What's for Dinner?

Jenny here. Dinner tonight will be omelets made with eggs from our hens, and the season's first chard from our garden. Being able to feed my children food that we've grown ourselves gives me such satisfaction. Homesteading is very, very cool.

Morning Glories

Now that the temperatures are cooling off, the morning glories are taking off!

I have them growing in two large rectangular boxes, trellised happily up two wooden frames that my husband mounted to the brick facing of the house.

Morning glories, and their night-loving counterpart moonflowers, are an annual vining plant. They are PROLIFIC growers, and will actually grow through and up other plants if you let them. Don't be shy about redirecting or pruning away any vines that you find misbehaving. This is a hardy plant.

Flowers tend to be large, and vary in color. The classic blue is my personal favorite, but there is an array of color variations available. It's a bit hard to spot in the photo, but I have four all growing together (blue, pink, white/purple picotee, white moonflower).

They grow quite tall. Mine are at about the six foot mark. I have an idea that if I had more trellis, they would be taller. Morning glory doesn't stick or cling to surfaces as ivy does. They twist their vines around structures to support themselves, so you'll need to give them something to twirl around. In my experience the vines are nowhere near as heavy as some other vines like trumpet vine or climbing roses, but don't give them too flimsy a trellis either. Mine are a mid-weight wood. Forget those cheap, stapled trellises. They won't do.

As far as growing them goes, you start from seed.  Any store that sells seeds is likely to have them in many colors.  Direct sow them into the soil in the spring, preferably after danger of frost is over.  Well draining soil is always best, but I have found that morning glory is not terribly fussy.  Water them well, and that's usually all it takes. I actually grow these on a west-facing wall, where the afternoon sun is brutal. The vines struggled through those 100 degree summer months that kicked all our butts, but erupted as soon as the nights dipped below 90 degrees. Vines grow and leaf out so thickly that they actually shade themselves from the sun and usually do just fine on what I like to call my Front Walk of Burning Death.  I have never heard of or experienced morning glory roots destroying walkways or foundations.  I plant mine in planters anyway just in case.

The plant is an annual, and will die back with a hard frost.  You'll notice a ton of seeds drop off the vines as you pull them off their trellises for the year.  Gather as many up as you like.  If you store them in a cool, dry, and preferably dark place, they should be fine for planting again in the spring.  Resowing may not even be necessary, as morning glory will often reseed itself from the seeds that you missed when you cleared the dead vines away. That's good and bad. You'll save a bit of money when they re-sprout. The bad? They never just sprout in the area where you originally planted them. Never. You will be pulling little morning glory shoots out from undesirable spots on a regular basis. Clipping the flowers off before they seed helps, but will not eliminate the problem. I love the heart-shaped leaves and bright flowers so much, that I don't consider this to be a big issue. I pull out the shoots along with any other weed that I find. It's a small price to pay for such a beautiful plant.

Happy Gardening!

Common Sense Homesteading: Autumn Jewels and Musical Fruit

Follow the link to a previous blog post from Laurie over at Common Sense Homesteading on harvesting beans. It's the easiest thing in the world to do, and she also gives you information on why and how to soak before cooking, and a few recipes just for fun. Please stay and have a look around her site. She has built a successful homestead on her property in Wisconsin, and is a selfless sharer of information on how you can do the same!

Common Sense Homesteading: Autumn Jewels and Musical Fruit: The boys and I continue working on cleaning up the garden and prepping food for winter storage. One of my recent additions to the mix is ...

Pears, pears, pears

Pears are great fruit that will thrive in our lovely NE Texas climate and soil.  It seems that no matter where I drive out in the country, I see a pear tree loaded with fruit.  They may be beside an abandoned barn, in a front yard, or standing in a field next to a park.  One of the things that this tells me is that once a pear tree is established, it is resiliant!  I read one post in my search for information about this hardy produce that jokingly suggested that the only thing you could do to kill a pear tree is pamper it.  Hmmm, this is sounding like my kind of tree!  In truth, I have killed a pear tree or two.  I have a couple struggling in the back yard right now that wish I had planted them somewhere else.  It seems that, once again, picking the right variety and proper location are the key to success. 

The picture at the start of this post is a small portion of the haul the kids and I gathered from a lonely tree next to the park my kids play at.   After some research, I have come to the conclusion that these are Kieffer pears.   This tree is described on Texas A&M horticulture website as the "old standard of pears".  They are heavy fruit bearers that will ripen in late September to October.  It also says they are "higly reistant to fire blight".    Sounding good...

