My Garden and the Texas Drought

[Apprehended]

My garden was almost burned up by this horrific Texas drought but I managed to keep it alive. We got a rain about a week ago. The garden jumped up several inches almost over night. These two pictures are before the rain a couple of weeks ago. But, we are still in a terrible drought situation. I'll take a couple more pictures to compare the difference.





Finally I have to show you a picture of my grand daughter Elizabeth, age 15. Filled with the Holy Ghost, sings in the choir, a church worker and is a prayer warrior too:

[MissBrattified]

What a great piece of land you have there--and my husband would be so jealous of your tractor!

[Pressing-On]

Why did you plant such a large garden? We have a small garden and it's doing really well. Picked my first yellow squash and jalapenos yesterday. Can't wait for the okra and tomatoes.

[Apprehended]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

What a great piece of land you have there--and my husband would be so jealous of your tractor!

Couldn't do it like mama used to do it...a mule and middle-buster and a turning plow. Thank God for tractors and implements that go with them.

Not quite 20 acres but more than half of it is in timber. I only have about a 1/3 acre garden. Only about ten acres are cleared.

[Apprehended]

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

Why did you plant such a large garden? We have a small garden and it's doing really well. Picked my first yellow squash and jalapenos yesterday. Can't wait for the okra and tomatoes.

We like to put up. We have two pressure cookers which will be kept pretty busy when all of these vegetables start coming in. I intend to dehydrate a lot of them too. But, the reason I planted such a large garden, one of my big joys is picking a bushel of this and a bushel of that and taking it to someone in the community. It's work but its worth the fun giving stuff away.

I have two 80 ft. rows of Spineless Okra. I'll keep picking them every day or every other day and they will keep coming on until nearly the first frost. I have a 100 ft. row of Beefsteak (an indeterminate) tomatoes. I'll have enough tomatoes to get into a tomato war with someone.

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

We like to put up. We have two pressure cookers which will be kept pretty busy when all of these vegetables start coming in. I intend to dehydrate a lot of them too. But, the reason I planted such a large garden, one of my big joys is picking a bushel of this and a bushel of that and taking it to someone in the community. It's work but its worth the fun giving stuff away.

I have two 80 ft. rows of Spineless Okra. I'll keep picking them every day or every other day and they will keep coming on until nearly the first frost. I have a 100 ft. row of Beefsteak (an indeterminate) tomatoes. I'll have enough tomatoes to get into a tomato war with someone.

A tomato war would be WAY fun!!! LOL!

That is very kind of you to give to your community. We are on city water and don't want the large water bill. We just plant whatever is more costly at the grocery store. Dehydrating is something I haven't done, but would love to do.

Everything looks great - you did a good job. But, I'm sure you have had plenty of experience. I was telling someone that "I" planted some strawberries this year. My husband said, "You did? You did? You dug in the dirt and planted them?" LOL! He does all of that. I just go outside and pick everything when I need it. LOL!

[coadie]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

Couldn't do it like mama used to do it...a mule and middle-buster and a turning plow. Thank God for tractors and implements that go with them.

Not quite 20 acres but more than half of it is in timber. I only have about a 1/3 acre garden. Only about ten acres are cleared.

Have you considered it may be the tractor.

Green tractors if you want green veggies.

[Cindy]

Our garden is doing well. My husband made some irrigation pipes out of the things you use for plumbing. I forget what they are called. They lay down flat in between the rows. He also has some tripod sprinklers. We grow enough for 2 or 3 families. And he has a great tractor, too.

[Apprehended]

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

A tomato war would be WAY fun!!! LOL!

That is very kind of you to give to your community. We are on city water and don't want the large water bill. We just plant whatever is more costly at the grocery store. Dehydrating is something I haven't done, but would love to do.

Everything looks great - you did a good job. But, I'm sure you have had plenty of experience. I was telling someone that "I" planted some strawberries this year. My husband said, "You did? You did? You dug in the dirt and planted them?" LOL! He does all of that. I just go outside and pick everything when I need it. LOL!

Come on down. I'll give you a bushel of real nice red tomatoes and I'll keep the big green ones and we'll go at it.

If you haven't tried dehydrating vegetables, you don't know what you are missing. They are more delicious and more nutritious too.

Everyone should raise a garden. I've done it for years. This is the biggest one that I've undertaken. Help me pray for some rain.

In the old days, people who did not have a garden but depended on grocery stores were not looked upon too favorably. Mother used to tell me that if I went hungry I had no one to blame but myself. She always had a garden and would take our pastor the first and the best from it. I guess he was too busy praying and studying to plant one himself.

[Apprehended]

Originally Posted by Cindy

Our garden is doing well. My husband made some irrigation pipes out of the things you use for plumbing. I forget what they are called. They lay down flat in between the rows. He also has some tripod sprinklers. We grow enough for 2 or 3 families. And he has a great tractor, too.

I had to do the same thing. I used half inch pvc and drilled 1/64" holes along the length of the pipes which I joined end to end to make 100' of irrigation pipe. Works good. My water bill was quite high. So, I cleaned out a 125 year old dug well that has an endless supply of water and put a pump on it. So far I've not hooked it up to my irrigation system as yet. But, I will. I'll save myself a lot of money if this horrendous drought persists. I also have some tripod sprinklers but I found that they use more water since they water everything without being as focused in distribution as the pvc pipe are.

It's good that your husband has a good tractor. They are almost indispensable. I could never do what the old timers did without a good tractor. I used to help my grandparents and my mother in their garden and it was all grunt work with their hands. I'm too old, too lazy and way to ornery to do it the way they used to do it.