An Interesting Challenge to Say the Least

It has been quite awhile since I wrote on my blog. I can't say I haven't been busy but not really worth writing about. Now this challenge is different.
A year or so ago I got a Cricket Ridged Heddle loom. It I so easy to use that I've almost deserted my spinning wheel. I founds this great Facebook group for Ridged Heddle weavers. The owner of the list put out a challenge to all the members which was to weave fabric that could be made into something. In other words something other then scarves, shawls, or place mates to name a few.
I took on the challenge and decided I would weave fabric for an 1830's vest for my husband. Deciding on the colors was a challenge. But after searching for photos of original period vest, I concluded on purple, cobalt blue and yellow. The Victorians loved color and combined it in ways we may not enjoy today. Next was a pattern to weave. I decided a plaid. Equal blue and purple blocks and a narrow strip of yellow. The yarns are cotton and linen.
The wrapping wasn't very difficult but the weaving was not as pleasant as I could have been. The loom I used wasn't my Cricket but an old child's loom that really needs a lot more tweeking. The tension was difficult to keep. But a pushed through and got it done and wet finished.
Yesterday I held my breath and cut into this priceless price of fabric. First I had to draft the vest pattern, so I went to my favorite book for men's clothing of the 19th C.

If any of you are into sewing period clothing for men this is a great book.

 

So I got out my trusty newsprint and started drafting.  I made a front and
back pattern but I am only showing the front pieces.

                                                            

After the pattern pieces were done I then took a deep breath and started cutting.  Since the fabric was a bit limp I decided it needed an underlining. I cut out the underlining and sewed it to the fabric.  I felt much more comfortable doing that and then cutting it out.  I was so afraid it was going to come undone.  Remember this was my first fabric I ever wove.  Big learning curve to say the least.

  

The following photos are of construction.

It is now all sewn together awaiting buttonholes and buttons.  It will be ready for the county fair next week.  Hopefully I will win a prize.

Life is good.

What a wonderful day so far.  We got some rain and the temps have dropped.  We may just be getting more rain later on as well.  So June was a busy month for me, house sitting for several people. I used that time away from home, working on designing some small quilt patterns. I am on the schedule to teach 6 small quilt classes.  They meet once a month at One Quilt Place in Fredericksburg and during that month they finish a new little quilt.  Can't do that with a full size quilt.  I ran the classes, when it was Pocketful Of Poseys, for 2 years. Those classes were not my own designs but someone else's.  Now the class is mine and I can do what I want.  It is exciting to look for patterns and work on them so that they are a 2" or 4" or 6" block.  I have two done and writing the directions is a challenge.  Not only that, what you thought was a correct measurement wasn't quite so when you work up the pattern in fabric.  It may look good on paper but you don't know if it's right until you make the first block. It is truly a challenge and something I am enjoying.

 Here is my first pattern.

              Can you tell if it is a small quilt or a full size one? 

 If not then good. 

                                                                               


                                                                                   

                                             

Besides working on my small quilt patterns I
am working on some other projects that are regular size quilt designs.  I am taking two workshops through the Veriens Quilt Guild.  This month we are doing a Christmas Quilt.  It can be a couch quilt or tree skirt.  I'm doing it as a couch quilt.  Next month a national teacher is coming and she is from Kansas Troubles.  It too is a winter quilt and I want to do mine in flannel.  Now that I want to do flannel I can't find what I want.  I do have some in my stash so I am hoping I can find what I need to fill in.  Now for the big project.  I have decided to do this fantastic quilt that will take 18 months to get all the pattern.  Now does that mean I get it done in 18 months Noooooooooooooo! but it will take that long to get all the parts.  It is a quilt that was made in the 1790's.  What is different is that most quilts of the 1700's where whole cloth, but this one is all applique. Therefore the 18 monhs.  I was happy to uncover a box of fabric that someone sent me years ago as part of a secret friend. The fabric is very reminiscent of the 1700's and there is a lot of it as well.  From what I have gathered it was a scrappy quilt which is perfect.  The original was done on linen but I will be using cotton. I haven't purchased my fabric but my plan is to get a subtle marble in an unbleached muslin color.





