New member from central Texas - howdy!

Discussion in 'Welcome to GardenStew' started by Robin H, May 10, 2017.

  1. Robin H

    Robin H New Seed

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    IMG_0095.JPG IMG_0531.JPG IMG_0537.JPG IMG_0533.JPG IMG_0532.JPG IMG_0535.JPG I stumbled across this site [day before] yesterday, while hunting for information about the demon leaf-footed bugs which plague my small garden beds. I'm in a couple local Facebook garden groups, as well as one for insect identification, instigated after witnessing a robber fly at work on a bee. I'm generally enthralled by the intricacies of plant and animal interconnectedness, and am more of an astounded audience than a gardener focused on large yields. Sometimes I get too excited about a bean or tiny tomato, and I eat it off the vine. This is only my fourth season gardening, having abandoned one house (& marriage) for another. As my swan song for the former house and husband, I wanted to get an apartment and replace my car before my credit tanked (I was doing a master's program and working full-time). My email to a certain Austin car dealership was answered by a man with whom I'd worked twenty-five years before. Married and otherwise attached way back then, we had flirted a bit.

    Of course, I bought the car. Since February, David (my "Old Bean") & I have been married to the older versions of ourselves! Our yard and gardens are our sanctuary, cluttered by a hodge-podge of collective semi-adult children, four inherited "children" my sister left behind, and three rambunctious cats. I'm so looking forward to learning about gardens around the world!

    We have five garden beds; three overflowing with edibles, one sort of for salad items, and one with miscellaneous flowers. This year, we've got tomatoes of various types (including Juliets, my personal favorites, due to their propensity to ripen before most predators can feast on them). I'm trying more large ones this year, and am facing the hellish demons that are the leaf-footed bugs & their nasty nymphs.

    We've sprinkled peppers all over; serranos, jalapeƱos, Scotch bonnets, Bulgarian carrot peppers, bells, mariachi, and banana peppers. Our herbs include basil, oregano, rosemary, lemon balm, parsley (yes!!!) fennel, dill, and some potted mint. (Boy, this is super fun, living my garden through its description!) Three zucchini are forcing my fingers to cross, as I mutter entreaties to the garden gods, hoping to dispell the squash borer beetles. So far, so good on the squash front.

    On the back porch, we tend succulents, fuchsia (tender hopes high, watering twice daily - advice appreciated- ), bacopa, hibiscus, strawflowers, a rogue second-generation broccoli, bougenvillia (sp?). Gerber daisy's looking worse for wear, and dahlia may be fulfilling its anti-Texas prophecy. :(

    All around each bed, flowers poke up their hopeful heads. We've got petunias, impatiens, verbena, calibrachoa, phlox, bat-faced cuphea, poppies, rock rose and lantana, salvia, and cheerily ubiquitous zinnias. There are snapdragons and marigolds, and lavender of this sort and that. In a sort of celebratory homage to the onset of the season, I toss flower - and other - seeds here and there, that they may bring us scents, lush myriad colors, and salutations from Nature at surprising intervals as summer usurps spring. I'm an atypical gardener, I realize, but the randomness and small-level natural selection does it for me.

    Every day, more than once... sometimes so many times that I'm certain my neighbors doubt my sanity... I tread around and around, hunting stink bugs, hornworms, infected leaves, and leaf hoppers. I have no holster for my DustBuster, but I carry a turned-inward swath of packing tape stuck to my shoulder as sticky insect-capture emergency material. If it's evening, and I have a glass of chardonnay in one hand, the tape may be stuck to the portable vacuum.

    Do not fear. For the most part, we set the captured DustBuster inhabitants free on the bank of a nearby creek! Yesterday, in fact, the collateral damage included an orange-red spider. (S)he fretfully expended her/his eight-legged energy displaying dissatisfaction regarding the windowed jail, but my husband and I performed the necessary independence ritual, and all prisoners were released.

    Oh! Yeah! I stick garlic cloves among the taller vines and parent plants; some to be pulled in their "green" state, and others to be allowed to grow to their more rigid, traditional incarnation. The peas didn't work out this spring, and the potato experiment appears to have been, thus far, in error. Beans have been less prolific than I desired. Oh, goodness, lest I forget: nasturtiums! Those striking circular leaves, astride yellow and orange and red blooms, are intoxicatingly alluring. Edible schmedible - not much a fan (yet, but hey! I keep trying fungus, loathsome it is to my taste buds.) The personal garden philosophy I've embraced focuses more on the joy of surprise, rather than dwelling on loss. If I'm not altogether certain what I've planted exactly where, I don't really miss what doesn't make Nature's cut. In very gullible in this arena.

