The Whitlock Family » gardening

Homegrown Spaghetti Squash

Curtis — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:28:38 +0000

Yes, dinner tonight was delicious. Homegrown spaghetti squash. I was kinda of hesitant at first to even grow it, because according to Stephanie, whatever I grow, I gotta eat. So tonight was the night for out first spaghetti squash dinner. It was awesome.

Dessert were graham crackers with a strawberries, cream cheese, and sugar. Placed in a freezer until solid and served.

Seven days

Curtis — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:05:33 +0000

This is what seven days does to a paperwhite bulb:

Its that time of the year to force paperwhite bulbs inside for some holiday color. I potted up two bulbs individually into small pots and placed them above the sink in the kitchen.

Soooooooooo…….

Curtis — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:39:41 +0000

I figure Misti was tired of looking at a dead animal for the past few days on here, I figure I should do some kind of update. Though, if she wouldn’t have deleted her timesuckbook page, then she’d know the past few days I’ve been posting pretty heavily, or randomly. Take your pick.
We won our volleyball game last Monday putting us at 5-1. Five wins baby!! Eat that Romo. Lots of events in the new few weeks. We are taking Zoe to the circus next Tuesday. I hope she enjoys it. Then two days later a Mavs game. Two weeks later, another Mavs game. Church carnival on the 25th. Then the 8th of November is a Nascar race. 3rd turn, towards the top. Not the best seats in the house, but certainly not the worst I’ve sat at there either. Then camping at Benbrook lake the following weekend.
So fall got booked up pretty quickly, which was a good thing as things in the yard are certainly slowing down. I didn’t mow last weekend. The garden is slowly becoming inactive. I did pull a handful of green beans today. The first of the year!!! Embarrassing, I know. I’m slowly collecting the dried up okra pods and taking the seeds out of them. I swear, if I had a few acres of empty land, I could start an okra farm and supply a few grocery stores. I’ll take a picture tomorrow of all the seeds. I dug up most of the banana trees in the front and moved them all to the backyard. They got very little sun where they were and never grew tall. Where I moved them to seems to be the middle of the yard and awkwardly out of place but we plan to build a shed in the coming months to fill in the gaps.
Whats going on with Zoe, you ask? Not a whole lot. She has a molar or two now. Today when I got home from work I barely opened the door and I hear in the cutest little voice, “DaaaaDDY.” Next thing I know two dogs and munchkin bombard me at the doorway. It was the best.
Its been dreary for what seems the past 10 days, but I guess there were a few clear, sunny ones in between. Its really put me in the mood for Fall. I need to get all the decorations down from the attic and pick up a few pumpkins. Perhaps a straw bale. I think a square bale is 5 or 6 bucks. The mums by the mailbox bloomed. Pretty. Pretty soon Santa will be visiting Zoe. I hope she was a good girl this year.
Here she is after she finagled an arm out of a shirt sleeve. Goofy.

1:5

Curtis — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:26:47 +0000

That’s the ratio come May of next year between garlic to onions. I planted 20 garlic cloves over the weekend. Samarkand (Persian Star). So assuming all goes well in the garlic world, I should never have to buy garlic again. So that means that the 5 would obviously be 100. Yes, 100 onions. That’s about what we harvested this year. We are scraping by with 2 white onions and 4 or 5 red onions. I may end up planting extra so as to have enough to last through the winter…we’ll see. I love onions. Just can’t get enough of them. I also planted some bunching onions a few weeks back. We’ll see how those do in the next month or so.

If your time to you Is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone…

Curtis — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:55:24 +0000

Yes sir.
The squirrels are starting the winter nest in the attic a bit early this year. So much for patching that hole up.
The cat has started to crawl up in bed with us at night.
Lettuce, carrots, snap peas, bunching onions have been planted for the cooler weather.

…the times they are a changin’

The end of summer is near and the sign are all over.

You can see I doubled up on two of the boxes. Making them 12 inches deep. I just need to get some dirt/compost and I’ll plant some potatoes. I ordered some garlic a few days back and it should be here in time to plant close to the autumnal equinox, giving them some time to root and then go dormant for the winter. I transplanted some ‘maters; planted a few zucchini seeds in the front near the pond (sshhh, don’t tell Steph). I’m not sure if they’ll grow very well there, as the dirt sucks up front.

