My Favorite Subject-ME

So, they tell me I'm supposed to write something to tell you what I do. So here goes.

So, the little green herbivorous creatures from inner earth tell me I'm supposed to write a "blog" to tell us what I do. So, "here we go" as we say around here in Sticksville. First, I'll tell you about my experience with the hellacious sand pit I started with, and then day to day talk about gardening problems for a variety of situations. Our goal is to help with those harassing helpless hapless horrible harrowing situations that we all deal with and have a little fun while we are doing it. Maybe, even recycle stuff we're throwing away to make something neat looking that we don't have to pay for. Our friends may overlook a few weeds here and there 'cause they are smiling at "that neat thing we made or that cool thing we did". We'll use a little science, a little humor, a little innovation, and a lot of our old-time ancestor farmer family hand me down stuff to get us there. Hopefully, we'll get our problems fixed. 'Cause, we're in this together. 99.999% of all of us have some sort of a soil problem. Ground is too rocky, or too sandy, or has too much clay to grow anything. Or it's too wet, or too dry, or too wet and then dry. Picky little creatures, aren't we? Well, maybe? -- it's so. Or is the problem really just us and our wants? Lots of times our wants get in the way of common sense. If we wanna grow swamp plants in a desert, it's going to take a lot of extra effort. If we are trying to make a garden look nice from scratch, I suggest starting with some spiffy looking plants that grow well where we live. How you do you find these magical plants? Look around and see what is growing well in your neighbor's yards. Maybe even ask them, "hey what is that thing and do you have to pay any special attention to it to keep it alive?"

For my part, I acquired my property as more or less a challenge. I got couple of acres or so from my retired farmer uncle exactly where I wanted to be. He, of course, was a lovable somewhat outspoken, grumpy, cynical but sometimes funny in weird sort of way, old coot. As most old coots are now. So, he says to me, as was quite predictable, hey college "edge'u'cated" idiot that's the worst part of my property, its hot dry sand that won't grow anything except briars, grass burrs, and wild grape vines. Choose another piece of my place that's good for farming! Well, darned if he wasn't right at the time. I looked at soil maps of the area and the prospects were grim. The land is deep loose dry sand with lousy organic content that can turn hard as rock at the surface from menacing "don't want a lot of" particles if it gets pounded and washed by rain. Deep underneath in the underworld is a hard clay layer that finally stops the water and nutrients from reaching some spot on the other side of earth. lol But, it had a good hard gravel road in, and good access to rural water and electricity. Things that saved me enough money to get started improving the property. Plus, I was hard-headed even before I became an old coot, and it was a challenge, and it needed some attention to make it the best it could be!! And not only that, I wanted to prove that much beloved and respected by me, old coot Uncle not so totally right. Even though looking back, I was a glutton for punishment. But I decided that place had been disrespected long enough! Sadly, he was gone before I got it respectable, but I know that somewhere he is looking down smiling and thinking, "well that "edge'u'cated" idiot did an OK job.

My first thought was ok...if I can baby trees long enough to get roots down to that water on top of the clay, trees should grow and I should have some shade to protect any plants under them from the blistering Texas sun. Oh, I forgot to mention I live in the metropolis known as Blistering Texas Sun, Texas (a suburb that encompasses most of Texas in the summer). One hundred degrees on "glass sandy soil" can be an experience. My second thought no was there is no need to try to and water because it just squirts through the sand and takes nutrients with it somewhere down there a long way away from where I want it to be. I love my neighbors, but not enough to send them water and fertilizer to wherever it reaches the surface to discharge onto the clay on their property that has its own special problems too. But, that’s for a future post. So, I need to populate the "lawn" with some low maintenance grass or rhizome spreading plants that will keep the sand and nutrients in place. Then, I'll use slow-release organic fertilizers and I'll mulch every leaf that I can grow and some I don't to try and build up a thin organic layer on top of the sand that will be held in place by any ground cover that I can get to grow. Plus, I'll aid quick decomposition of my leaves with my homemade formulation I use to stimulate decomposition and stimulate soil goodness. (If you 'wanna' know what I use and why it works, you'll have to read my forthcoming posts). Finally, I will create flower bed oases. In these future posts, I'll tell you how to improve your soil so that it is teaming with earthworms. Some of these wonderful critters in my beds are now the size of baby snakes and scare the 'bejeebers' out of me sometimes. Shutter...not much of a snake fan here. Now, before the herpetology people get all offended. I know what a great niche snakes occupy, but I don't care. I still don't like them, and that's that. If it helps, I love frogs and lizards. Great little insect eating critters. Anyhow, in theses oasis areas I said I will plant bushes and flowers that I can afford to water and install water features to create micro-environments to add some humidity to a dry desolate landscape. And so... I did. This is part of my story for now. If this doesn't relate to your problems, keep following--we'll get there. Happy Gardening!