TEXAS' SECOND SEASON

It's nice to have a pretty flower at the head of the blog so before I get onto the greens-Recognize this flower? You would normally see this along the roadside. It is the mullein. Every year one or two position themselves in the garden. I enjoy their rosette of soft leaves over the winter and the flowers in the summer, then they're out before they seed all over the place. One or two always get away.

While May Dreams is busy embracing the end of the growing season in Indiana, I am getting ready for our second planting season. There are a few left overs from summer. The chard is coming back to life and I am saving a couple of plants to tide us over until the newly planted crop matures. 

This is the final bean planting. This morning I went out to find some cedar brush to use in the same way my mother used brush to support sweet peas. These are bush beans but they do better if they are supported off the ground.

Peppers are still going. This one Alma paprika, taking its time to turn red.

Last week I learnt that you can grow rhubarb and strawberries in Texas, you just have to grow them as annuals.( I'm beginning to think that may be true with a lot plants here!) Imagine growing rhubarb from seed and it maturing to the point you can pick it in the spring. I have a head start because an Austin vegetable gardener gave me some little plants she started from seed this year. They were in cells so the first thing I did was to pot them up in 4" pots to help them along. 

I don't think I have room for strawberries, if we could find them at this time of the year! The rhubarb will have to go it alone in the pie. Growing up in England we always had rhubarb, gooseberries and blackcurrants in the garden. I have a taste for these sharp tasting fruits. I grew all of them in St Louis. It was wonderful.

At the same time I have potted up some rosemary I grew from cuttings. I just stuck them in the ground in a sheltered spot and they rooted in about 2 months.
My Persian lime has 15 limes this year and according to some research I did this morning they are ready to pick. They are the limes most commonly seen in the grocery store. I have a Mexican lime tree too and I usually pick them when they turn yellow or fall of off the tree. I freeze the juice for margaritas.

Next year I will have to root prune several of my citrus because they have not done too well this year. That's a spring chore, thank goodness.