My last entry was in the middle of March. That time of year always engenders in me a great sense of hope and excitement for the season and year before me. Had I know what was ahead this year I'm not sure I wouldn't have tucked my tail and coward under the air conditioner. The heat, drought and some mistakes on my part really took their toll on my garden, orchard and property in general. Unfortunately I stopped documenting my day to day efforts when things got busy.
The long term forecast is not favorable. It is expected that the drought will continue into next year. But now that the air is crisp and cool and the winter grass is green from the occasional rain, I'm beginning to look around at my property and have started drawing up my plans to regroup, replant and enjoy the land that God has blessed me with.
2011
The Garden
The tomato is the standard with which I gage the success of my gardening and it seems to be the standard for many Texas gardeners. This puts me in a precarious positions considering the vulnerability of the tomato plant. If my plants survive a late frost, the relentless insects, and escape disease, they must still produce before the scorching heat sets in. That didn't happen this year. My plants were actually quite attractive this spring. They were leafy and green but few yellow flowers blossomed. Few flowers equals few fruit. I questioned Dennis at Dennis Farm Store and he suggested I "shake the hell outta of'em". The idea of shaking them certainly makes sense in terms of pollinating the flowers that are there but I'm not sure of the logic in shaking them when they have few flowers. When I questioned him, he said "shak'em anyway". We barely made any salsa from our spring tomatoes. In fact our last jar is open in the refrigerator now. When I could no longer keep up watering 20 tomato plants this year I put drip irrigation on them. They were burnt and wilted through the summer but rebounded nicely in September. I started doing as Dennis suggested and daily shook each plant. The yellow flowers were plentiful and soon fruit started appearing. Things were looking good and tomatoes were covering the vines. Still small and green but numerous the forecast predicted a frost and possible freeze. Becca and I covered the plants with sheets and plastic and I got up before sunrise to spray the plants with water to melt away the frost but to no avail. By the middle of the next day the plants were wilted and black. Despite our efforts we lost them all to an early frost. If we could have escaped that one night we would have had plenty because it didn't freeze again for several weeks.
Squash
I've always thought that even the worst gardener could grow yellow squash and perhaps they can. But this year I didn't. I think the squash bugs were the demise of mine. The leaves turned brown and dried up. Generally I try not to use insecticides without a compelling reason but I think I may spray a few things before signs of trouble next year.
Watermelon
Watermelon is one plant that I just haven't ever been able to get right. Last year they grew and grew big but were tasteless. This year they just didn't grow.
Potatoes, Beets and Onions
I planted only red potatoes because those are the ones we enjoyed eating last year. We had great success with the potatoes. I dug them a little late and they were starting to go bad faster than I thought they should in the house so to avoid losing them we shredded them in a food processor, packed them with a sealer and froze them. We enjoyed hash browns at a lot of our Sunday "Breakfasts for Dinner".
Purple onions didn't do much as has been my experience in the past but the yellow and white granex did real well. I hung them in garage in pantyhose and put small zip ties between each onion to separate them. We are still eating them but most of them are starting to develop green sprouts now.
I had to replant my beets because I lost most of the first planting but the second planting did very well. We have tons of pickled beets now. We also tried a recipe that quickly became a Norwood favorite...Red root relish. The recipe is in the Ball Canning Book. We like it most on hamburgers but eat it on several things.
Corn
Our spring corn was successful. Unfortunately I didn't record the two varieties that I planted. One of them did much better than the other. A lot of corn was left not quite ripe and went to waste. I believe this was due to the early heat of June. We replanted in the fall and had reasonable good growth but the cold weather slowed them down just before they were ripe.
Okra
I'm not sure why, but I planted some purple okra. It was terrible. The pods were thin and tough. Next year it's back to the traditional stuff.
Green Beans
We planted two rows of green beans of two different varieties. Again, I didn't record which ones were which. We had good success with one and not so good with the other. Our family ate the green beans rapidly and so we decided to plant a lot more in the fall. Fall planting occurred during the height of the drought and hot sun and I don't think I watered adequately while the plants were germinating. In retrospect is seems obvious but one lesson learned this year is that young plants can't be allowed to dry out even for a short time.
