Rain Rain and More Rain

Now just so you know I live in the heart of the Quachita mountains so don't get a lot of winds as a rule and what we get are generally from the SSW so there fore the house protects my veggy garden and the work shop helps as well,, the plants in the front yard just have to be tough..The main plant in the front are Day Lillies and they are tough enough for most anything ..The only thing really troubled is sweet corn and I have just about quit growing any of it...Glad you asked about the bottums for planters I have about a dozen and move them around quite a lot ..I use a hand truck and always let them dry as much as possible before moving

here is a picture of two of the early wooden ones

We just started Stage 3 of water restriction here in Irving !!
Watering allow only ONCE a week !

Now we really don't need to water ... but it is so scary !

Yes it is scary, makes you wonder what will happen to our beautiful gardens.
Let us hope for a wetter year in 2012.
Josephine.

My but water restrictions in Dec> just don't seem right but maybe if it is put in place now then people will get use to the idea before the hot dry summer is at hand ..Are the Golf courses down there watered with re-cycled water as in treated sewage water??? or any other types of re-cycled water

I keep hearing that commercial watering isnt as restricted but am not sure about the golf courses. Last summer I still saw lots of water flowing into streets when stores etc watered at night. What a waste that is...
C

Here is a little up date on the coldframe..The first pic is with flash showing the hinges which when finished will be the north side and last night showed that the north side needs to be completely insulated,,,,

The next pic is handheld without a flash the lighting is from beneath inside the frame and under the barrel

Grits, how many plants can you grow in the barrel? do you use it for winter greens?

sorry Jo I really don't know as this is just my second year of this type of gardening and I din't think to keep track of the number ..The winter greens I just sow in the garden and let them take their chances..I do have some Kale growing in one of the in ground barrel planters but it does not seem to be doing to good ..I am kinda new to growing kale so it looks like I may have bought some dwarf variety and I just this past discovered that there was a dwarf..Last year I bought some kale plants from a lady and she told me that it was a nice tall one and she was right ..the bad summer we all had kinda put a damper on her plant selling ..She did not grow many of her plants just bought wholesale and then retailed them in a little roadside stand

Kale is very easy to grow from seed and can take cold very well, you could just plant some seed and see what happens.

What I have now is grown from seed but I had not a clue ae to what variety to purchase,as a matter of fact the Co-Op only had one variety..LOL This is how we learn...

well a very cold morning here in bubbaland so we will see how the winter greens faired or if they bees turning the toes uo bit ,,Twas 19° very cold morning guess it is making up for the super nicedays of the past week..

just a little aside thing here I waited unti after Thanksgiving to plant my Garlic, well with all the warm weather it is coming up anyway ..I guess I better mulch it really deep and hope that will retard it until some more suitable weather comes along

Garlic is usually winter hardy, at least in this area, but of course mulching never hurts.

It is winter hardy most anywhere but the last 2 years I have had it come up then when it got about 6:" high it came a hard freeze and killed it to the ground then once more it came back but never seemed to have the strenght to mature into nice big bulbs ..so I guess next year I will wait until after Christmas to plant..I just now came in from the mulching chore put 12" of finely chopped sweet gum leaves and Balls on it and used lots of scrap welded wire and other stuff to hold it in place just in case you send one of the famous Texas winds up here and then my mulch will likely wind up in NW Arkansas

Sounds like you did a good job, now wait and see.

One thing each of us can do is online report anyone watering sidewalks and streets.... those systems that have broken sprinkler heads etc. They are wasting precious resources for sure.

how do you report online?
where?

Here is mine, Ft Worth and Arlington. Yours in Irving I didn't find but see a number you might use.

Fort Worth : http://fortworthtexas.gov/water/info/default.aspx?id=38508 Click “report water waste”.

Arlington: http://www.arlingtontx.gov/water/waterconservation_reportviolations.html Click “report a violation / complaint online”

Irving: http://www.cityofirving.org/water-utilities/stage-3.asp Don’t see online but number for Water Utilities at bottom. I bet they have one since you are at stage 3 now, or should have.

we have more rain but not any amount that will curtail any outdoor activities..Was just now watching the weather channel and said Houston got hammered and Midland had a record snowfall Whats up with that ,I am not at all familiar with Midland but isn't that the area with lots of Gypsum industry??? So what is up in your area?

