June 27th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

Nothing particularly coherent to write about, but there were a few things I wanted to note for posterity.

Yesterday I planted green beans in the south-side bed. Originally I had saved that space for my wife to use. She wanted to get more involved in gardening, and we had researched the best things to plant given the late month. I was excited by that when she decided – it would have been a nice way to connect. But May stretched into June, and she hadn’t done anything with it. A week ago she finally admitted she wasn’t going to do anything with it. Disappointing.

So without a whole lot to lose, I planted green beans there… two rows of 3 seeds per mound… about 10 mounds. Already today they are sprouting. Beans are FAST! Now, it being almost July in Texas, it remains to be seen if anything comes of them. A long shot… but again, what’s to lose? I already had spare seeds.

Which reminds me, I need to hook up a water line to supply that bed from the sprinkler system. I have a micro-sprinkler tap nearby, but I need a few small parts to make it a go. Currently I have a hose-end sprinkler and chlorine filter supplying that bed, but with my 40+ year old brain, I’m likely to forget and leave that running all night.

And speaking of water, I have a PVC pipe over on the north-ish side of the house that captures the water from the A/C condenser. I had disconnected it over the winter – not a lot of A/C use until about February or so. I reconnected it today to water a small bed over there that contains a small thorny shrub whose name escapes me now. Damned 40-year-old brain. But it occurs to me that would make a good spot for the Gulf Coast penstemon, too… moisture and shade. I have had that plant for months, and I have yet to plant it. Poor thing. A wonder it’s still alive.

Lastly, since it has been Bug Week around here, I have to leave this post with yet another striking visitor to the yard:

June 27th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

The love-song of the male cicada is certainly one of the quintessential sounds of summer, and one I can remember from as far back as I can remember things – from summer days on my grandparent’s farm in New Bremen, to mountain biking in the woods in Northern Virginia, to just about any memory I have of summer outings in Texas.

Yesterday morning, I was standing on the front porch, when a bit of movement caught my eye. A cicada nymph was kicking around on its back. It had just fallen off the post it had climbed in order to molt.

I helped it onto a small twig and planted that in the dirt nearby. Close by, there was a hole in the ground the diameter of a wooden pencil. It was then I connected the dots to something I’d been seeing… those small holes in the yard were everywhere… they had to be the place cicada nymphs were emerging.

Within the hour, my cicada friend had emerged from its shell, looking like something from a cheezy vampire flick, wings shriveled and useless. Another hour, and it had shimmering, sleek wings ready for lift-off. Soon after, it was gone, off to join the summer chorus.

June 26th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

I’m beginning to wonder if I shouldn’t make a chicken coop out of palettes! Readily-available, free, sturdy, endlessly-configurable. I could avoid using any new “forest products” from Lowe’s, HD, etc. And I work where we get a steady supply of them.

Thanks to Amanda for pointing out this brilliance on Flickr. My wheels are turning!

(I didn’t take the photo, and I don’t know where that barn is, but the whole set is viewable by clicking on the photo.)

UPDATE:

The goat shed builder can be found here.

June 24th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

More shots of the unknown wonderland larvae:

June 22nd, 2010 by Marc Opperman

I’ve been beset by a lot of caterpillars recently, some desirable – swallowtail, gulf fritillary, etc., and some not – hornworms, tomato pinworms, etc.

Now these. Are they good? Or are they bad? They are eating a member of the Malvaceae family that was happily minding its own business in my yard, abutilon incanum. And by the looks of it, they will strip the plant down to nubs in a day or two.

As I expected it would, searching on Google for “purple caterpillars” yielded a lot of hookah and Alice references. But there’s some suggestion on sites I’ve looked at that these are members of the cibex genus – a sawfly. But the exact type is not very clear to me yet. If it is a sawfly, it’s more related to wasps and ants than it is to butterflies.

Bad photo, I know. If they haven’t left by tomorrow morning, I’ll get a better one with the micro lens.

June 20th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

I got this small handful of green beans out of the garden this Saturday, and Jenna tossed them in a pan with some olive oil and sesame seeds for us for part of a Father’s Day dinner (which also included torta rusticana and tomato-basil soup from the Soup Peddler).