Jalepenos
Jalepenos did fine but bell peppers didn't do much. I pickled some jalepenos in the spring but they were too mushy. I recently pickled some fall jalepenos but soaked them in pickling lime overnight. They are great!
The Garden Plan for 2012
I'm excited to try a new crop this coming year. I want to grow tomatillas. I love green salsa and tomatilla sauces an so I want to grow some with hopes of canning a lot of green salsa. Tomatillas aren't nearly as versatile as tomatoes as far as how you can prepare them but they should improve our salsa production.
Like every year, tomatoes will be a big focus of my garden. Oddly enough this year the tomatoes that did the best were the ones that did the worst last year...the 444's. Who knows what next year will bring but I will plant a few more 444's and few less 4th of July plants.
I am ready to try my hand at cucumbers again and hope to make some dill pickles next year.
Sometime in the next month I want to have some compost delivered and till it in. It's time to replenish some of the nutrients I have been depleting the last couple of years.
Blackberries
As previously posted I planted 40 blackberry plants at the same time Dr. Henderson did. I thought they were doing okay until I made the mistake of going out and seeing Dr. Henderson's patch. It reminds me of when I got my dad interested in birding. I happily used my old $30 Bushnell binoculars and he bought some $1200 Swarovsky binoculars. I looked at a few birds with his and I could never look through mine again. I did very little birding again until I bought a decent pair of Nikons. My blackberry patch looked pitiful too me after seeing his. I added drip irrigation and things started picking up. They grew a lot of lateral branches but pale in comparison to the size of his. Charles at DuckCreek Blackberry assured me that next year mine will grow more vertical. I have high hopes for them and don't plan to visit Dr. H's patch anytime soon.
The Orchard
Nothing was as devastating this year as the carnage that once was my orchard. I thought things were going to be so good since irrigating the orchard but a plaque of locust (grasshoppers) came and despite my prayers no flocks of seagulls came to my rescue. They completely stripped the leaves of my trees. I thought my peach trees were established enough to survive but only one is still alive. The heat and the grasshoppers combined seemed to do them in. I didn't want to spray tempo because of the potential to kill my bees with it and the grasshoppers were overwhelming. I don't have a good solution figured out for the future other than keep the weeds down, spray early in June, consider guineas or chickens to help keep them at bay.
I've been thinking about what to replant. My dad recommends that I give up on apples and pears and just grown peaches and plums. I've been given that advise by others as well. The problem is, that I know that even though conditions aren't optimal some people do grow decent apples and pears. I remember my grandpa growing apples. I have decided to replant exactly what I had planted before. 2 apples, 2 pears, 2 plums and 4 peaches...same varieties. I'm hoping to spend at least another 40 years at Hoot Owl Hollow. It might not work out that way but I hope it does. So, if I can figure out how to grow apples sometime in the next 20 years then maybe I'll get to enjoy them for the 20 years after that. I've been blessed and cursed with fierce tenacity.
The Bees
It was an interesting year for the bees. For the most part things went pretty good. The early spring was too dry but we had a good crop of flowers in May. The front pasture was full of Indian Blanket and the bees really worked them over. Unfortunately everything dried up earlier than it should have because of the dry hot June. The bees remained healthy and we extracted a pretty good amount of honey. I gave Sam and Luke each a couple dozen jars to sell to purchase their own bee equipment. They both sold out quickly and plan to try beekeeping on their own. I hope it will be profitable for them and help pay for college and missions. I requeened all 4 hives in September. I had a hard time supplementing enough sugar water through the horrible hot months and I am afraid that my bees may be pretty week going into the winter. I hope that I have four strong hives in the spring but I wouldn't be surprised to lose one or two hives. I will try to supplement sugar water for food on the warmer days.
Star
Star was our bottle baby heifer that we intended to keep for breeding. She didn't grow to a size that would make her a good cow to breed. Also, she would have required a large amount of expensive hay for the winter. We decided to have her butchered and made into mostly hamburger meat. The meat is good and it really helps to have in the freezer. She was a good calf and we gave her a good life while she was with us.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for many reasons. I love our family tradition of spending it in San Antonio with my siblings at the KOA like we have done for the last 25 years. I love that it is the start of the Christmas season. I love that is in fall, a time that to me signifies survival and provides rest from the Texas summer. I love that it is a time to reflect on the blessings that are so abundant in my life.
