Try, Try Again

The April 7 freeze had set back this year’s garden two, or more, weeks. The almanac’s April, good planting days and my schedule, didn’t agree, so I postponed planting my remaining above ground crops until May 7. Nature interceded again and on Monday, April 27, our area was blessed with three and a half inches of rain. Some of it was real hard – the hail variety, with OO buckshot to nickel size!

My Texas 1015Y show the spotted, scars of the hail. Texas A&M horticulturalists developed, for the Texas soil and climate, the 1015’s from Granex onions from Spain. One variety was sent to Georgia and became the famed Vidalia onion, now the State Plant of that state.

The hail also scarred the garlic, Bermudas and Vidalias. Everything took a beating and it ruined my three rows of spring, spinach, clipped leaves off of the tomatoes and peppers and pounded the black eyes!

May 7 I planted crooked and straight neck squash; cucumbers, Kentucky wonder beans and cantaloupes. Everything is now up and growing!

There is one pleasant surprise, some “excuse me” dill has popped up in the wild garlic patch and both are doing fine!

The wild garlic is blooming and the hail scars are quite visible.

 

The “excuse me” dill too. I’ll pick the blooms, dry ’em, separate the chaff, grind ’em up and have dill seasoning.

The tomatoes are growing as are the marigolds planted beside them.

 

The jalapenos are blooming.

Marigolds, dill and basil are interspersed throughout the garden as an aid in predator control. They don’t work on deer!

The black eyes, Kentucky wonders, cantaloupes and squash are growing and left to plant this week are three bell peppers and six okra plants. These last two are going in where the three rows of spinach were planted.