Here is part of what I am doing.                                              







 This is what I have done so far.          

 I have one more quilt I plan to work on this summer and it is such a simple design. I wish I could have had this for the 4th of July but I will have it done for next year.  The fabric is a Jelly Roll from one of my favorite online quilt shops.  She also has some great fabric for my reenacting wardrobe.  5 Bucks A Yard and she is a Texas shop so I am shopping locally.
I am thinking how wonderful this might be in Holiday colors.  My mind is spinning.

I finally got my Bailey quilting machine working and I have done two queen size quilts on it.  Each one is getting better.  My first one was for my brother and sister in law but the photos I took are MIA.  The second one was a graduation quilt for Miss Margaret Nabors. By the time it was delivered she had been out of high school for two years. Now I have some quilt tops that date back some 30 years but they aren't gifts.  I should never let things go like that.  My brother's quilt was a Christmas gift but it was only a year and a few months over due.  

. 

So here is Margaret's quilt.  I love the colors and the design is close to Burgoyne's Surrenderd 

Here is a close up of the quilting.
I did swirls because the fabrics had swirl patterns
in them.

I am feeling really good about all the good things that have been going on this past month. I hope to have some more progress to report soon.  

Oh I Am so Happy!

I just put the last of the panels on the greenhouse today.  Yesterday was way to warm to get all that we needed to do to finish it all. I think it was 80 and being in the corner of two buildings it was really warm.
I am now ready to move in my few house plants that struggle all winter in the house.  Way to much darkness.       The lemon tree for one which is new to me needs more light than what I can give it.  I think if the heat keeps up I will need to put the shade cloth on soon.
So I am going to plant my seeds this week.  I will move in the tables and shelves tomorrow and then start planting.  I need to locate the seed starting pellets some where around here.  I did not start seeds last year so who knows where everything is now. At least I know where my heat mat is. That is the best gardening item  ever.  My friend Pat gave that to me a few years ago and it has made such a big difference in starting seeds.  I will be posting photos as the seeds grow up.  It is such a joy to see those little plants popping up out of the soil and then growing into big and tall plants producing food for our table.
A little progress on the planting situation, I did plant all my onions so they will be taking off soon.  With the rain predicted tonight and tomorrow that will be oh so good. They have plenty of alpaca poop to enrich to soil as well.
This warm weather is causing the pomegranates to leaf out and even the dewberries are starting to leaf out.  I am happy to see that since I wasn't sure if they made it this past summer.  Not sure about one mulberry but the other one is sending out leaves as well.  The two peach trees and two cherry trees are planted and are just siting there. That is ok they need to put on roots more than anything else.  The two cherry trees are nothing but sticks with leaf buds on them.  Time will tell. They have low chill hrs which is good I guess.  I know it will be a few years before we see any fruit but it will be fun to see how they do and if they will produce cherries.
Lastly since we are to get rain tomorrow I planted some spinach seeds. I really hope they make it. Not sure how old the seed is.  I plan to plant more and I also plan to get some romaine and hot season lettuce in. I know I have seed for that just need to locate it.  I hate the fact I put things in a safe place and then realize it is so safe I can't find it.  LOL
Photos of the newly finish greenhouse will be posted next posting.

So Where Did Winter Go?

I always look forward to time after Christmas to do some of those jobs I could not finish before the heat of summer hit.  So January was cold and I do mean cold and windy and darn right nasty.  And now we are looking at recorder breaking temps.   Good grief.

We started working on the greenhouse I had been wanting to years.  I guess it was a good thing it took us so long, since what I was going to use for my frame work was the top section to the horse/cattle trailer.  If we had then we would have been in a really bad spot.  We are looking at getting miniature horses and carts to use with them.  The old horse trailer will be perfect for the storing and carrying of the carts and tack and the little horses.

