What to do instead of shopping? Plant a garden!
 

Life in SE Texas is weird. While many folks are out shopping for deals or the perfect Christmas tree, I decided to plant my winter vegetable garden. I ran the tiller in the black soil that has been created from years of composting and adding organic matter. I didn't find many worms as they are more dormant now but did till up a few huge ugly critters; I think they were some sort of grub or something but one was almost 3 inches long. I thought for a moment about trying to fry one up alla Andrew Zimmer from that strange food show on the Travel channel but then reconsidered.

I planted spinach, swiss chard, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, arugula, beets, scallions and carrots. I'm also planting some new rosemary bushes as mine died from the drought last summer. I'll post some pictures in a few weeks when things start coming up.

You GO Chris

Garden 2010 is the right thread to post in... if it had been created by someone else by now...

Chris, It will be good to see what comes up!

I'm not planting but I have been planning.

After planting annuals last spring and then some perennials after that I decided that the latter is the way to go. I've planted hyssop,lavender and some others to attract hummingbirds. The area I have is an L shape. I have a floor to ceiling window. The hummingbird plants are hidden from foot traffic but I can look into into the corner of that L area and view my plants from there.

At the top of the L shape is the area I need to plant a climbing rose in. It is open to foot traffic and the pool. A climbing rose in the corner will either be a nice fragrant screen or a haven for bees. I hope not. My planning doesn't include bee control.

This weekend I discovered that I actually need to plan my planting. I grabbed some creeper to plant in my garden from another part of town, then when I got to my garden realised that I was going to need a hell of alot more to cover the space that needs to be covered. It's been raining quite a bit here the last few days (very rare for this time of year here), so I'm hoping that what I did plant actually takes. In a couple of weekends time, I'll have another planting session.

Ah. Planning the planting. What I didn't do when I bought this place. :headshake

I bought my house/land in the summer, and immediately started planting things all over the place (former owners were decidedly NOT into gardening). But now, after five years, I fully understand the weather and sun patterns and hoo boy! do I have a lot of things to move.

*sigh*

Why bother planting when you can just dig up all those yummy grubs and stuff?

Oh wait... of course :smack: you need salad too.

Maybe I should just completely go with the trial and error thing..

No no no! Otherwise, you'll be in the same boat as me - having to move five peonies, two hydrangeas, six rose bushes, a lilac, and countless other things....

I shoulda had kids so they could come over and do all this for me. :rolleyes:

Good point. I'd better get onto that...

Thank God for free USPS Priority Mail supplies! We had brief snow storm and temps went down to 29 which is pretty strange for us. So I went out prior while it still in the mid 30's and covered every new vegetable plant that was above ground with a Priority Mail box ( I keep them on hand for shipping things) and an old shop towel or sheet and in the morning when the sun came out, everything was just fine. Oh and old Airborne Express bubble wrap envelopes protected my newly planted herbs!

Nice save, you're lucky you weren't traveling. Being a farmer, means the weather forecasts, become more than a passing interest.

Yeah, but the excess postage he's going to have to pay on his potatoes is insane.