There has been a whole lot of rain coming down in the past several weeks! Really starting to understand how wet this place gets. The garden now has been through an amazing transformation and there are now 7 new beds formed in much more efficient dimensions!
A brief recap to cover what happened around a month ago. The pictures with the U.T. student volunteers were snap shots of out busy week reforming the garden into an efficient working space! Boy, those were some of the best volunteers, ready to work and happy to learn about the community and the work that is happening with the garden. There were video interviews taken of me and some of the students, that I am hoping to find and post on here for ya'll to see; great recap of what we were doing.
I actually got to get back out to the desert for a short but wonderful trip! My middle brother dominick and amazing new sister Lisa got hitched! It was a wedding to remember, everyone all slicked up and dancing like a bunch of fools. Of course the carne asada/ breakfast burritos couldn't be left out! I shaved my beard off.... I know, there comes a town for everything, and it seemed like it'd made for some good photos. And although the trip itself was quick, any time with all my family together is a true treat! One more shout out of congrats goes to the New family Nick Lisa and Maryanna! Not that these three lovable people were anything but a wonderful family before, congrats on the official stats!
Well I jumped back into town down here in the Big Easy, or maybe I got lost in a car wash because I was stuck in rain for a the entire next 5 days! All that wonders, does great things for plants though, that's for sure. and the garden's tomatoes and cukes are coming along! We're getting around to putting in Pepper transplants, summer squash, and just started some okra seed this last weekend. Things will start taking off when the heat builds up in next month. I'm really looking forward to having a barbecue for the community some point in the next month! If we play our cards right, the summer harvest might come around the same time, which would be nice to use veggies from the garden incorparted in the meal!
Plus, I believe I've mentioned that my friendship with a great gardener, perhaps one of the best out here; Macon Fry has started to develop greatly. But at this point we've really takin off as partners in crime getting weed preventions going. Macon's garden is in ground, so the invasive weeds are a whole different story then with my raised beds surrounded by concrete! It takes a whole lot of work to keep these suckers out of fence and they grow so stealthy under ground with a horizontal root system called rhizomes; which has the ability to root unilaterally from other roots, each piece growing a whole new separate plant. The major invasive perennial weed found in the Johnson concrete garden is called Nutsedge, which also can be a major hassle, but luckily is removable with a sandy soil and on top of concrete. While on the other hand, the weed that is mostly affecting my current beds is called Nut Sedges, it's horrible and a major problem to get to the root at quick and fast, quite literally.
At this point, I have bed planted of each of the following; eggplant, cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, okra, and a root bed that will hopefully be harvested and ready to put melons in by the end of the month. There is one more bed that is available for planting and a few smaller beds on the other end, that'd I'd love to put some squash and zucchini! The great thing about the summer is the high and fast yield of things like tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, and squash, all of which need continuous attention harvesting daily to keep the production up. Harvesting is a great activity for kids, it's knew and exciting! We'll see what kids I can convinced to get out here this summer.
A brief recap to cover what happened around a month ago. The pictures with the U.T. student volunteers were snap shots of out busy week reforming the garden into an efficient working space! Boy, those were some of the best volunteers, ready to work and happy to learn about the community and the work that is happening with the garden. There were video interviews taken of me and some of the students, that I am hoping to find and post on here for ya'll to see; great recap of what we were doing.
I actually got to get back out to the desert for a short but wonderful trip! My middle brother dominick and amazing new sister Lisa got hitched! It was a wedding to remember, everyone all slicked up and dancing like a bunch of fools. Of course the carne asada/ breakfast burritos couldn't be left out! I shaved my beard off.... I know, there comes a town for everything, and it seemed like it'd made for some good photos. And although the trip itself was quick, any time with all my family together is a true treat! One more shout out of congrats goes to the New family Nick Lisa and Maryanna! Not that these three lovable people were anything but a wonderful family before, congrats on the official stats!
Well I jumped back into town down here in the Big Easy, or maybe I got lost in a car wash because I was stuck in rain for a the entire next 5 days! All that wonders, does great things for plants though, that's for sure. and the garden's tomatoes and cukes are coming along! We're getting around to putting in Pepper transplants, summer squash, and just started some okra seed this last weekend. Things will start taking off when the heat builds up in next month. I'm really looking forward to having a barbecue for the community some point in the next month! If we play our cards right, the summer harvest might come around the same time, which would be nice to use veggies from the garden incorparted in the meal!
Plus, I believe I've mentioned that my friendship with a great gardener, perhaps one of the best out here; Macon Fry has started to develop greatly. But at this point we've really takin off as partners in crime getting weed preventions going. Macon's garden is in ground, so the invasive weeds are a whole different story then with my raised beds surrounded by concrete! It takes a whole lot of work to keep these suckers out of fence and they grow so stealthy under ground with a horizontal root system called rhizomes; which has the ability to root unilaterally from other roots, each piece growing a whole new separate plant. The major invasive perennial weed found in the Johnson concrete garden is called Nutsedge, which also can be a major hassle, but luckily is removable with a sandy soil and on top of concrete. While on the other hand, the weed that is mostly affecting my current beds is called Nut Sedges, it's horrible and a major problem to get to the root at quick and fast, quite literally.
At this point, I have bed planted of each of the following; eggplant, cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, okra, and a root bed that will hopefully be harvested and ready to put melons in by the end of the month. There is one more bed that is available for planting and a few smaller beds on the other end, that'd I'd love to put some squash and zucchini! The great thing about the summer is the high and fast yield of things like tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, and squash, all of which need continuous attention harvesting daily to keep the production up. Harvesting is a great activity for kids, it's knew and exciting! We'll see what kids I can convinced to get out here this summer.
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