Well a friend had a saying that once you throw your hat over the fence you have to go get it.  By that she meant that once you make a commitment to something you have to finish it.  A dear friend who is moving to SC gave me her lemon tree.  My house is just not set up to grow a lemon tree in the winter.  Not enough space or light.  So she throw my hat over the fence which finally go us building my long awaited greenhouse.  We started putting up the frame work right after New Years but then it got nasty cold and then windy. I had to did a trench to level the cement pads and get it down a little below ground so I could get the siding down below the bottom of the sill plate and then cover up with rock.   The two outside walls got put up but it was just not a good time to put up the roof rafters.  That got done this past Monday.  I had to put that job on hold because I was away for a few weeks working and I just didn't want Bob up there when no one was home.

Today I put the siding up and it is taking shape.  Tomorrow Bob may get the extra strips up on the roof so we have some places in between the rafters to screw the roof panels too.  We are using a semi clear fiber glass.  It is light weight but should hold up well for many years.  So here are a few photos of what we have done so far.  I think the next project will be trying to make the doors so they open as wide as I can get them and also make them as air tight as possible.  I have hopes of this job being done by Sat afternoon.  Then on to other things which will include starting seeds for my vegetable garden.

 

Check bag in a little while and with any luck there will be photos of a completed greenhouse with some plants inside.  

An Early Start in the Vegetable Garden 2012

We raise alpacas and they are little fertilizer factories.  I have been gathering up their poop and putting in the beds.  Their poop can be used almost immediately without needing it to compost.  I am topping off the boxes now and will work it in as I plant. 

I used to plant by the moon when I lived in MA but for some reason gave up that idea when I moved here.  Don’t know why because I had such success with it.  Well I am going to give it a try this year and see how it goes.  I live to experiment and this will be my experiment for this year.  If you have never done this method of planting it really is simple.  A Farmers Almanac is helpful but if you want to do a simpler method all you need to know  is that when the moon is full don’t plant and wait a few days after it starts to wan before you plant.  This is when you plant any root crops.  Once there is no moon again waits a few days after it starts to wax to plant crops that grow above ground. 

I planted my peas a few days after there was no moon and as you can see they are starting to grow.  I do hope to get a crop of peas but even if they fail I can till them in and they will fix nitrogen into the soil for my next crop.  I just planted beets after the full moon but they have not come up yet since it was just a few days ago.  I will update on their progress. 

Getting Close to a Finished, if that is possible, Vegetable Garden

Last year I worked on the pathways.  I wanted to be sure that I did not have to deal with any grass but also wanted to be able to walk through the garden without walking in mud after a rain storm or watering.  I do have a drip system which is the best way to water a vegetable garden in a drought.  I found the best weed barrier I could find that would have a very long life.  I decided to use the stuff nurseries use under their  plants.  It is heavy duty with a 25 year guarantee.                                                                                                                                                           You can see what the weed barrier looks like in this photo.  That is a bag of mulch in the foreground. Also is my little helper Chen Chen but she prefers Farmer Chen Chen when she is in the garden.  

It got so hot so fast last spring that I didn’t get finished with my pathways.    With such a nice mild winter I took advantage of this great weather and finished laying the weed barrier and the remainder of the mulch/bark.  I am waiting to find the next mother load of broken bags to finish it up.  In the mean time I am gathering up the rocks around here to place around the edge of the garden to keep the mulch in when we get those heavy rain storms.  I am also placing smaller rocks around the bases of the pomegranates and fig tree.   I am so happy to see the end of this project coming soon.         

        

In the Garden Again.

Since last week I have been working in the garden. I finally laid out the weed cloth in the pathways that didn't get finished last year. I put out the mulch I purchased last summer also but I am still short many bags. I will be haunting the home improvement stores for broken bags which you can get for a lot less. I am really happy with the work so far and think that kind of work is done now. Now I can concentrate on the garden boxes. I will be out cleaning up all the piles of alpaca poop to add into my garden beds.
I planted peas last week and they are popping up. Today I planted beets and Bob and I planted onions. I know it is late for the onions but that should be ok. The soil is still cool almost cold. We got more rain last night and may get more this weekend which is good for planting.
I am trying a planting method I used years ago when I lived in MA. I was reminded of it by someone a few weeks ago and just wonder if it will work for me again.
I will post some photos of the garden soon. Loving this weather!
Li

Being Thankful for Wonderful Friends

So 7 days ago I took my darling husband into the emergency room at 7 AM and 10 hrs later he was coming out of surgery with out a gall bladder.  The Thursday before that we went and picked up scaffolding so that we could start the work on the siding for the second floor, :"Oh no now what?".  Good friends that's what.  Our friend Al and his wife Lizzie had said they would come and help when we first started this project.  I do not do heights well. But now with Bob being laid low we were not sure if we were going to have to post pone the job, did I say I don't do heights well.  Thanks goodness Al's brother said he could come and help. So as you can see, we are almost done with the east side of the house.

