Fungus, nematode....... what the hell is this?

Folks we have a serious problem. And by serious I mean we may have a famine on our hands soon. Seriously, I can't grow anything. 


I think I may have a fungus or harmful nematodes. Nematodes are parasites that live in the soil, take over, and are really hard to get rid of. This isn't good. I took some pictures of my plants and sent them to the Texas Master Gardener Association to have them evaluated. Hopefully in a day or two, I will have my answer. If the answer is harmful nematodes, we are pretty much screwed. 


Any of ya'll out there have a clue as to what this is? Its a battlefield out there and I'm losing fast!  And seriously, when is it going to rain?

Cucumber Plant

Pitiful Tomatoes 

Bomb shelled Basil 

It's like Christmas everyday. 
Nothing better than coming home at lunch after a good morning session rotting in the box and seeing what the girls produced. 
All four are laying now and today was the first day our Americauna, L.S. laid a blue egg. 
So fun. So good. 
Most of the eggs are double yolked. My girls only produce the best I say. 

Round 2

Yeah.....round 2. Sucked. 


Heat + Heavy cart full O' shit = grumpy Kelly


I only got half of the yard done during Round 2. I was discouraged. Thinking I couldn't do it. Thought about renting a bobcat. 


Then my gracious Bro in law Will and friend Mark came out and helped me haul this stink. We got it done in less than half the time I ever could. YAY! for good friends and manly muscles. 


Im headed to New Orleans tomorrow for the weekend. So I am waiting to plant the grass seeds until we get back. Austin has been super dry. I can't remember the last time it has rained, months maybe. I am going to try to time it for the first rain, hopefully soon before it gets too hot. 

Big Ole Pile of Stink Comin' at Ya

P U.

Yep. That's right. Had this big pile of compost delivered today and with the wind gusts going on I gotta tell you this stuff stinks. I'm sure those already annoyed neighbors are going to love it. Why did I have 8 cu yards of cow manure compost all good, ripened, and stankay delivered? Well, because I rotted in the box this weekend(remember shitty job) and that means one thing......I had a lot of time to think. And that time leads to me brewing a whole slew of good ideas.


So the front half of our yard before the creek is going to be grass. Right now its just a bunch of dirt and when it rains, it sucks. We decided we want most of it to be grass right now and then we can add on different landscaping as we go. But right now we figured grass, so at least when it rains it's not a mud pit for days.


We decided to get an estimate for irrigation and sod since that is the quickest and easiest way to get a yard STAT. The guy we have been using for landscaping sent us the estimate last week. $8,000!
Yeah I know. One more time.  $8,000 #!^%@C#^% dollars. Uh uh.


I was doing a little rotting and research and came upon a website talking about native lawns. It talked about how using native grass can save on water, fertilizing, and all the other annoying things you have to do to keep non-natives such as St. augustine and Bermuda grass alive. Well..........lightbulb. I ordered the seed on a whim ready to tackle the 6500 square feet of backyard. Besides, we realized we didn't want to consume so much water, have the upkeep of an irrigation system, and watch our water bill double per month.


Today was day one of getting the yard ready and it sucked. Bad. Have you ever tilled hard compact clay soil before? It stinks big time. And I wasn't tilling up a small space.This was the first step in preparing the yard and I realized halfway through that this was one of my good ideas gone bad again. Way to much for me to accomplish on my own. But I'm cheap (and hardheaded) and I didn't want to pay anyone to do it. Annoyed halfway through I pushed on in the heat with hallucinations of a tractor and landscape crew to help me. I finally got it done, my arms are still shaking and I'm as sore as an 80 year old in the morning but tomorrow, tag me in. Round 2.


Round two consists of raking and spreading that good compost all over the lawn. Then sowing the seeds. I'm trying to get it done before the real heat comes. It was 90 already today and this native seed don't do sizzlin.


I will let you know how it goes tomorrow and keep you updated on the grass situation as it plays out. If you are in Texas and want to check out Native lawns here are the links where I have been getting my info. Check it out.


http://www.seedsource.com/
http://www.wildflower.org/

If this doesn't make you nauseous

Feel free to watch. However, it's rough footage(taken from an iphone). But I thought I would give you a glimpse into the backyard and what its becoming and also give you a peek at the girls. There are two videos because for some reason you can't download a long one. Here ya go.

Something Ate My One Strawberry

Things are growing good around here lately.  Except something ate my one and only strawberry. Claire wanted to eat it the other day and I wanted to make sure it was perfectly ripe and ready for picking. So I said, "lets wait another day, then it will be perfect." Seriously, it's the only thing we can eat from the garden at this point and I was super excited I actually grew something.


See we lived in NYC for awhile while going to school for a career I hate ( I know mom, hates a strong word but in this context it fits) and while living in a boxed sized apartment, my love for gardening was stifled. I never knew it existed until I moved to Austin. We bought our house about three years ago and that winter I caught the gardening bug. I made 3 boxes and filled them with soil and planted. I was super excited. Spring came and wham ...... bamboo. Holy crap. I have never seen something grow so fast. It grew, took over my sun, and my garden failed. I literally grew one green bean and one tomato that was supposed to be normal size but turned out to be more like a cherry tomato. I gave up. 


So when my dad came a year ago and cleared out all this bamboo I vowed to have a garden we could sustain ourselves on. So that small strawberry meant a lot and dammit(sorry again mom) something ate it. I'm hoping this isn't a glimpse into how our growing season will end up. 


I have been busy lately. 


With my job, I leave early and get home late. Buh-Lah. So I set up a water saving drip irrigation system to start and stop on a timer. That way if I get home late I won't have to worry about watering in the dark. However, one of my favorite things to do when I get home is to grab a glass a wine, head out with my hose, decompress and water.  I will miss that. 

Drip irrigation set up 

Does anyone know how to drill a 1 inch hole into a 4x4 all the way through without draining the battery on the drill? Yeah, me either. I'm building a chicken run. Since the girls try to wipe out the garden every chance they get, they need a place to free range away from the garden. So, I'm building a run. But I didn't want to use just regular wire. I decided to use 4x4 cedar posts and electrical conduit. Kinda maybe a modern twist on a cattle fence....maybe. I'm sort of thinking long term. A spot big enough for the chickens and the Nigerian dwarf goats (hopefully) to roam and be happy during the day.  Anyway, drilling the holes to run the electrical conduit is a nightmare because my drill battery keeps running out. I'm going to see if I can rent something bigger and more powerful and finish the fence on Tuesday. Here is a preview of what I was able to get done with the fence thus far:

Coop with the fence. The posts will be cut down to the top of the last conduit

I also was able to get most of my trellises up this weekend. I went with a few 2x2's and some temporary fencing. It was simple and cheap. I put them in my 3x12 box with cucumbers, melons, beans, and zucchini. I zig zagged them and I think this should give us the most space.

Everything is growing great. Im feeding with a fish/seaweed foliar spray. It stinks but it's giving the veggies a big boost. The temperature has already reached 90 degrees on some days and my tomatoes were looking somewhat puny. But after feeding them they perked up. Hopefully this week the temps will cool off to the 70's for at least a few more weeks before the big texas heat hits. 

Barb Became a Woman.............

For the past week or so, I had heard big Barb bock bock beegocking like crazy. She's about 5 1/2 months old now and her comb is getting super red and big so I figured any day now she would lay. I noticed a small fragile broken egg one day under the roost during the week so I was hoping I would have an egg in the nesting box soon. I have been enticing the girls with golf balls in the nest box to simulate eggs ever since they were young. The other day, Barb stepped up to the Tee and gave us our first fragile whole little egg........Yay!