Woohoo! Today I fiinally purchased my first two rain barrels for collecting water for gardening and possibly the lawn. I HATE spending money to water the lawn. Water in Texas is Quite Expensive. We stopped watering the backyard a long time ago. It’s a big yard and there’s simply no point in pouring all those dollars just to grow grass. Of course, rain barrels in Austin run 60 to 95 dollars–until I found them on Craigslist in a GREAT deal. Went and picked them up and they will soon be ready to go! We’ll need to install a bit more gutter and get some cinder blocks to hoist them up, but hopefully this summer I’ll spend a little less money keeping the front lawn looking presentable.

On the reading front, I’ve got Sandra McDonald’s The Outback Stars checked out from the library.

The freesias are blooming–just one or two here and there. I’ll put up a picture when more open. This is my first year trying them and I must say they’ve been very easy. I should probably have planted them deeper as the plants tend to lean over, but the flowers are gorgeous and it looks like there will be a lot of them. The bulbs were quite cheap considering the price of most bulbs. I think I paid six dollars for twenty-four bulbs of different colors. They are really pretty.

www.TheTownDrunk.org has their new issue out. Two new stories. Both of them were pretty weird this time around.

3/8/08

Unburied the plants this morning when it hit about 40. They all survived! Oh, there’s some freeze damage on a few leaves and some leaves just get battered by being covered in mulch, but all in all, I don’t think I lost any.

So I rinsed them off and they got some sunshine today. We’ll see how they look tomorrow, but they should be back on their way to getting big enough to supply me with produce.

For my future reference, I need to keep sawdust on hand for these late freezes. Past years I’ve used that instead of mulch and overall I think it’s a little kinder to the plants. Either way, mulch or sawdust, you have to apply it carefully. You have to support the lowest leaves by piling the stuff underneath and then slowly building up around each plant limb. Near the top, I usually end up with a pyramid shape and that’s why some of the top leaves freeze–not quite enough mulch stays in place. It trickles down the sides.

Onward to tomato season!

March 6, 2008

What with global warming and all, it seems that the Hill Country, Texas is having a couple of nights of late-season freezing. I’ve lived here going on seven years and not had a freeze this late in the Spring. But don’t worry, I mulched around the bases of the plants up to the top leaves and covered them. I may lose some, but hopefully won’t lose all.

The life of a farmer. Hail and all.

Update 5:15. I think it’s sleeting.