That is Al and his brother Joseph working on the peak.  Those angles are so much fun.  And kids wonder why we need algebra and geometry.  

Here is Bob looking on but he did the cutting which was necessary.  He felt better being able to help some what.  I know he is itching to get up there.  We are on hold until Bob can get up there and take down the stove pipe.  Then the rest will be done on that side.  The wood trim at the top is going to get beefed up some and then painted a wonderful dark plumy red.  Oh I forgot to say we got the new window in as well.  It is a casement window and will give us some more air and breezes through that window during the summer.  To bad the guys are hiding it and to bad it is only their backs you can see.  Next group of pictures I will be sure we can see them.  Next weekend they will be working on the other side of the house.  That side has two windows.  

Once this side is all done I can start thinking about what I want to do for some landscaping. It is a bare canvas.   I have lots of iris's that will do well there along with some 4 o'clocks and may add some of those nice natives I have wanted to add also.  This is the east side so it can be hot since there isn't much shade there.  I do plan to plant one of my mulberry trees in this area between the house and where I was standing.  

I will post some more next week.  

Summer is Finally Over!
This has been such a year so far.  The drought has hit our place with a vengeance.  The pastures are dead and I have no idea if they will recover and if they will how long it will take.  Of course we are still in the grip of the drought with no end in sight.
On the bright side my husband and I went to his 50th high school reunion in Bellevue Washington.  The weather was cool with some rain on Sat night.  Friday we drove around Bob's childhood neighborhood.  The landscapes were so lush and green.  I think the pictures will tell it all.  So here is a treat for those of you who have nothing but brown to look at.

I thought this planter was unique.  It was made of metal but looked so much like terracotta. 

 Do you remember what this green stuff is? In case you don't it is grass.

 This is looking out over Lake Sammamish on Sunday afternoon.  It wasn't really cold but the drizzle was so nice to feel on our skin.

What a glorious day in May

The past few days have been wonderful. We got at least 1.53" of rain on Wed. into Thursday. That is about the first measurable rain since Sept. The air is cool and dry which makes it perfect gardening weather. Last year I started laying down weed cloth down on the paths in the vegetable garden. And today I added some more. I also put down some bark mulch over the weed cloth. I have two bags left which I will but down tomorrow. I am hoping that this supper duty tough weed cloth will last as long as they said it would. I don't want to have to do it in ten or twenty years. Of course in twenty years I will be 80 so it won't matter I guess.

Everything is growing and starting to produce. The beans have flowers as do the tomatoes. The evening temps have been a bit chilly so I don't expect much from the tomatoes yet. The rain storm we had last week also had some lightening with it and what a difference rain and lightening make in the grown in the garden. The beans grew several inches over night. That extra shot of nitrogen does it every time.

In my last post I mentioned getting some Indian Runner Ducks. They have grown so much in just a week. I wish I had taken their picture when they first arrived but here they are now. Aren't they cute. I still don't know who is male and who is female. I guess it will be awhile before I do know. They do come to my voice which I think is so cool. That means they are getting to know who I am. The lady with the food.

It has been a long time since I have written.

I can't believe it has been over a year since I have written on my blog. Shame on me. Lots of additions have been made since last year. We now have three alpaca males that were rescues. They were only a yr old when we got them and now they are two years old. I have their baby fleeces as well as this years sheering. I am looking forward to spinning up their fiber. I think I am now an alpaca yarn snob. These are the three boys, Roberto is the red one, Cristo on the right and Edwardo is in the center.

Yes 2010's winter was a rough one, we even had 6" of snow but this years winter was even worst. What the grasshoppers didn't kill the 2 weeks of below freezing did.

