Cedar Waxwings

Y'all...I can't believe my luck.  My husband and I went to North Dallas this past weekend to visit his daughter and her husband (had a great time, BTW :)  Anyway, Saturday morning we were walking around outside their house and what do you think I spotted flitting between their Bradford Pear and Yaupon Holly trees?  An entire flock of cedar waxwings!  Needless to say (those of you who know me will attest to this), I was so excited!  I ran inside, got my camera and began snapping away.  I've seen flocks of cedar waxwings twice in the past two weeks:  Once in a huge Live Oak tree on my ranch house property and once here at the house in Boerne, also in a big Live Oak.  Both times I took a bunch of photos, but the birds were way up high in the trees and the pictures didn't come out very well.  But on Saturday, the birds were right there!!  OK...I'll shut up and just let you enjoy these beautiful, beautiful birds :)

Seedling Update

Wednesday was a beautiful day!  Actually, it was my idea of a perfect day:  I spent the morning in the garden and in the greenhouse and the afternoon in the kitchen :)

Y'all...look at my tomatoes!!   I potted these babies up on February 14 and look at them! 

They have done so well in the greenhouse and needless to say, I'm thrilled.  They are all growing beautifully and many of the plants have flowers.  By the time I'm ready to put them in the ground, they should be big, healthy, growing plants.  Today, I fed  them with Medina Growin' Green Organic fertilizer.  I had to move the plants around a bit to give them space.  They are growing so big they need more room to breathe!

My peppers are doing very well, also.  They got fed and thoroughly watered today as well.  Look at these beautiful buds. 

I also hauled all my geraniums and hibiscus plants out of the greenhouse.  Boy were they in need of some TLC!  I deadheaded them all, added fresh dirt to the pots, fertilized them, added a layer of worm castings to the top soil and gave everyone a good, long drink of water. 

After I finished in the greenhouse, I headed to the garden to survey the scene.  Everything looks great.  My broccoli, romaine lettuce and broccoli raab look healthy and are all growing beautifully.  They also got fed with Medina Growin' Green and thoroughly watered. 

Of course, I couldn't help but get sidetracked as I was working today.  It was such a pretty day and I noticed an explosion of wildflowers in my Texas hill country landscape.  I stopped to admire and photograph them.  

For your viewing pleasure:

And to add the icing on the cake of this beautiful day, the first hummingbird of the season showed up at my feeder!  I was so excited.  Anticipating their arrival, I put one feeder out about a week ago and sure enough, as I was fertilizing my roses (oh yea...something else I did today), I heard the familiar "zooommm" and little squeaky song they make and one ruby throat hummingbird landed on my feeder.  I grinned ear to ear, ran inside and filled up my other two feeders and hung them on the back patio.  I wasn't able to get a picture of this little guy (*that* will be the challenge of the summer), but he was there and hopefully, he'll spread the word to all his buddies that "food's on"! 

It was an amazing day and I'm so blessed to be able to do what I love to do every single day.  Life is good.

Planting Potatoes

Since adding two beds to my garden compound this past summer, I now have six raised beds to work with.  The versatility this provides is wonderful.  So I decided to try and grow something I've never grown before...potatoes...Yep...Solanum tuberosum.  I read a recent article by the Bexar County AgriLife Extension Service Horticulturist (aka...plant guru for this region of Texas), and I was intrigued by what he wrote.  So I decided to give potatoes a try.

I did a little online research and consulted my favorite gardening books for more information, then headed to my local nursery.  Sure enough, they had the two seed potato varieties that do well in this area:  Red La Soda and White Kennebec.  Since my husband and I really like the little red new potatoes, I bought 2.5 pounds of the Red La Soda.

The first thing I did was presprout the potatoes.  I understand this step is not necessary but I want to give my potatoes the best possible jump start before I put them in the ground.  Presprouting is pretty simple.  Spread the potatoes on a newspaper in a warm spot, optimal temperature is 70F.  They need light, but not direct sunlight.  Within 2 weeks, the potatoes "eyes" began to sprout.  Easy enough, right?

Next step is to cut the potatoes in half or quarters, depending on their size, with each piece having between one to three visible eyes, which will be the area of future stem development.

Put about one cup of dusting sulfur in a large plastic bag, drop all the cut pieces in the bag and do the "shake & bake" thing, making sure each piece is coated with the sulfur compound.  Doing this prevents rotting on the young tuber once it's in the ground.  It's wise to do this step outside in a well ventilated area...dusting sulfur has a strong, stinky odor.

In the garden in well worked soil, I dug 2 trenches, each one 10" deep and about 6 " wide.   I dropped the pre-cut seed potatoes in the trenches, eyes facing up, spacing each spud about 12" apart, and covered each trench with a six-inch layer of high quality compost.

 

  

 

I'll side dress the plants three to four weeks after they emerge with my favorite organic granular fertilizer.  Once the plants have emerged to about six inches in height, I'll mound another four inches of compost over the plant.  This variety of potato should be ready to harvest within 80 days.  My resources tell me a good indicator for harvest is when the tops of the plants start looking kind of tired. 

So, that's what I did in the garden on Sunday.  I'm very hopeful the tubers will grow and produce an abundance of yummy potatoes for us to eat and share.

I'll keep you posted!

Birds, Birds, Birds

What an incredible day it was here in the hills of South Texas.  I think winter has finally let go and spring is here.  It sure looked like it with all the activity on my bird feeders today.  There was so much action that I decided to blow off my work and try to photograph these beautiful little creatures.  One thing led to another and my day ended down by the Guadalupe River, sitting in the grass, listening to the river run, and catching a few more feathered friends on camera.

Shirley...Linda...these are for you :)

Pine siskins and gold finches

(You can enlarge any photograph by clicking on it.)

 

 

Here come the cardinals, cassin's finch, chickadee and little (but so noisy) wren.

 

 

 

 

This beautiful bird, the Golden-Fronted Woodpecker, has been around my feeders most of this wet, cold winter.  This is the female and I'm thrilled I was able to get these great photos of her. 

  

  

  

  

  

At dusk, I headed down to the river to see what other birds I could find and look what I saw:  the beautiful Eastern Bluebird...high in the tree, singing like there was no tomorrow.  What a gift.

 

 

 

And here is a Black Phoebe, a flycatcher with a beautiful song.  The image is a bit blurred.  She was *really* far away, but I wanted to post it anyway.

 

 

I had a such a wonderful day.  Needless to say, I didn't get *anything* done.  But today was one of those days that I will absolutely treasure.  There are so many other things I photographed today that I want to share.  But I'll leave it for another day.  It seems fitting to close this out with the beautiful sunset that ended this glorious day.