Summer Sights

Here are some things happening in our yard so far this summer. It's been hot and dry though we did get a bit of rain a couple of weeks ago. In the above shot is borage - anyone use it for any cooking before? Someone gave it to us and we've never used it though I read you can use it in drinks and saute it as you would spinach. It's got a lot of white fuzz on the leaves and stems. Interesting and pretty plant.

Here's one of our little tomatoes - we got a late start on them so they are just now starting to bloom out a bit. We planted eight but only six are left with us and I'm working hard at keeping them well saturated to fight the extreme heat and sun. Our squash and zucchini didn't make it sadly. Asian Long Beans are doing fine though no white blooms on them just yet. I plant a LOT of them since we liked them so much last year. I also put some sunflowers in so hopefully they will continue to grow and then bloom for some photos. :-) Below are some of the peaches on our little tree out back. You may recall last year we had so many peaches we had to give a ton away because we couldn't eat them fast enough. They were delicious! This year, we have a decent number of fruit on the tree though nowhere near what we saw last year. I think they look lovely when they turn this beautiful blush color.

Finally, this morning I continue to try and keep our grass from drying up too much so I put the sprinkler out for a bit. I also like to do that for all the birds - they love to come to the water and get a bath in while they can. They fluff up and twirl all around - a lot of fun to watch. I especially love the red cardinals since they remind me of North Carolina.

Tomato Plants

It was 87 degrees today. And the allergens were killing me and Mark. Blah. And the Spurs lost to the Rockets by one point. And we went to a Spurs Fan Event but no autographed winnings this year. Oh well. And my head is hurting.

On to better news and a brighter look on things more important...we got tomatoes on the plants!!! Mark pointed out four of them. I love the way they smell right now. When you get close, you can smell the fragrant plants and it's wonderful. Gives me a nice feeling.

Busy week for us with travel here and there. So if you don't see a post for a day or two, that's why. Take care and I hope you all have a great week.

Seguin Photo Blog turns 3!

Today is the Seguin Photo Blog's 3rd birthday and for my 250th post, I would like to provide an update on the garden with a few pictures. Smokey has found a new snoozing spot in the garden. He really seems to enjoy hanging out in the tub and the real garden.

Our tomatoes are abundant and we await the first ripe one so we can cut into it. They still smell wonderful. Our squash is also starting to produce but Mark noticed that one of the little squash was shriveling up so he researched it and read that it was due to the plants not getting polinated. So funny our bees did not seem to notice the squash yet I guess. So Mark used a q-tip to cross pollinate himself and at that time, he did see a bee so between the bee and Mark, the squash should be okay. :)

Tomatoes - Week 3

Here are the plants at about 3 weeks. We have been very pleased with their progress. :)

A note from SC: We have had a blast but we're tired and missing home for sure. Looking forward to our trip home tomorrow!

Tomato Update

Here is an update on our tomatoes. I took this before we started playing around with the stakes for them. AND we spotted our first baby tomato already. It's so cute and only about 3/4 of an inch now. Here's a shot of the plants the first day we put them in.

Other plants in the garden are also doing okay. We're going to have to do something about the pill bugs, some people call them rolly polly bugs. Whatever, they are eating up our squash plants I think. And the okra too. But my cucumbers are safe so far, as are the sunflowers.

This weekend has been gorgeous weather for the getting out and gardening and walking and (if you're in San Antonio) enjoying the NCAA Final Four tournament. SA is about 35 minutes from us and we are seeing high traffic on the roads and in our hotels. I guess we are accomodating the overflow.

Yesterday, Mark and I felt very industrious. Did errands, enjoyed the garden, filed our taxas (woo hoo!), relaxed from a crazy week, watched Oceans 13 and I started packing for a 3 day trip to the southeast for work. I hope you all have a great week. I will try and post during my trip.

Tub o' Tomatoes

After all that prepping, we got three tomato plants into the tub. This tub is pretty cool and I'm sure it's had quite a history. We live in an old house (circa 1860) and we have spent about 8 years really working on renovations and it's finally looking pretty great and we love being home to enjoy it.

This tub used to be in the bathroom and we thought about refinishing it with a kit from Home Depot when we saw the cost of a new cast iron, clawfoot tub a few years ago. However, prices came down and we decided to get a new tub. When we turned over the old tub, we saw information about the company who made it and the year. You can see a shot of it here.

Updated 3/26/08: Abe made a good comment about how we're going to water this. We put bricks and then a layer of gravel on the bottom for drainage and the drain is open. We'll see how it works out. We've water lightly everyday now. Once the full Texas heat arrives for summer, it means a lot more water everyday.

Digging in the dirt

Do you know that song? It's by Peter Gabriel and I like it a lot. It's an oldie. Not a golden oldie, but considered an oldie these days.

We got to work on the garden this weekend and really enjoyed being out in the yard together again. Here I am working on mixing up peat moss, manure and rich soil for our tomato plants. We also put in green beans, yellow squash, cucumbers, okra and sunflowers. And I'm going to try to grow some rosemary too. I'll take pictures of the plants once there's something to look at. Right now, there's just a lot of dirt. :)

I'll post more pics of our gardening this week. Hope everyone has a great Tuesday! Thanks for all your nice and sometimes hilarious comments. As usual, I always enjoy reading what you think.