    So, okay - I've gone far overboard in my personal introduction. I'm a wee bit verbose at times. Someone once likened me to a champagne bottle. Quiet at first, then bubbly beyond recorking.

    I can't wait to read y'all's garden adventures!

    Robin
     
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  3. carolyn

    carolyn Strong Ash

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    Hi and welcome.
     
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  4. Jerry Sullivan

    Jerry Sullivan Garden Experimenter Plants Contributor

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    Hello Robin,

    Welcome to Gardenstew from the hinterland of the Northeast, Massachusetts. Spring is arriving here in spurts as the degree days grudgingly accumulate. While many parts of the country bask in newfound seasonal warmth, New England can barely rise out of the 50's. Glad to have you with us, your garden exploits are sure to make a hit.

    Welcome aboard,

    Jerry
     
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  5. Robin H

    Robin H New Seed

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    Thanks, Jerry! I have a pal in Baltimore who dabbles a bit. I would imagine our foes and tribulations vary greatly. I bet you have luscious bulb flowers, too, don't ya? I'll try to meander my way around and find pictures!

    Thank you, Carolyn! This is gonna be fun. Our neighbors just came by and I took them on an exhaustive and probably overzealous tour. ;)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 10, 2017
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  6. toni

    toni Mistress of Garden Junque Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    Hi Robin, welcome to GardenStew from a fellow Texan, I am in the north central area. Fuchsia doesn't like my dry shade and Dahlias do not like the drought and heat we have been having here either....good luck, hope they survive for you.

    Good to have you join us!!!
     
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  7. Robin H

    Robin H New Seed

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    Yes, Toni, my hope is meager, but I like to try stuff. I worked at a nursery here in Austin (for only a few weeks. It was so rewarding physical, but i injured my knee, and had to bail). That's where the fuchsia and dahlias were able to romance their ways home with me! One of these days I'm going to spell "fuchsia" right! It's an oddball one. I want a lemon tree, in a big pot, but haven't ventured down there for one yet.
     
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  8. Odif

    Odif Young Pine

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    Welcome, fun and informative place to be. great introduction and nice pics.
     
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  9. Robin H

    Robin H New Seed

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    Thank you, Odif. (Is the "o" a long vowel and the "i" more like an English long "e," or short "i?") English major coming through ~~ American punctuation to be disregarded if it annoys.

    I am quite intrigued by the foreign grandeur of your Pyrenees gardens ~ and your wife's rose tea!

    One of my kids is, we think, about to do her grad work in chemistry in Bordeaux in the fall! The other may have a job offer which will lead her to Rome. My (step)son is weighing an opportunity in Barcelona. It is indeed an exhilarating time to be a parent to these hopeful, super-focused kids; not unlike the fervent hope of the burgeoning gardener!
    Thank you for the reply. I've been inundated by "real life," and haven't been able yet to crawl around this venue as I plan to do.
    Robin
     
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  10. Frank

    Frank GardenStew Founder Staff Member Administrator

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    Hi Robin and a public, warm welcome to GardenStew :hi: Really liked your intro and great photos. Is that your sketch in the black and white photo?
    Glad that you found us here!
     
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  11. Robin H

    Robin H New Seed

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    Oh no no. That is the mysterious, elusive B. Yes, he is cool enough (according to dubious information gleaned from my nephew, his person), to require only a letter as his name. He's been through the ringer of Samsung photo additions, after having been cold busted running amuck in the back garden bed. It's a sore spot for me, as I was forced to cull a diseased broccoli from that particular locale. I fight an ongoing, yet somehow misguided battle with Arlo, who is mentally askew; though sweet-hearted as all get-out.
     
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  12. eileen

    eileen Resident Taxonomist Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    Hello Robin and this time it's a warm welcome from West Lothian in Scotland. I have a feeling you're going to fit in here just fine and I look forward to getting to know you.
     
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  13. Odif

    Odif Young Pine

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    Robin, since I am just some semi anonymous character on the internet, I will let you pronounce my name in the manner you find most natural. Barcelona is about 2 1/2 hours drive from here. It is the rose vinegar. I think we will just make rose vinegar mainly.
     
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  14. marlingardener

    marlingardener Happy

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    A warm welcome from another central Texan! We are on a small farm with chickens, lots of vegetable gardens, herbs, and flowers. I love roses and we have quite a few.
    For bulbs, may I suggest paperwhites and amaryllis? We have both and they thrive, even in our heavy soil.
     
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  15. Henry Johnson

    Henry Johnson In Flower

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    Hello, Robin, Welcome to the Stew!!!!!
    I think you will like it............ and be liked here..
    Hank
     
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  16. Philip Nulty

    Philip Nulty Strong Ash

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    Hi Robin,..welcome to the Forum,..i agree about Fuchsia, :)
     
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