Here is the dove that has made a nice little nest in the hyacinth vine on the arbor. She is not afraid of me at all. I can stand up on the stump that keeps the gate closed and she doesn’t even move. I’m guessing there is an egg she is sitting on. I haven’t got up high enough to look.

The Rangers are up a game for the wildcard spot in the playoffs, and only 4.5 games back in the division. Lets go Rangers!!! I got the fever.

Okay, sorry for that bit. I just finished watching the ball game.

So anyways, you remember all those onions from May?

Well….here is what is left:

Yes. We went from just about 100 to under 20. CRAP!!! I guess after using an onion at almost every meal and having found 4 that had started to rot this past weekend, they dwindled down pretty quick. Stephanie stated that the onions have been the most useful crop grown this year, but wanted just yellow onions next year. I can certainly do that.

The melon of water

Curtis — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:38:08 +0000

I sure hope this guy gets somewhat bigger. He is still kind of small. I can’t wait to eat it. Last year we had 4 or 5 watermelons. This year….only 2 growing on the vine. It isn’t even putting out flowers now. Hmm.

Backyard stir fry

Curtis — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:57:37 +0000

Summer is definitely here in Texas. I was happy to find that the sunflowers in the front had bloomed last Thursday. It was refreshing as I pulled out of the drive way and saw that bright yellow shine across the yard. The head on them had been getting bigger and bigger for the last week. The one in the backyard is as high as fence and no head in sight yet.

I dug up the potatoes today. I had planted a few some months back just to see what they would do and if it would be worth my trouble to plant a mass of them in the fall. To my surprise, I found a small bounty of them nestled just under the dirt. SWEET!! They weren’t that big, though they were large enough to slice and dice for dinner.

Finally, Stephanie and I could make the stir fry complete from the backyard:

Potatoes
Onions
Squash
Zucchini
Bell Pepper
Wimpy Tomato
Banana Pepper

We had that and a nice Rib-eye for dinner. Both were delicious and well enjoyed. Needless to say, potatoes will now be grown in the garden. I’m pumped. The tomatoes I transplanted from the buckets several weeks back are doing extremely better. They look some much healthier and have grown a lot, compared to the scraggly looking ‘maters still in the five gallon buckets.

Squash, Zucchini

Curtis — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 04:28:43 +0000

Well its looking like these guys are going to be heavy producers this year. Not sure if they’ll top the onions just yet. I’m sure. I seriously need to invest in a scale, and soon. We’ve picked about 10 or so already, having picked 2 today. The photos are just 24 days apart. Mom came over sometime a week or so ago and was amazed at how quickly they grew. Me too! I didn’t give them enough room last year to grow and came up empty handed.

The Lone Tulip

Curtis — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:20:54 +0000

I was super excited a month or so ago to find that the tulips were coming up. They were so beautiful last year that I just couldn’t wait for spring again so I could enjoy them once more. As of today, it seems that there will only be one tulip to flower this year. All of the others have decided to just throw in the towel and put up just a single leaf and call it a spring.

I need a swift kick in the rear, then bed.

Curtis — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:56:26 +0000

I’m so behind on posting. Last weekend I got really sick and ended up in the hospital few a few hours. Some kind of stomach virus. ugh.
Arrgh. Well things are busy around the house this weekend. We are painting!! A very time consuming project. Today I replace alot of rotten wood around the garage and in the front windows. (The wood from the garage is being reused as part of a new veggie bed). We got the front of the house finished and have the sides and back to complete. Originally, Stephanie and I was supposed to go camping out at the lake this weekend, that’s why I took off today. Unfortunately we didn’t make reservations in time and everything was full, so Steph and I went to the store this morning and picked up a few gallons of paint and some wood. I’m exhausted. Zoe and Steph are asleep.
Tomorrow I hope to finish the rest of the house and perhaps do a bit of gardening. I really need to get the beans started and the peppers transplanted. The onions are getting pretty big. I dug at one earlier and it hasn’t started to bulb out just yet. Lettuce is starting to look lush and healthy.
Good night.
I’ll post a few pics tomorrow of the before and after of the house colors.