My Garden and the Texas Drought

[Cindy]

Originally Posted by BeenThinkin

Let's see.... where is Mineola, Texas?

BT

About 90 miles East of Dallas.

[Apprehended]

Originally Posted by Cindy

We had a great lunch today. Fresh out of our garden, fried and boiled squash, green onions, and new potatoes. We also had, (store bought) tomatoes, hamburgers, and smoked sausage. I will be so glad when our tomatoes are ready.

Girl,

you know what good living is all about. Good for you. I'm happy for you and yours.

My squash is not ready but when they come in I'll have a truck load of 'em. My onions and carrots did not make this year. I seem to always have some trouble with carrots...not sure why. I'm going to wait until the potato leaves start to die before I plow them up. Mustard greens are ready to harvest but Marie is in Amarillo for a few days. I'm not going to harvest them until she gets back. So, I eat out everyday until she gets back. No sense in harvesting stuff without a cook at home.

I severely pruned all 60 tomato plants quite severely. They were bushy but when I got finished with them they all looked like a herd of plucked chickens. I hope that I did not prune them too severely since they should have been pruned many days ago. At least, they are now beginning to blossom. They need the energy for the fruit. We have a bee hive near the garden. They need to get busy.

Do you have any fruit trees and chickens?

[Esther]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

Girl,

you know what good living is all about. Good for you. I'm happy for you and yours.

My squash is not ready but when they come in I'll have a truck load of 'em. My onions and carrots did not make this year. I seem to always have some trouble with carrots...not sure why. I'm going to wait until the potato leaves start to die before I plow them up. Mustard greens are ready to harvest but Marie is in Amarillo for a few days. I'm not going to harvest them until she gets back. So, I eat out everyday until she gets back. No sense in harvesting stuff without a cook at home.

I severely pruned all 60 tomato plants quite severely. They were bushy but when I got finished with them they all looked like a herd of plucked chickens. I hope that I did not prune them too severely since they should have been pruned many days ago. At least, they are now beginning to blossom. They need the energy for the fruit. We have a bee hive near the garden. They need to get busy.

Do you have any fruit trees and chickens?

Never heard of pruning tomato plants??

[Esther]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

Y'all come on up.

When you have poor soil such as that ol' gumbo mud, you have to do a lot of soil amendment. Composting is indispensable.

Hubby says no to composting. He thinks that draws snakes and rats???

I put rice hulls in last year. Probably will again in the fall.

[Apprehended]

Originally Posted by Esther

Never heard of pruning tomato plants??

Some people have a hard time with their tomatoes because they do not prune. Pruning the suckers and the non productive lower branches eliminates wasted energy that should be flowing into the development of the tomato. To get the best tomato, you must prune the plant, preferably long before I did this year. Also, tomato growers should plant and start their tomatoes indoors long before I did this year. Getting them started earlier assures a longer productive season since the blossoms will not pollinate when temp gets up near 100 with high humidity. I'm still trying to perfect the art of good tomato growing. My mother was the world's best at it.

[Apprehended]

Originally Posted by Esther

Hubby says no to composting. He thinks that draws snakes and rats???

I put rice hulls in last year. Probably will again in the fall.

Rice hulls are good but they only add certain nutrients which is deficient in other nutrients that only a good well-rounded composting regiment can add.

Rats and snakes? Maybe so, but this has not been my experience. The only thing that really draws snakes around here is my chicken coop which I close up at night. If I were to leave it open at night, snakes, coons, possums, coyotes and everything else would get in there to eat both eggs and chickens.

[Esther]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

Rice hulls are good but they only add certain nutrients which is deficient in other nutrients that only a good well-rounded composting regiment can add.

Rats and snakes? Maybe so, but this has not been my experience. The only thing that really draws snakes around here is my chicken coop which I close up at night. If I were to leave it open at night, snakes, coons, possums, coyotes and everything else would get in there to eat both eggs and chickens.

How do you close it up at night? My Mom has lost a good number of her hens to a mink. They only stick their heads in and bite the heads off and suck the blood.

My sister has killed a number of snakes IN her chicken coop. Sometimes eating the eggs and once eating a bitty.

[Cindy]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

Girl,

you know what good living is all about. Good for you. I'm happy for you and yours.

My squash is not ready but when they come in I'll have a truck load of 'em. My onions and carrots did not make this year. I seem to always have some trouble with carrots...not sure why. I'm going to wait until the potato leaves start to die before I plow them up. Mustard greens are ready to harvest but Marie is in Amarillo for a few days. I'm not going to harvest them until she gets back. So, I eat out everyday until she gets back. No sense in harvesting stuff without a cook at home.

I severely pruned all 60 tomato plants quite severely. They were bushy but when I got finished with them they all looked like a herd of plucked chickens. I hope that I did not prune them too severely since they should have been pruned many days ago. At least, they are now beginning to blossom. They need the energy for the fruit. We have a bee hive near the garden. They need to get busy.

Do you have any fruit trees and chickens?

Yes, we have fruit trees and chickens. Some of our fruit trees are planted in our front garden. We have a bigger garden in our North pasture. So a beehive helps a garden?

[Cindy]

Originally Posted by Esther

How do you close it up at night? My Mom has lost a good number of her hens to a mink. They only stick their heads in and bite the heads off and suck the blood.

My sister has killed a number of snakes IN her chicken coop. Sometimes eating the eggs and once eating a bitty.

Our coop is closed and inside a fenced area. But it has a doggy door for the chickens to get through. We have had problems with snakes in the past. If you sprinkle moth crystals around it deters snakes safely.

[KeptByTheWord]

We don't have chickens, but our neighbors do. For years, they have put out white golf balls in with the chickens and on the ground. Snakes eat them thinking they are eggs, and die. They have found several dead snakes with golf balls in them. I'm glad to hear of any dead snake!