Whine, whine, water, whine

I hate to be a whiner, but this summer taxes my resolve. It is blasted hot every single day and no rain. Okay, that's off my chest, now I can move on. Since I spend a lot of my days watering, I thought I would pass along my expert opinion on the best ways to water.

 Here is my business partner Sharon at the nursery watering. You see we use a heavy duty, kink-free hose. I have decided there is no truly kink-free hose. We roll ours up every day after use so they all eventually kink up. We have water wands to you can direct the water into one little pot if needed, and a water breaker on the end so when you direct that water into that little pot it doesn't blow all the soil out. There are quick-connects on the hose end so you can detach the hoses in a flash. They work great as long as you remember to push them on fully before letting go. Kendel at work is always forgetting this step. The hose blows off the quick-connect and sprays water like a fountain, usually drenching him. Not too bad these days; the drench feels good. I have this same set-up at home: good hose, quick-connects, water wand with breaker. It irritates me to water without the necessary gear.

This is what I use on my smaller beds: a spot sprinkler. They come with various patterns of holes on the top for a different water spray: round, square, etc. With a lot of water pressure they can cover an area about 15 feet around.

James got this sprinkler and when I first saw it I thought it was really stupid. You dial in the water pattern you need. It actually works really well for a number of different situations. I use it a lot now.

Black rubber soaker hoses like the one above are very efficient. We turn the water down low so the hose just drips, not sprays. You can leave it on for hours to get a good soak. We use them at the nursery to water our trees during the night. Unfortunately, we are having to water a lot of trees this summer because of the drought. (Oops, sorry, I just thought I was through with the whine).

My favorite way to water - with an automated system. It comes on by itself, never needs moving around, no hose dragging. It does need tweeking though. We re-set our timer every few months and check the system regularly to make sure it is all working correctly. In fact, I am off to do that now. Last week we found several pop-up heads that had been covered by San Augustine grass that could no longer pop up. Made them very ineffective.

Tomato trials

The votes are in on the tomato trials. We had buckets of tomatoes this year, even with the grueling heat - 26 days (and counting) over 100 degrees. And still I have tomatoes ripening, though none are flowering or setting new fruit.

I took this photo last week of some of the different colored tomatoes from our garden. The green tomato (that was one tomato) is Aunt Ruby's German green. Really good for fried tomatoes and not bad for eating fresh, with a tangy flavor. The orange tomato is really yellow(the photo color is off) one of my favorites, Lemon Boy. It produced really well this year with large, juicy, very flavorful mild tomatoes.

The best tomato for us this year was Park's Whopper, recommended by a customer. It always had 3 to 6 very large, red tomatoes at a time. It won all our taste tests with our friends. I will definitely grow a couple of these each year.

New Herb Garden update

In April I blogged about building a new garden in back of the house, close to the kitchen where I could grow herbs. I used a no-dig, layered soil method. Most of my plants are doing very well.
I planted a flowers for the butterflies and hummingbirds and a few bamboo muhly grass for structure.

Some of the drought-loving plants like Gaillardia, Indian Blanket, did not like sitting on top of the cardboard, as it holds too much water. Much like a sponge I suppose. It has not disintegrated yet, after over two months. I am happy to report the herbs are doing fine. Yesterday I made lemon verbena syrup for iced tea and had rosemary and lemon thyme for a shrimp dish I was trying. I will post those recipes next time.

The African Blue Basil covers a space about 3 feet square. It is not as colorful as the plants at Blue Moon Gardens, which are growing in full, blazing sun, but it is still a lovely plant.

This fall I will replace the basils with salad greens. I used to grow them in the large pots in front of the house, but since they are filled with evergreens now, I don't have that space, but there will be plenty of room in the herb garden. I plan to expand the garden this fall after it cools off. The new space will be shadier so fewer herbs will grow there.

Lemon Verbena, the perfect summer herb

Lemon verbena, while not a particularly attractive plant, has such wonderful flavor and aroma it is an essential herb in my garden. The taste of lemon verbena sends me back to my childhood, sucking on lemon drops, a candy I found very grown-up and elegant (I thought the same of butter mints).

I love to throw a few sprigs into my sun tea as it steeps. When I am having company I make a flavored syrup for sweetening iced tea (I prefer mine unsweetened, but the inclusion of lemon verbena adds a sharp, sweet flavor).

Ah, 2 of my favorite flavors of summer, lemon verbena (in the canning jar after making syrup) and sweet cherry tomatoes. This is 2 days of harvest on one Sweet Million tomato plant. It is the only tomato in the garden that is still blooming and setting fruit.