Just on a state level, we seem to be on the border of Texas tree growing zones one and two.  That leaves a wide variety of pears available to us to grow.  I love the idea of the old, hardy, do-nothing-to-it and have it produce year after year kind, but the fruit of the Kieffer is not the high dessert quality that some people prefer.  Never fear, there are still more than ten variety of pear trees that will survive in our area if you find the right location!  One that is good in Zone one (which seems to encompass most of west Texas all the way over to Grayson County) is the Moonglow.  I have seen this particular variety in many nurseries around here, and have some in my yard.  They struggled over this hot summer, but did survive with only one watering from us.  The yield was very small, but the trees have only been in for two years.  The other pear tree we have planted out there is an Asian variety.  I have not given up on these trees and feel that they will thrive in years to come, but my next one will be a Kieffer and it is getting planted on either the north or east side of the house.

So, what do you do with all of those pears?  Give them to friends of course!  And eat them and make preserves, pies, and pear butter. 

I have a pan of pears boiling on the stove right now.  Trying out new recipies is a thing of joy!   The recipe for today can be found here:  http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pear_butter/

The pear butter in the picture is from here:
:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spiced-Pear-Butter-2789

I don't know how today's will turn out, but the cinammon/vanilla recipe is wonderful!

Have fun and happy gardening!

Outside The Box

Yet another fine example of gardeners finding new uses for old items. I love the versatility of combining rebar and PVC. Have a look.

Texas Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens)

As it's name suggests (at least it's non-scientific one), this very pretty shrub is native to Texas.  It really is drought tolerant, thrives in rocky soil, and loves the heat.  As a matter of fact, most of the information I read about this plant indicates that one of the few things, other than too much water, that irritates it is too little sun.  It really is native to Texas and loves our harsh climate!  It is also known as Cenizo, Purple sage, Texas Ranger and the Texas barometer bush.  I can attest to the fact that the flowers do seem to emerge right before it rains.  The above picture was taken today.  This is a couple of days after our last rain, but the flowers have been on it for about a week.  My husband even commented on them and said he hoped it was an indication of rain to come.

The bush usually grows 3 - 5 feet tall, but may grow as tall at 8 ft.  The bushes on our place are right in front of the house and are over 6 ft tall.  We have let them go unpruned for too long and they are beginning to look scraggely, but a good fall pruning can take care of that.  They can be grown from seed or propigated from semi-hardwood cuttings.  Any of you lucky enough to attend the lecture hosted by the Master Gardeners of Fannin County last week will know how to propigate from cuttings! 

Aside from a very hardy, attractive shrub, the leaves and flowers can also be used to make an herbal tea.  Several articles have been written describing the use of this tea for medicinal purposes.  Some believe it is useful in treating colds, coughing, and fever and chills associated with the flu.

We have found this plant a welcome addition to our flower garden.  I hope you find this information useful if you're looking for any native shrubs to add to yours.  As always, happy gardening!

Pokeweed

For the last two years, our yard has been home to pokeweed.  Having never encountered it before, it took a while for me to figure out what it was.  I finally asked a couple of my native Texan friends, and they didn't hesitate to identify it.  I am still debating what to do with it.  I hate to pull out a potential food source, but this particular food source can be poisonous if not prepared properly.

Here are some things that I've noticed.  First is that it seems to be drought and heat tolerant.  Everything in the yard has been struggling this summer except for the pokeweed.  It has doubled in size!  Second is that it is very prolific.  Apparently the birds eat the berries and pass the seeds.  I noticed little sprouts in the raised beds early this year and pulled them right out.  That proved a very easy task and they haven't grown back.  Last year, before I knew what I was looking at, I allowed one to grow in one of the beds.  The things was nearly as big as a tree before I pulled it this spring.  It took a shovel and a lot of digging to finally get the roots out.  I have allowed the patch to grow next to the peonies on the north side of the house, but I'm afraid they are taking over.  To top it all off, I just noticed it growing in the rose bush island out back.  It's starting to feel like a plague! 

Those sounds like bad things, but if I can keep it controlled, I have to admit that it's somewhat attractive and is obviously happy with our harsh soil and climate.  And like I said before, it can be eaten.  I've heard some people refer to it as a southern delicacy.  (Does anyone remember the song Poke Salad Annie)?  There are even recipes for it on some of the more popular recipe sites.  I'm not convinced to try it out yet because of all the 'cook it just right' warnings, but I'm not sold on just pulling it up as a nuisance plant either.

If you have pokeweed on your property, or find it just shows up one day as a gift from the birds in the area, these are some things that you'll have to consider before you decide what to do about it.  I'll keep you updated on ours, and will be sure to let you know how it goes if we ever decide to eat it!