GLOBAL WARMING DOESN'T KEEP ITS PROMISES

I've just finished bringing in plants, covering plants, and putting plants on the back porch this week due to freeze warnings. I live on the Texas coast and just far enough north to get freezes every winter. I had thought with an entire year of abnormally hot weather, that perhaps the trend would carry through the 3 winter months. I would finally have a dream come true. With a bit warmer winters I would not have to worry about frosts.
FAT CHANCE!
Our last 2 winters have had temperatures in the low 20s and now I'm wondering if yet again we will have a bad winter. Where did all the heat go? WINTER SEEMS TO HAVE NO MEMORY OF  SUMMER. 
If the past drought and heat from the last two years were caused by global warming, then all we get is global extremes. Now gardeners get to fight the heat and the cold...and the drought. Good thing we don't give up easily.

"The Mad Gardener" Here's how I feel this week with frost warnings! It's too early!

Time to drag the plants indoors. I couldn't bear to watch these get freeze burn...the foliage is too nice.

Manger scene with aloes. These aloes would freeze outdoors. Now they are part of Christmas. :-)

Thanks for visiting.

David/ :-)

A TROPICAL LOOK FOR THE CHICKEN COOP

I have long wanted to add a tropical looking roof to the chicken coop. This is not bamboo, but a reed screen that I cut in half. I used one inch runners and screws to attach it to the boards underneath.

Thank goodness my brother stayed an extra day to help. I'd also like to report to the world that chickens are some of the most curious creatures on Earth! Phoebe is a barred plymouth rock. She 'talked' the entire time.

"What's this, what's this?", she said.

We slid the entire roof up a low angled extension ladder. We tied it off when we got it to the top.

This used to be a play fort for our children, so there were already brackets to attach to.

The reed construction was my own idea. That's a rare glimpse of me at the top.

We got it up just in time. Precious rains were moving in from the west. I'm pointing to where we are located.

I'm painting the hen house a shade of green and adding little windows next holiday. After that, I'll take a photo when it is done.

Thank-you, Gary, for your hard work.

And thanks, Dad, for feeding the chickens!

David/ :-)

MY VERSION OF BLACK FRIDAY ~ GARDEN EDITION

Ho Ho Ho or should I say HOE HOE HOE...It's BLACK FRIDAY in the GARDEN.

Black is good...for business AND for the garden. Let's see what I've got that's black.

For starters I have a black hoe.

I have black seeds...these are from Four O'Clock plants.

I have a black chicken that's taking a siesta in my arms.

I have rich, black dirt and really rich, black compost. The chickens love to help out.

I have black water tubs for rainfall. BTW: We are finally having normal amounts of rainfall for the first time since January! This water is for my larger trees.

And finally, I have black patterns on these peacock gingers...Kaempferia 'Shazzam' and Kaempferia 'Brush Strokes'.

Now with all that, why should I go shopping? I think I'll stay home and enjoy the garden.

Thanks for stopping by and happy shopping.

David/ :-)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM TROPICAL TEXANA

Judging from the picture, you'd never guess my garden's gone through the worst drought in the past century. I am thankful for the 3 rainfalls we've had this month and the hopeful  recovery from the drought.

It was a perfect day here in Houston. The sun was warm and the air was cool.

I'm thankful for bromeliads and other plants I can grow outside during November.

I'm thankful that plants come in so many shapes, sizes, and colors!

I'm thankful for our hens!

I'm thankful for the food we have. (This is a from our school project on archeology)

And finally, I'm thankful for all of my gardening friends all over Texas, the United States, and the world. I'm always thankful you stopped by! Here's to that time when we thank God for all of His blessings...Happy Thanksgiving.

David/ :-)

MY TROPICAL TEXANA EGG CARTON DESIGNS

My latest designs. I paid 87 cents for the wooden chickens. I added the googly eye.

The hens LOVE the nest boxes that my dad made for them. Notice the one in motion. :-)

A week's worth of fresh eggs. They taste delicious!

Another carton design

One of my first designs.