Yep the grasshoppers killed off my wonderful veggie garden last year except for my two kinds of cucumbers. I had a great crop of cukes last year and many jars of bread and butter pickles to boot. Also the pepper plants survived but did not produce much until later in the summer/fall once the grasshoppers started to die off.

Even though I didn't have much of a garden last year I did get all the garden boxes built and filled with soil and compost. They are now planted with all kinds of veggies. Back in Feb. I planted my onions and in early April the green beans. I am hoping they will produce before the hoppers come out and do them in. In spite of the gale force winds I did plant my tomatoes and peppers a few weeks ago. Two out of five tomato plants managed to stand up to the wind, heat, and then cold. I did plant three others along side the deck on the east side of the house and have two others in large planters getting ready to be placed in the back yard now that the wind has let up. Today I replaced the tomatoes that died with new ones plus I have 4 more added to the garden. Got the eggplant plants in today too. Saturday we planted some seed like those cucumbers I planted last year along with corn and carrots. I finally go my zucchini seeds and so I will plant those and some summer squash seeds later today. There was some rain on Monday and I am glad I got those seeds in when I did.

I am hoping for a good garden this year because the last two or so were so bad. Last year at this time we were getting rain but it seemed to come to an end before May ended. We haven't really seen any beneficial rain since last May. Our garden is now on a drip system but without rain I do not know how long I can keep watering. Once I get the plants more established I will mulch and then cut back on the amount of water. When you are on a well you need to be careful. Plans are in the works for setting up those rain barrels and putting gutters up along the studio and the house.

As the end of every growing season it is good to reflect over that season and plan to make it better. So the year before last I decided that growing in rows and fighting burmuda grass was not what I wanted to do any more so I changed that by putting weed cloth down on the paths soon to be covered with bark mulch and using garden boxes to grow in. If I had not had a biblical invasion of grasshoppers last year I may have gone about my gardening with out needing the assistance of two Indian Runner Ducks. They just arrived today with hopes that once they are grown they will keep my garden free of bugs. If they can eat all the grasshoppers they may end up being to fat to waddle about. LOL.

I will get some pictures of the new garden and the new pest patrol posted over the next few days.

Is it Spring Yet?

Oh my gosh what a winter we have been having here in the TX Hill Country. We had several days, in a row mind you, in Jan of 14 degrees during the day and 9 at night. I am so hoping for my fruit trees and bushes to have made it through those cold temps. I guess time will tell.

As I spoke about a while back on my square foot gardens and how I was going to plant all this great stuff for my winter garden. Hah! The winter garden is not much of a garden because if the constant cold and rain. The rain is fine and the raised beds shed that off, where before the veggies would be doing the back stroke to stay afloat. The cold has kept the ground to cold to get the seedling growing never mind making it possible for the seeds to germinate.

The broccoli plants I put in during the fall have taken giant steps backwards. Ok so I should be glad they are still alive. The beet seeds I planted germinated and then it got cold and are still sitting there with the two little leaves they get right after they germinate and pop up out of the ground. Is that depressing or what? But hey they are still alive even after all the wind and 9 degree nights. If it ever warms up they may just grow. Ok hope springs eternal. Theres that work spring again.

One thing I need to do this next week or so is get the fruit trees pruned. They will start flowering soon. I also plan to get my seeds started first part of March. Can't wait to try out that seed starting heat mat. Since the greenhouse isn't heated with a heat source other then my heat lamp which works when it isn't too too cold. I just could not subject those poor little seedlings to that cold. I have been wanting to start my seeds so now with the night temps warming it may be a good time to start.

I promise to get back and write more. Now that it looks like warmer weather is coming I will have more to write about and I will post some pictures of my garden boxes. Also I want to tell you about this cool talk I attended on Heirloom Tomatoes.

Happy planting.

Time to rethink the garden

The weather is great and I am ready to take up the summer garden and start fresh. This past gardening season is one I would like to forget. When I lived in MA the garden was over by mid Sept. so if it got out of control or the weeds started taking over, it was for just a short time. I could pull it up and till it in and forget about it. But here in TX that isn't the case. Yep the garden got out of control and there are still plants producing a little bit. I hate to yank them out yet. So, what I am doing now is planning the winter crops and how I will deal with this garden next year.