Well we had a computer virus which my husband finally got off this computer so I have been away from DG for a while. We had another inch of rain this week and have had some truly beautiful weather. It is making up for the awful hot summer we had. The arugula and cilantro is growing like weeds, the collards and turnips are doing fine and delicious, and even though I also planted garlic late (in December) it is up and doing fine too.

I have been covering everything (garden/vegetables) on the really cold nights with those big blue cloths that the hospitals use just one time and then throw away - I think they cover the instrument tables with them. I have a friend that is a nurse that saves the blue material for me (after the operation it would normally go in the trash/landfill). It's water proof and holds the heat of the soil next to the plants very well. They are big enough to easily cover my 5 x 2 beds. So if you have a nurse friend that works in the OR, you can see if he/she will bring you some of them. They are great for protecting the floor when you are painting also.

i am not covering anything but that sounds like a wonderfull thing you have going on there ..i don't know any OR nurses anymore .My niece used to be an OR nurse at M.D. Anderson but because of health she is now in admin.

Someday, hopefully, I'm going to attend one of the roundups and bring a bunch of the white buckets (4 or 5 gallon) my daughter gets from the bakery where she works and a bunch of those blue drapes. Maybe someone else could use them too (and maybe even trade some seed for them.)
I wonder if you talked to your nurse the next time you went in for a checkup if they would save some of those blue drapes for you. But then again you may not even need them because you have the hills protecting your place.

Buckets are something I never have enough of especially the good sturdy 5 gallon ones right now here in the family room I have 2 sitting ,one with the cat food and another for dog food of course in the warm months they will be moved to the storage shed .Hah this winter I may as well have left them out ..In the early spring I do cover some things such as tomatoes and peppers

a little update about the garlic it is now growing up thru the mulch so today i plan to add to the depth of the mulch i have 2 --30 gallon garbage cans full to apply,,Another little note the fall greens are wonderfull and am sharing with all the neighbors that care to come a pick them ,Yesterday my next door neighbor came and picked and she brought some Commodity(Choctaw) milk for us >>Now this the interesting part the milk is pakaged in one quart boxes with a long shelf life have Y'all ever heard of this???

Is it iradiated? That would explain the packaging and the shelf life.

Now I never thought about irradeation (sic) but it does not say anything on the box just says that it is pastuerized using a very high heat method watch for a pic of the box

Here is the pic as promised

It isn't irradiated, but processed in an interesting manner.
http://www.gossner.com/home/gossner/admin.php?do=ipage&pageid=4&mid=4

I wish I had access to this locally as it would be an excellent addition to the pantry.
They even have a line of cheese and whipping cream as well as milk.
Have you sampled it Grits? What do you think of it?

It was mentioned that one of the dollar stores also handle it. I will keep an eye out for it. Thanks. Kristi

I can't tell any diference taste just like any 1% milk,this is not the first we have gotten from this woman,they get some interesting stuff ..One time she gave me a frozen 4 gal. bucket of lemon/poppy seed mix..LOL I thawed it and devided it into one gal. things and shared with the other family members we all liked it...

Good to know ~ thanks...

thanks I looked at the link that you sent very nice...i have seen Gosner Cheese but the light didn't come on untill I lokked at the link

Would you suspect (seeing as their main plant is in Utah) that they package for the Mormon community who practice long term food storage?

yeah even tho I didn't even think about the Mormon angle until you mentioned it ..Don't Mormnons have a certain amount they are supposed to have on hand ???

Now that I don't know. I do keep a stocked pantry because I learned it while growing up in Minnesota.
It has paid off when we've lost power due to windstorms, hurricanes, ice.
That was why I was interested in the milk product you mentioned. Thanks... Kristi

How much nutrition do you think it loses being heated to those temps? The description is funny, it sounds like Pasteur's experiment.

Gossners' site says

yesterday it was 74 here very briefly but this morning has a cold humid feel to it although the actual temp is mid to low 30s

I just opened the first of the UHT milk (we had just opened a gallon when she gave us the milk) as far as I can tell there is no diference in taste ....Trader Joe's is coming to DFW area soon or so I hear and I think they carry it..I told the lady that gives it to me that I would take all she has to spare...Her family refuses to use it because it is 1%..Go figure everyone of them weighs in at over 300lbs