Up at school the students have been using some of these new duck (duct?) tape colors to design their science projects. I decided to use the extra tape to make some new egg carton designs. Relatives and friends will be getting some of these eggs as gifts, so why not make each egg carton unique? Plus, it's fun.

Chicken art seems to be a nice fit in the garden design world. I'll show you our artistic chicken coop sometime soon. And I'm not alone. I saw recently where someone hung FRAMED PICTURES in their chicken coop for the hens to look at. I'm not to that point...nor plan to ever get that crazy.  LOL

Thanks for stopping by.

David/ :-)

STAINED GLASS WINDOW LEAF: HAPPY MACRO MONDAY

My wife found this beautiful leaf off of an ornamental pear tree. It was being blown around on the street along with ugly brown leaves. When you hold most leaves up to strong light, they have the look of a stained glass window. Happy Macro Monday.

For more, visit our gracious host, Lisa, at  http://lisaschaos.com/

:-)

DO YOU HAVE WILD HOGS IN YOUR GARDEN?

2011 Map

1982 map

As you can see, feral hogs have expanded their range in the last couple of decades. The Texas Parks & Wildlife department had their population at 1 million, then 2 million, and now some sources estimate that there are up to 2.6 to 3.9 million in the state. A wild sow can have up to 20 babies at a time. They can do this a couple of times a year!

We got cable TV for the first time and the technician who installed it had a degree in wildlife management. We got to talking about feral pigs. He said they chase off deer and other wildlfe and consume vast amounts of acorns and other forest foods. These feral hogs are not native to Texas, but were brought here by the Spanish explorers. Domestic pigs have added to the gene pool over the last hundred years and many are much larger than the wild boars of Eurasia.

http://www.aetv.com/american-hoggers/infographic/

The latest craze are reality shows about hunting feral hogs.

For a person in a city like Houston, all of this seems like a far away problem.

However, just 20 miles away, feral pigs live in Addicks reservoir and I'm told by my students that they tear up the local golf courses at night!

I'm afraid to ask if anyone sees wild hogs in their area, but I'd like to know.

David/ :-)

MEET THE BUG THAT ALWAYS MAKES ME SMILE: HAPPY MACRO MONDAY

If you have aphids and you see a piece of lint moving along a leaf, don't worry. You're not going crazy. I love this little guy. These little insects find any old scrap to stick on their backs in a uniform I'd call homemade camouflage. The results vary according to the garden. Some are covered with moss. Others the dead bodies of ants. My garden friend over in Austin says she found one covered in yellow flower petals! Mine seems to have found some gray 'things' to put on itself. They are completely harmless...unless your'e an aphid. Hence the name APHID LIONS. Happy Macro Monday! David/ :-)

This is one of the GOOD GUYS in your garden. It eats aphids.

Here's the aphid lion moving along a leaf. I'm always taken off guard when I see a piece of trash walking around in the garden.

If they eat ants, then this one is in BIG trouble.

Can you finally see him under his cloak?  It's Chrysopa oculata and it will turn into a green lacewing when grown.

My old college textbook is long out of print, so I'll show you what he looks like without all the decorations.

Hope you enjoyed reading about the bug that always makes me smile.

David/ :-)

DIVING INTO THE BIZARRE WORLD OF EGG CARTONS

Since I've started collecting eggs from our garden chickens, I've taken a keen interest in egg cartons. Have you ever read an egg carton here in America?  What does it all mean?

                    Animal Husbandry Guidelines?  I checked the website and read the 40 pages of text. Whew!

Made by Texas Chickens! (not Iowa chickens or Michigan chickens)

All natural? (I do hope so)

In Spanish, brown eggs become red eggs..(.interesting)

Vegetarian fed hens....as opposed to?

Maybe they are talking about...about...what? Companies don't feed chickens meat. Right?

Free roaming nesting hens...that sounds a lot better.

Natural grain fed....as opposed to unnatural grain? Uhh..hmmm..we're back to mysteries.

Farm fresh...but NOT cage free. This company sells both side by side.

If people were to only buy cage free starting tomorrow, then there would be NO caged chickens.

(at least here)

At least 4 European countries have only cage free chicken farms.