I have a hard time with disorganized gardens. Last year was the first year I had good results in this fairly new veggie garden. Nothing got out of control and the weeds were not a problem. For some reason this year was different. I didn't have weeds as much as I had grasses. Even though I had laid down a weed barrier the grass traveled underneath it and came up where the plants were. Eventually by the end of July the heat and the grass was my downfall. Enough of that.

After some contemplating what to do so that I can enjoy the garden and keep it in line I concluded I needed to add some garden boxes. This way the paths would be permanent and I would not have to deal with them any more. I am going to lay down weed barrier with some mulch on top. When I run out of that free really good weed barrier I may let grass grown and then keep it clipped. Of course if it isn't watered it could die down if we have another baking summer again and no rain. Not sure if that would be as nice to walk on. Keeping nice paths between the plants was one issue I had so this should solve that problem.

My first 4 boxes will be 2x8 feet. I have a square area off the main garden that these are going to be placed in. It has a shade cloth for summer and I can place the summer squashes in there and a few other veggies that need some relief from the heat during the summer. But for now I will plant my beets and other cool weather crops there. The shade cloth will be pushed back since I will want to have the sun for the winter crops but also to heat my studio.

Since this patch of garden had not been planted this summer the grass grow like crazy and was a foot tall or more. I hit it with the weed eater and knocked it down. Even though we had several days with out rain the soil was still soaking wet and sticky and could not be tilled. We have rain coming in again mid week but if all goes well maybe by next week it will be dry enough to till. The reason I am tilling is this: I want to take some of that good soil I have in the paths and add it to the boxes. I can sink the paths some lowering the boxes some giving me more soil in the box and less I need to add.

I have been hearing a lot about square foot gardening so I decided to check it out. Not a hard concept to follow or do and I am going to give it a shot. I will be putting my own twist on it a little bit. My soil is rich and full of composted manure and such so why go out and buy more. I will go ahead and add my peat moss and vermiculite to what I have and mix it up. I then shall lay out the grids and get planting.

I haven't decided how to lay out the main part of the garden yet. I have some left over 2x6's hanging around from some building projects that I will be using to build the remainder boxes. I have two 2x6's that will make a 5x5 and that may be the center box with other boxes arranged around it. I was thinking of putting it on the diagonal and use that center 1 foot for some sort of architectural item that vines can grow on. I have all winter to find something or build something for that. Of course I need to plan my drip system for this new plan as well. And one thing I am not going to skimp on is a timer. Last summer I used one that was great but was battery operated. Then the battery ran down and the timer went screwy. And putting a new battery didn't help. I think this year a hard wired or plug in type timer is how I will keep my drip system working correctly. One gardening friend is good at laying out drip systems so I plan on calling on her for help.

I also plan to use rain water for my drip system but if we end up running out of rainwater I will use the well as my back up.

Next week I plan to get to work on this new idea and will post more with pictures of what I have come up with so far.

