Let’s see.. stuff stuff stuff
When I took Digital Electronics for 2 semesters with Fred Daughterman we were required to keep a notebook. He never looked at it and it seemed stupid at first. Your 1st semester notebook was necessary in your second semester. Though all the circuit diagrams, specs, and tables are easily found somewhere else. Your notebook contains your observations. Like the time you released the blue smoke by using the 12V line instead of the 5V. Or how many logical gates you can use with 7400 chips until the signal doesn’t propagate anymore.
I need a gardening notebook. Badly. This would be simple. Get a notebook, keep it near the garden, paste in photos, articles on plants, etc. Except it isn’t for me. Keeping paper would duplicate everything I already do in the computer. Unpublished journal notes, links to plants, spreadsheets with dynamic timetables, cross links between photos, websites, handwritten notes,… the garden blog was one attempt at this and my interests have grown. Publication isn’t very important. Getting everything out of me with the least fuss and work is a must.
This problem ticks around and a solution has jumped up exactly yet. It may be a combination of things. Wordpress is good, but the theme would have to be very customized, because some content would never fall off the and some is hierarchical, like plant relationships. A wiki is good, but I’m less familiar and there are so many to pick from. Aslo, we use wikis at work. Typing the formatting characters in sucks.
Eventually, I’ll pick something. In the meant time…
Transplants!!!!
I started tomatoes and melons inside today. It is warm enough to start these outside. The beds are not ready. The tomato bed, which is also the same as last year (gasp) is full of very tasty lettuce and peas. The peas started blooming this week. The lettuce will probably bolt this week. I look forward to grazing for dinner in the backyard in a wk or two. Hah, like I haven’t been eating lettuce like a goat while I water. Wherever there is lettuce now will be tomatoes in a month. Peas get a month or more. The melons are asian, euro, american, and watermelon. Their beds have not been prepared yet. Because one is full of live tulips and irises now.
The strategy I’m experimenting with for transplants is a bit of companion planting. The pots are pre-formed peat. I wanted pre-formed cow poop. They are 4″ deep and 5″ across. Each seed pair is around the edge and 1 in the center. Chamomile, the plant’s doctor, is sown in the top 1/8″-1/4″. The seeds are so very tiny that it’s impossible to plant less than a dozen at a time. Nearly, every plant likes Chamomile. If it lives great, if not that’s too bad. The Texas panhandle is not generally a conducive environment for such delicate fragrance.
The pots are in my southwest facing bedroom and the mediation room. That will last until they sprout. Then they can move to the shaded porch for two weeks. The house is about 72-79 F with and even humidity, except when I shower. 
Notes on the early spring plantings..
Lettuce and peas were sown in the far raised bed and endured 2-3 30F nights and several 32F mornings. Though they might look rather dreadful in the morning they bounce back rather quickly. Lettuce tastes particularly excellent the colder and earlier in the day it is.
Some seeds clumped together forming tight bundles of lettuce with peas in the center. These have proven particularly successful. As temperatures increased recently many standalone peas have dried up and died. Perhaps a rule of thumb for cold tolerant veggies is to plant thick, for heat protect and cold protections.
Notes on what survived the winter..
Last years fava beens are in bloom. Those with more water through the winter show dramatically greater size. Even just a few cupfuls make a big difference. However, the water is not necessary. Many fava beans survived in spots that are normally inhospitable due to densely compacted soil, little water, and shade.
Again, I picked fava beans for their taproots, nitrogen production, and easy of maintenance. Plant it and leave it in August. Free fertilizer come spring. We’ll see if this still holds. The plants themselves are attractive and very resilient. Nearly, all other cover crops did not survive. Probably due to lack of water. The winter was not particularly cold.
Other hell spot survives include the succulents planted in the tree west tree stump. This thing actually grew during winter and is thriving in the spring. I have removed pieces to put in other places around the yard. The tree stump is a bad spot, but it was water somewhat. I was very surprised to see that some of this plant place beside the large bush in the front yard survived. This spot is exceedingly dry and the soil is very poor.
The surviving succulents are looking much better than the grass. Last year I did not water at all and this year has been the same. These plants seem immune to being ignored like this. I have already planted more varieties. The hope is to find living mulches that require no care, particularly water. This is the Great American Desert.
The Autumn Joy that I had as a houseplant and moved outside, plus a new friend survived. I had thought them both dead, particularly, the friend. The Dragon’s Blood sedum I moved in with and the big one already planted have survived very well and would make an excellent ground cover. They have some roots, but are so low as never to interfere with seasonal bulbs like tulips and daffodils. Water requirements are very low and they can both tolerate winter.
The Kale was destroyed by aphids. I did not pull the devastated plants up and instead left them as honey pots for Lady Bugs and Harlequin bugs. The aphids were also attacking the roses particularly viciously. This was addressed by pressure spraying with the hose every 2-3 days. Temperatures have risen above 50F most of the time. The predators are quite common now. Even saw two Harlequin bugs mating the other day. Have seen at least three different kinds of Lady Bugs. There are still many, many aphids destroying the dying Kale. Nothing is very close to the Kale. So, the aphids may have difficulty crossing the hot dry distance between seedlings right now. Hopefully, the predators will clean up the situation further.
There is more to write, but I’m tired and bored. Beans are come up. Cucumbers are in the same bed. As are peas. Sunflowers that fell from last year have sprouted again. Also, a cucumber from last year has had many, many seeds sprout from the buried carcass. The Sunflower and Cucumbers are reseeds, which I want to encourage. Hopefully, to also naturalize. This project is very interesting. Perhaps, no work garden will include letting some fruit remain on the vine to reseed naturally allowing the plants to grow when they think soil conditions are appropriate, instead of being forced by a person.