The beans had a deep, robust flavor, and a slightly fuzzy texture. Smaller than store-bought green beans, but I thought more flavorful. We also cooked up some store green beans the same way at the same time, so had something to compare to immediately.

Friday I simmered a batch of tomato sauce using about 20 porter tomatoes and assorted herbs from the garden. It had a good flavor, but after blanching the tomatoes and peeling them, I should have squeezed the seeds out, too. It was a little like eating a savory version of raspberry jam and constantly crunching bitter little seeds. Blech.

Have I mentioned cooking is just as much an experiment for me as vegetable gardening? Fortunately, I have more tomatoes, basil, thyme, rosemary and oregano in the garden to do it right another time. Live and learn, live and learn.

June 20th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

I read a few gardening blogs, and I like the one at cheapvegetablegardener.com because of the writer’s innovative approaches to solving gardening issues. But when there’s a contest, I’m all about winning. So I’m posting this mainly because it’s part of the rules of the contest there.

However, the bugs have been bad this year, and I’d be willing to try anything organic or that had little impact on my garden if it reduced the harmful bug population. Especially if it were free!

So, here’s to hopefully winning some free product!

June 19th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

I thought I’d post a few shots I’ve taken from around my garden and elsewhere. Pretty things, great natives, or whatever else strikes my fancy for the moment.

Passion vine currently taking over my back deck. This thing would literally take over the entire back yard if I let it. Its root system must be incredible:

Lace cactus… done blooming now, but spectacular in the Spring:

There are lots of cool spiders hanging about, but this little critter was funny… challenging me for rights to the flower:

My crinums are blooming right now. I dug out 30 or so bulbs earlier this year and gave them away on Freecycle. I’m wondering how they are doing for the people who took them. I’d be happy to give them to some local readers next Srping when I dig more.

Ice crystals from frostweed stems earlier this year – a nice reminder of cooler (MUCH cooler!) weather. Hard to believe a few short months ago this was all there was of them. Most of my frostweeds are around 6 feet tall now, and ought to start blooming soon. The flowers are an important nectar source for monarchs and other butterflies.

Two-leaf senna. I really hope the seed I nabbed from somewhere comes up this year.

I also nabbed seed of this one, a Texas dandelion. We’ll see if it comes up next Spring:

That’s all for now.

crinum, frostweed, lace cactus, passion vine, photos, texas dandelion, two-leaf senna

June 18th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

Fun! I made a list of top gardeners on Twitter!

Top Ten Gardeners on Twitter 6/18/10

It looks like there are a bunch of talented folks on that list, so I’m pretty stoked to be included. And to explore their blogs and Twitter feeds, too.

I guess this means I need to Tweet more.

Thanks to @jeanannvk!

cool springs press, twitter

June 17th, 2010 by Marc Opperman

Made pesto tonight with basil from the garden. I wasn’t terribly pleased with the results. It tasted flat… somehow not lively.

I followed a recipe on Epicurious, but I think where I went wrong was in that we didn’t have walnuts or pinenuts, and instead used pecans. We thought we had walnuts, but they turned out to be an extra bag of pecans.

Attempting to be adaptable, I forged ahead. Probably won’t do that again, as the result was well… flat and lifeless. Not only that, but the pesto was dark. I’ve made this stuff before, and it was bright green. What gives?

I put it on a Whole Foods pizza crust and put some thin-sliced new potatoes and parmesan cheese over that, and baked it. Again, ho-hum. Maybe I don’t really like pesto after all.

I’m not much of a cook. Makes me wonder why in the heck I really want to grow so many vegetables.

In fact, while I have lots of them – more than I really know what to do with – the tomatoes are really starting to give me pause. Two of the varieties, the porters and the celebrities, aren’t very tasty. In fact, my employer, Sam, remarked that they tasted like supermarket tomatoes after I gave him some to try. Kiss of death – “supermarket tomatoes” – but I agree. Not tangy, a little on the watery and pithy side. The cherry tomatoes are quite the treat, but they don’t work well on sandwiches. I know I need to grow different varieties next year, hopefully something tastier. Or maybe the soil needs something. More fertilizer? More compost?

Dunno. I’m actually a little discouraged by gardening right now. Hopefully the green beans will rescue my opinion of my efforts.

basil, cooking, pesto, vegetables