Happy Fall and Happy Gardening

It's raining, it's pouring and a wonderful sight indeed

It rained and it poured for almost five days but no one is complaining. It is unfortunate that our rain gauge is broken but there is no doubt we got a boat load of rain. The pasture is greening up before my eyes and what is left of my veggie garden is also perking up. I was about to throw in the towel and cut my looses until Wed. afternoon when it started raining. As soon as it drys up out there I will see what can be saved for the fall garden.
I decided that I needed to do was build boxes for raised beds instead of growing in rows with no control or order. By August the garden seemed to be out of control and no organization as to where the rows were or the paths were. With the raised beds I can just work the beds as needed and then keep the rows untouched. Either I can lay down weed barrier and mulch or even plant some grass and mow it. Depends on how far apart I place the boxes.
On Labor Day I purchased some lumber to make 4 boxes to begin the process but with the rain it was put on hold. Each box will be 2x8 feet. I can deal with that size with out killing my self and it is wide enough to plant 2 rows 8 feet long. I am going to check out the Square Foot Garden book and see if this is the way I want to go. Since the soil in my veggie garden is good and is deep ( the only place it is on the property) I plan to place a layout of where the box will be and then make my paths by digging down a inch or two tossing that soil into the place where the boxes will go. My plan is to get this done as soon as possible so I can get my broccoli in. Beets, spinach, romaine lettuce, and some other greens as well. I am also going to try planting lettuce in plant flats on the deck. This way I will have them close at hand. If it is going to rain this winter like they are talking, not having to walk into a muddy garden would be great.
Yesterday Saturday Sept 12th I attended a workshop on planting your landscape with edibles. It was a wonderful day and full of lots of information. I am finding that some of my quirky ideas (other then what normal people have) are also being used by others. One of the speakers who is a landscaper/designer is working on the Boerne Green House Project http://www.boernegreenhouse.com/. Since she is living in a Tepee and hasn't much in way of creature comforts she has had to find ways of being as comfort as possible. One way was to build a compost toilet. http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html. I have been planning this for over by my studio once the studio is done. I don't think I will use it in my veggie garden but around trees, shrubs, and flowers is ok. Also she talked about ways of taking gray water and running it into a system to then be used to water the landscape. I have been emptying my washing machine out into the yard but really need to do more then that. We are doing the bathroom over and plan to run the gray water from the shower and sink out into a tank and then figure a way to get it out into the landscape. This project will be on going and I hope started soon.
Another good topic covered was inter planting edibles in with flowers and shrubs. I have been doing that for years. 20 years ago I lived in a condo with just a little border garden on the edge of my patio. Having left a large veggie garden behind when I moved I was not going to be without my garden. So I planted a few tomatoes and peppers among my flowers. When we moved to TX I did the same thing and still do even though I have a larger veggie garden too.
Her point was that we should all be growing some of our food. John Adams had a garden in the White House yet he did not get to enjoy it much since he was voted out of office. James Madison had a garden as well but the British took care of it and the White House during the War of 1812. More recent White House gardens were during the Franklin Roosevelt era and now the Obama's have a garden too.

Check our www.eattheview.org it is worthy of a visit. It is a program designed to get more high profile places to start growing food in their landscapes. You don't have to be a fan of the Obamas to find this a worth while project. They were not the first to have a vegetable garden and I hope they won't be the last.

I will try not to be away from my blog so much this fall. I guess this summer was just so stressfull with the drought and the heat.

Happy Fall Planting!!

A good bunch of grapes

Well after several years of waiting and trying to beat one small dog out of picking all the ripe grapes we have a wonderful crop. These are wine grapes and since all the tags have faded I do not recall what they are. All I know is that I am finally getting enough to make a small patch of wine. It is so strange that even in such a drought as we have been going through the grapes are doing really well. Two years ago we had way to much rain in a short period of time I thought I had lost the whole bunch of vines. Thank goodness that was not the case. So here are a few photos for you to look at and think of the bottles of wine it will make. I shall post a picture of one of the bottle once I get it made this winter. We don't have a cellar or cool place to make wine so I need to wait for cooler weather.

Some old heirlooms makeing a presences

As I had written several posts back I planted some unusual heirlooms in my veggie garden. So here is one of them I just recently harvested. It is a Sheep's Nose Pepper. I am still looking for those heirloom tomatoes to start producing now.

Rain Rain Go Away Come Again Another Day

That is a children's song I remember from when I was growing up. After almost 2 years of not having any really good measurable rain I am finding this to be a terrible song. Last week many of my fellow master gardeners and I attended a rain barrel making workshop. Billy Kniffen who is the big guru for rain water harvesting here in TX ran the workshop. I have posted some of the photographs my friend Marilyn Pease took at the workshop. I am now ready and loaded to make a string of barrels for over in my veggie garden. I will take pictures of my progress on my barrels.







This is Billy showing us how to drill the holes in each barrel.













There are several types of barrels and ways to use them here in the photo. You can use it to have a continual drip feed to a birdbath or wildlife water system, like the one below.





The next photo is a way of using rain water catchment for wild life. It is called a Wild life guzzler