These are California Prop 2 Compliant...don't you feel better?

Wouldn't you like to know what Prop 2 says?

Those organic labels are serious...violators get hefty fines...so these are some careful egg farmers

that do it the right way.

Now here's an interesting label! It's my label that I have when I give away eggs to friends.

Here are some eggs from our chickens. They have a good life without cages. Plus they get to roam around in the garden.

Hope you enjoyed the egg carton tour.

David/ :-)

 If you want a serious version of egg carton labels including the fact that most hens spend their sad life in an area the size of a legal sheet of paper, go to this link

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/guide_egg_labels.html

IF YOU NEED a reason to never buy caged eggs again, then watch the pathetic chickens in this short video. The video announces larger sizes for caged hens. Notice how many feathers are missing and that their beaks are cut off:
(scroll to the bottom of the link to see the short video)
http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2011/07/landmark-egg-agreement.html

Compare to our chickens:

Why I Garden: Reason #3: A Garden is Filled With Unusual Connections

I could say the usual spiel about plants and bugs and soil. And these are all near and dear to a gardener's heart. But Reason #3 is much greater. Gardeners and gardens (and garden blogs) keep you connected in wonderful and unusual ways.  I didn't go through this terrible drought alone. There were others that cared enough to comment with thoughts of 'hang in there' and 'me too...hope we make it'. 
I didn't go through the horrific southern freezes (and snows!) of the past two winters alone. Other southern gardeners commented and we supported each other.
These are all wonderful connections that make gardeners friends for life.

But the strangest and I think most interesting connection is the one that spans time. A garden and a garden blog are about the connections of time....past, present, and future in your garden.
Here's a funny story about that very thing:
Our wonderful counselor (and gardener) retired last year from our school. We loved to compare notes and trade stories. I still miss her. What's funny is she sneaks back up to school and puts old garden magazines in my mailbox with the single word 'ENJOY'. I like that. Interestingly, she dropped off a magazine this week from waaaay back in 2006 and on the back page was a story about GARDEN BLOGS. This was a story from one of the original garden bloggers and I read with interest her fascination with connections. I loved everything she talked about: sharing pictures, connecting with comments, having debates, and the astonishment she had over a few hundred people actually reading her garden blog each week. She even had chickens and you know how fond I am of other gardeners that have chickens.
I immediately connected with this gardener from long ago....(2006 is long ago in this computer age).
So was she still blogging after five long years?  They gave the url at the end of the article and I was both excited and worried that this mystery gardener might have hung up her blogging trowel by now.
Here's her blog if you want to find out:
http://dirtbyamystewart.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Amy for a garden and garden blog filled with connections!

David/ :-)

LET ME GUESS...YOU'RE HUNGRY: HAPPY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

As I was filling up the small feeder for Mary Marco Marie, she peeked inside the can. Her eyes must of popped out at the sight, because the next thing I know she hopped right into the barrel! It was chicken heaven for her.

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

David/ :-)

HERE'S MY FAVORITE TROPICAL FLOWER: HAPPY MACRO MONDAY

Passiflora vitifolia ~ Crimson Passion Flower

It was such a pretty day that we took a walk through the Houston Heights. The Heights is filled with small bungalows and many contain cottage gardens. This is only the second time I've seen Red Passion Flower here in Houston and it almost took my breath away. If you look closely, there's a ladybug underneath the petals.

Sadly, because this is not a native, the Gulf Fritillary butterfly skips over it when looking for host Passifloras.

If I'm wrong, please update me. These leaves seemed untouched by caterpillars.

To see more mighty MACROS, visit our gracious host, Lisa, at http://lisaschaos.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

David/:-)

Footnote: There are at least 4 scarlet/red Passifloras. My best guess is vitifolia since the leaves are 3 lobed and highly serrated, hence the name vitifolia...foliage like grape leaves.

Growth requirements: Is root hardy in zone 9 and easily grown in zones 10 and 11. Very vigorous in full sun and can even be considered invasive! Hundreds of flowers once vines are established. Fruit is edible in some species. Native to Central and South America. Passiflora miniata is also like this one, only with black interior spikes.