Pragmatic Gardener

With January 5 passing, the Christmas season is officially over. With all the decorations gone, the house feels empty. I also have a sad little poinsettia in need of saving. Its leaves are falling off and it needs action if it is going to survive. Methodology for Saving a Poinsettia If God told me to…

Ok, it is not December nor is it 2021 but last week was the day after Christmas and nobody is going to read what I post on the day after Christmas. You are either actively dealing with your festive shindig or recovering from it. I decided to hold off the Garden Update until this week…

Here we are on the Second Day of Christmas. Today, my true love gave to me, a bottle of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide. We can save the debate, if my true love gave me a 98 cent bottle of antiseptic for Christmas, is she my true love? Instead we should ask if something so ubiquitous and…

This year I grew several varieties of peppers. In a twist from most years, I only grew sweet peppers. This was not entirely the plan as I had some old pepper seed given to me from a friend. I have no idea what they are called but I liked them. They had a touch of…

Earlier this year, I missed one of my cucumbers hidden in the deep foliage of Spring. A Dragon Egg Cucumber is a white cucumber that is shaped like an egg. It is about the size of tennis ball and these are great because they do not go bitter with age. If you miss one, they…

It has been a weird November. For the most part it has been warm with kisses of frost. For the most part my plants did pretty well but I did lose my the last of my tomatoes, okra and habanada peppers. Comically, my potatoes, Chinese peppers and pimentos are all still alive. The joys of…

In the Spring, I grew three different kinds of potatoes. I have Red Norlands, Yukon Gold and Adirondack Blue. These I grew through the Spring and were harvested in June. Some those Red Norlands became part of my Summer Growing Experiment. As Fall came, so did my storage potatoes’ life come to an end. With…

Every year, I attempt to preserve my more tender herbs. With the tender ones, I also try to keep around my more difficult to find herbs. This year that herb is my Texas Marigold Tarragon or Mexican Tarragon. It is the unrelated, heat tolerant, flavor cousin to tarragon. Tarragon does not grow well here so…

After a delay caused by my hosting company upgrading their interface and website, mucking up all my resources, I am back. So enjoy this very late Garden Update for October 2021. All pictures and statuses are from October. October has been a slow month in the garden. It is the last month of the season…

Happy Halloween everybody. For many this is that start of the holiday season. I know it is for me. Since I am spending my evening making fruitcake with dried fruit, I realized we have not really talked about drying things as a preservation method. If you follow my Minds account, you have seen shots of…