-B-Que chicken or meatballs. It's delish and I serve it over rice with the sauce on top. She is canning some of it right now in quart jars for the pantry. Here's the sauce recipe.
10-12 pounds of chicken thighs, boneless, skinless are better, or frozen meatballs.
2 cups soy sauce
2 cups sugar
2 cups ketchup
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp ginger
In a large bowl mix the soy, sugar, ketchup, garlic, ginger. When the sugar is dissolved place in a large pot and add the chicken or meat balls. Cook until done!
Serve over rice and spoon a little sauce over the rice.
If canning, 6 lbs of meatballs makes 6 quarts. 16 pounds of chicken thighs makes 10 quarts. Place in pressure cooker for 90 minutes with 10 pounds PSI.
In the pot cooking away.
Time to can it.
YUM! Cooling and then ready for the pantry!
No thirty second rule in this house. If it hits the floor it don't stand a chance with these hound dawgs!
10-12 pounds of chicken thighs, boneless, skinless are better, or frozen meatballs.
2 cups soy sauce
2 cups sugar
2 cups ketchup
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp ginger
In a large bowl mix the soy, sugar, ketchup, garlic, ginger. When the sugar is dissolved place in a large pot and add the chicken or meat balls. Cook until done!
Serve over rice and spoon a little sauce over the rice.
If canning, 6 lbs of meatballs makes 6 quarts. 16 pounds of chicken thighs makes 10 quarts. Place in pressure cooker for 90 minutes with 10 pounds PSI.
In the pot cooking away.
Time to can it.
YUM! Cooling and then ready for the pantry!
 | |
| With these noses a twitching it has full approval! |
No thirty second rule in this house. If it hits the floor it don't stand a chance with these hound dawgs!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Potato Bins!
OK, lets make a couple of potato bins for this year! I'm making a stackable one so I can make the potato's grow upwards instead of all around. Perfect for the backyard. Small space but I expect a good harvest. Some folks use tires stacked on top of each other. This one will have more room in it and no chemicals that might leach out from a tire.
First find a suitable container. In this case I'll use a 55 gallon drum that I'm replacing as a rain barrel. Its the wrong color that lets to much light thru so algae grows in it.
This one also has molded ribs that will allow stacking after cutting. That way as you add dirt they will stay together better.
Drainage is important so drill a few holes in the bottom.
Now cover the holes with 1/4 hardware cloth to hold in the dirt.
Add dirt and ready to plant.
One has red pontiac and one has kennebec's. As the potato's grow I'll add the other rings, more dirt until its all full. Once the vines die off I can harvest a ring at a time, keeping the rest in the ground until needed.
Peace, Ken
First find a suitable container. In this case I'll use a 55 gallon drum that I'm replacing as a rain barrel. Its the wrong color that lets to much light thru so algae grows in it.
This one also has molded ribs that will allow stacking after cutting. That way as you add dirt they will stay together better.
Drainage is important so drill a few holes in the bottom.
Now cover the holes with 1/4 hardware cloth to hold in the dirt.
Add dirt and ready to plant.
One has red pontiac and one has kennebec's. As the potato's grow I'll add the other rings, more dirt until its all full. Once the vines die off I can harvest a ring at a time, keeping the rest in the ground until needed.
Peace, Ken
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Raised beds.
We just had a major storm go through here a few hours ago. After it stopped raining and the water had a couple of hours to drain I went out to check on the quail and my garden. The rain gauge said 2 and a half inches. I still have standing water that will take some time to drain.
This is a common problem in housing subdivisions. My land used to be grass fields, so the soil is heavy clay. My raised beds on the other hand were drained and my plants survived well!
So far so good. Now if we get consistent rain this year i should get a great harvest.
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| Strawberries doing great. |
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| Two beds of green peppers. |
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| Three beds in the back of romas, one bed with red pear tomato's, yellow pear tomato's, and tomatillios | . |
Monday, March 5, 2012
The Garden is in!
Well spring has sprung here in SE Texas. The rain has let up long enough for my beds to dry out and be worked, so worked they are! That fresh tilled soil looks so pretty.
A word on fences. Protect your gardens from the critters! Make sure that they are strong enough to repel your likely invaders. I had to totally redo my strawberry bed when a dawg got under the flimsy fence that I had and dug up them all but a few that I could salvage and re-pot for planting.
She denies it of course, but she got caught in the act. Off she goes to protect the quail, yeah right.
Yummy looking and after a week all are growing great!
Ken
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