by Geoff | Nov 10, 2009 | Gardening
In late October I harvested my first crop of Satsumas. I planted a “Dwarf Owari” Satsuma in the early spring of 2008 in the front yard of my east Austin home. That year it produced a few jasmine scented flowers, but no fruit. This year it flowered in late March and produced eight fruit. I eyed those fruit longingly all summer long waiting for them to ripen. The weight of the fruit nearly bent the tiny tree over to the ground. By the time I picked the...
by Noel | Nov 1, 2009 | Gardening
I’ve explained my composting process previously, but I wanted to show a picture of an army of red worms working the sludge mass in a 55 gallon drum that we use to collect kitchen scraps. Boss Cat supervised as I tipped over and emptied the drum. The worms were thick throughout the mostly digested material. I’m building a new compost pile. I do this once a year, as I clean out the garden and get the beds ready for winter. I’ll alternate layers of...
by Noel | Oct 25, 2009 | Gardening
It was a perfect night for burning the brush pile. Thursday’s heavy rains had diminished to a very light drizzle. The pile is a collection of trimmings and fallen branches. This year we had two huge sections of trunk from an old apple tree that I took down in the spring. We had to use some dry cardboard and dry wood from the shed to get the fire started, but there was no danger of starting the woods on fire, which is always on my mind when burning anything...
by Noel | Sep 30, 2009 | Gardening
The cold weather that was delivered with five inches of rain last week dealt me this beautiful flush. The shiitake in my hand is neither the largest nor the smallest. It is one of twenty close to perfect mushrooms I sliced off the plugged logs this afternoon. I have a chance to win even bigger in the next few days. There are at least 27 more on the logs. They’re smaller, and I’m not sure if they are going to fill out as nicely as these. But I will bet...
by Noel | Sep 29, 2009 | CobraHead, Events, Gardening
We attended the Garden Writers Association 61st Annual Symposium in Raleigh , North Carolina, last week. It was CobraHead’s 6th GWA, and our fifth as an exhibitor. Here’s Anneliese putting the final touches on our booth. The symposium includes a trade show, seminars, speakers, tours, dinners, and awards. It is held in a different city every year, and tours of both public and private local gardens are a big part of the trip Pictures from the Sarah P....
by Noel | Sep 18, 2009 | Gardening
I’ve dug two sweet potato plants out early, well ahead of the first frost, which is when they will all need to be removed from the ground. The plant on the left yielded over four pounds of usable tuber. We’ve already eaten one tuber that weighed a little over a pound. The plant on the right will give us just over three pounds. So if our average continues, we could get about seventy pounds of sweet potatoes from 20 plants started in one bed. The...
