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.

Garden Update - Week 11

This week the garden highlight is on our cucumber plants, which are finally showing lots of progress! There are several nearly ready and many more that are beginning to develop so we just have to provide plenty of water.

I recall helping my mom put in cucumber plants in her garden. She always had the most amazing gardens -- everything was always so green and produced plenty for her. She always had me put in the cucumber seeds for her. I think it was due partly to superstition -- she thought for some reason, I would be the good cucumber grower. I was always proud to do it and we had pretty good crops, so hopefully my luck will hold out for us now. I don't know what type she grew but hers grew very tall onto the trellis my dad built for her. Mine, however, grows low to the ground (as many do in other Seguin gardens we noticed).

I picked one off the ground since it looked like ants are beginning to enjoy it. We had our first cucumber/tomato salad and it was pretty awesome. Mark and I have really been enjoying our garden. And we're really glad to have tomatoes given the removal of tomatoes by the grocery stores.

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!

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.