Suburban Gardening

One thing many people do not know about me is that of all things I have a Culinary Degree.....I am a trained Chef.  Somehow I ended up in Hotel Finance, go figure.

Well, I have to say I am completely addicted to Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Lattes.  I simply can not wait until this time of year to be able to get them.  This is one of the only syrups that they carry that they will not sell to the public.  I work for a hotel with a coffee shop that is an autho...

I posted a discussion thread on the Modern Victory Garden's forum asking the best spacing for garden hoops. While I know I live in Texas and have about a zero percentage chance of snow in the winter (don't be jealous), but we do get some freezing rain and some nights that it will drip just at the freezing level. I am thinking a little protection would not hurt.

I am also thinking that these will a...

So I do have some things happening inthe garden and around the house.

The bad part is, my computer took an unexpected crash.  So I am struggling to get it back up and running and recovering/recreating some of my items on it.

Please bear with me a few days.  I promise, I will be right back.

As I mentioned on an earlier post, my first job was at a Chinese Restaurant.  Well, really, my FIRST job was a summer camp counselor, but my first REAL job was in a Chinese Restaurant.

As this was a small family run establishment, I often ate real Cinese food.  Let me be clear, this was not the stuff on the Americanized Chinese menus, but the real stuff.  One of the most common items was actaully KimChi, while I know that techincally Korean, we often ate it.

I read a number of blogs, and the ones that seem to draw me in the most are the postings in reference to chickens. I have no clue why, but I have now decided that if (when) we move to a larger plot outside the city, I am going to want chickens. Both for eggs as well as for meat.

I often love to read the posts that Heather does on her blog, Idaho Small Goat Garden. She has only recently gotten into the world of ...

So I am a little behind on my posting, but wanted to share anyways.  Better later than never.

The garden is very much on the bare side.  After ripping out the final tomatoes, the only things left are my herb garden and some peppers (oh and one watermelon vine).  The heat finally took out everything else.

I was able to harvest a little more than 12 oz. (cleaned and picked off the stems) of Basil.  As my last batch was dried (thanks Gran...

We have added a pond.  As I noted earlier, it was mostly recycled.

In fact we joke, the whole thing cost us $2.45!

Our neighbor was getting rid of the plastic pond, two different tiers of it.  So we took it and planned on installing.  But then she brought over the pump and a little hosing for it a few days later than she found in the garage. 

Then we got some of those stacking wall bricks that another neighbor ...

It has been a very odd year.  While I am just now coming upon my one year mark of moving to San Antonio, it is hard to figure out this weather.

We have had only about 1/2 inch of rain in two months, and we have been over 100 degrees for about the same amount of time.  We are in water restrictions because of a drought....and no end in sight!

It is so bad, I planted potatoes, and in two days they EXPLODED in the ground, just like if you had microw...

I am still here, but the lack of posts is really because it is CRAZY hot here in South Texas.

My garden is looking very bare.  We have had over 100 degree days for about a month now.  Today was the first day we have had any trace of rain in about a month and a half.....

I will do a large post this weekend, so please stay tuned!!

So it was time, the potato plants were all dead.  I was worried as I never got any blooms on the plants as everyone else's blog were talking about.

I was pleasantly surprised from the Great Potato Experiment.

If you remember from one of my first blog entries, I just popped two red potatoes in the ground with no clue on how they will come out.  Only after the fact did I learn that you needed to build up the soil around the potatoes for any type o...