Lemon Verbena Simple Syrup

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

4 (6-inch) sprigs lemon verbena

Bring the water and sugar to a boiling and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, add lemon verbena and let steep until cool. Strain through a seive or coffee filter. Keep refrigerated.

This is good in hot or cold tea, over vanilla ice cream or to make a Lemon Drop cocktail.

One of my friends over for dinner the other night was thrilled about the simple syrup. She said her grandmother made many different types of flavored simple syrup. I will have to try some of her grandmother's recipes. 

Home to the Inferno

As I mentioned in my last post, the temperatures here in Texas are hellish and our drought worsens. Driving down the country roads here reveals hundred-year-old trees dying from the stress. I work outside a lot at my job so I have been particularly... I search for words here... well, sweaty and prickly. Some would call it bitchy. I spend as much time as possible out of the sun when not at work. Luckily, I tolerate the shade and 80 degrees well. So the front porch or back patio (in the early morning and evening) become outdoor respites.

The sound of the waterfall and the sight of the koi languidly swimming in the water refreshes my spirits.


The water lilies open in the afternoon, looking like they are floating on the water. Unfortunately, they close up late in the afternoon so are not visible in the evenings. We will try some night-blooming varieties next year so we can enjoy them during the times we are most often out here.

Actually looks cool and refreshing, doesn't it?

This Koi pond is actually more of a stream. It it is 3.5 to 4 deep to keep the fish out of reach of predators, which we have many of here in the country. We haven't lost any koi yet.

A dozen Koi (maybe one or two goldfish) swim around in the stream. We got them as babies two years ago and they have grown to be about 12 inches long. There are solid gold ones, a couple of white ones, one that is white with a gold head, and a few mottled with black, white and gold. No, I have not named them, but we are trying to get them to come to the surface and feed from our hands. So far, they only come within six inches before skittering away. So the training continues.

Grand Teton National Park

The scenery of Grand Teton National Park is not as varied as Yellowstone, but it is equally magnificent. We took a bus tour with our Texas Nursery and Landscaping Assoc. group through the park. They are a really fun group to travel with. Our tour guide Jessie was knowledgeable, and a poet when speaking of his adopted home of Wyoming.

That's Jessie on the right and James and I in the middle. I took this as a jump-in shot (which I find fun).
Jessie knew some cool places to show us and had great stories to go with the locations. Here is one of the buildings that was original to the land before it was purchased (secretly) by the government to make it a National Park. This piece is still private property and can be sold on the open market, but with covenants in the title that it cannot be commercially developed.

Just down the road is another old building, a rustic little church. Not much to look at, but check out the view behind the altar.

I still wish I had taken my better camera, but I didn't want to have to carry it. Luckily, my tiny little Canon Elph takes great photos. I just have trouble with tricky exposures like this.

The weather was perfectly beautiful for our tour. The cerulean blue of the sky makes a lovely canvas for the dramatic cloud formations and the reflection in Jenny Lake.

Notice we were wearing long pants but no jackets on this day. The days did not get hotter than the upper 70s the entire time we were on vacation.  I post this two weeks after we returned to Texas where the temperature has not been below 100 during the day. My brain fried. It has taken me this long to acclimate again and get my thoughts out of sluggish mode.

Yellowstone

When my sister heard we were visiting Yellowstone, she told me she thinks Yellowstone is the most beautiful National Park in America. I was so captivated by Yosemite a few years ago, I couldn't believe Yellowstone could outdo it for scenery; but she was right. Yellowstone is gorgeous and diverse.

They called this the grand canyon of Yellowstone. James commented that it wasn't Grand Canyon-like to him; I pointed out a canyon just needs to be deep, not rocky. This valley spread for miles with emerald green grass, dark green fir trees and yellow and red rocks.

I was trying to capture all the different colors in this landscape. The mustard yellow of the bacteria in this pool contrasts with the bright blue of the sky and water with the deep green of the grass in between, the brilliant white of the snow-covered mountain in the background. This photo does not do it justice.

Yosemite may have tall waterfalls, but they can't compare to the power of these falls.

This photo was shot from above, my first view of the falls. The splash from the water rushing over the falls rose hundreds of feet in the air. Can you see the rainbow created in the sunlight?

Down the road aways was the view of the falls from below. See the little platform on the right side just above the head of the falls? That is where we were standing when I took the first photo.

I can now say that Yellowstone is the most beautiful, and interesting National Park I have seen,and I have visited many National Parks, most west of the Mississippi.