What's going on in your garden (2018-2022)?

[rascal]

The fruit trees are starting to ripen now.
The pear turns out to be a dual graft root stock which means we have ripe comice pears now and unripe conference pears still on the tree.

I'm dehydrating pears as fast as we can because the pears are huge!

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Hubby has thrown more than half of the ripe pears to the birds because they have been eating them whilst they are on the tree through the netting. We've had roughly 30-40% of the ripe fruit. He's collecting around 20 of the size above each day at the moment!

And no I don't have small hands.

I love a nice pear.

Russ

 

[rascal]

Back to the garden. Propagating swede/rotabaga sp, lettuces,spring onions and radishes. Pickling gerkins/pickles every few days, lettuces are ready. Cranberries are ready, kids had a pick over the weekend. First time growing these. Raspberries are flowering again. Still warm here. 21 deg c here.

Russ

 

[caseydog]

We get frosts and snow here, but our herbs survive. Ours are planted against the garage side, protected by the garage and the eaves of the roof. Are yours like that? Our basil and coriander/cilantro are going mad here. We have thyme rosemary sage and parsley for Africa.

Rus

My rosemary, thyme and oregano usually service the winter, even with some snow. But, the freeze we had last month was a record-breaker. ZeroF/-18C was just too much for them.

Now we are entering tornado season, which also means hailstorms and high winds. Texas is, once again, number 1 for something bad. We average 132 tornadoes per year, mostly in the Spring.

Hailstorms can make a mess of a garden. The hail tears the leaves up. They survive, but look bad for a while. It is especially hard on basil. For a while after a hailstorm, you can't find a basil leaf that isn't torn. They still taste good -- they just aren't pretty for garnishing or topping a pizza.

CD

 

[caseydog]

The fruit trees are starting to ripen now.
The pear turns out to be a dual graft root stock which means we have ripe comice pears now and unripe conference pears still on the tree.

I'm dehydrating pears as fast as we can because the pears are huge!

Hubby has thrown more than half of the ripe pears to the birds because they have been eating them whilst they are on the tree through the netting. We've had roughly 30-40% of the ripe fruit. He's collecting around 20 of the size above each day at the moment!

And no I don't have small hands.

I've never seen Comice of Conference pears here (I looked them up). They are supposedly similar to Bosc pears that we get here. Bartlett pears are the most common in the US.

CD

 

[caseydog]

Back to the garden. Propagating swede/rotabaga sp, lettuces,spring onions and radishes. Pickling gerkins/pickles every few days, lettuces are ready. Cranberries are ready, kids had a pick over the weekend. First time growing these. Raspberries are flowering again. Still warm here. 21 deg c here.

Russ

How do you crow cranberries without a bog? Do you have a way to flood them?

CD

 

[rascal]

My rosemary, thyme and oregano usually service the winter, even with some snow. But, the freeze we had last month was a record-breaker. ZeroF/-18C was just too much for them.

Now we are entering tornado season, which also means hailstorms and high winds. Texas is, once again, number 1 for something bad. We average 132 tornadoes per year, mostly in the Spring.

Hailstorms can make a mess of a garden. The hail tears the leaves up. They survive, but look bad for a while. It is especially hard on basil. For a while after a hailstorm, you can't find a basil leaf that isn't torn. They still taste good -- they just aren't pretty for garnishing or topping a pizza.

CD

We get hail here as well, hail size of golf balls and bigger in timaru here a few years ago. Open air car sales are still recovering. Australia flew a bunch of guys over here to fix them. Our herbs are also protected from hail because of where they are planted. See, I have visions of hot sunny days in Texas 24/7. Blame it on larry Hayman and Dallas.

Russ

 

[rascal]

I've never seen Comice of Conference pears here (I looked them up). They are supposedly similar to Bosc pears that we get here. Bartlett pears are the most common in the US.

CD

Our pears here are canned bartlets.

Russ

 

[caseydog]

We get hail here as well, hail size of golf balls and bigger in timaru here a few years ago. Open air car sales are still recovering. Australia flew a bunch of guys over here to fix them. Our herbs are also protected from hail because of where they are planted. See, I have visions of hot sunny days in Texas 24/7. Blame it on larry Hayman and Dallas.

Russ

Homeowner's insurance rates are very high in Texas, all because of hail. Some insurance companies pulled out of Texas several years ago, when we had a particularly bad hailstorm year. I have a claim being processed right now for a new roof. This most recent hailstorm was the straw that broke the camel's back. My roof leaks.

CD

 

[caseydog]

Our pears here are canned bartlets.

Russ

Canned pears here are always Bartletts, as far as I have seen.

CD

 

[rascal]

Homeowner's insurance rates are very high in Texas, all because of hail. Some insurance companies pulled out of Texas several years ago, when we had a particularly bad hailstorm year. I have a claim being processed right now for a new roof. This most recent hailstorm was the straw that broke the camel's back. My roof leaks.

CD

Wow, tile roof? Mines corrugated iron. I've had one small claim on a vehicle and nothing else for 25 to 30 years. Even health insurance I paid for 25 plus years for all my family. I never needed anything, rest of family heaps of claims. And I paid the bills, lol. Our insurances are $2000 for home and contents. My vehicle is $11 a month, same as my car rego.



Russ

 

[caseydog]

Wow, tile roof? Mines corrugated iron. I've had one small claim on a vehicle and nothing else for 25 to 30 years. Even health insurance I paid for 25 plus years for all my family. I never needed anything, rest of family heaps of claims. And I paid the bills, lol. Our insurances are $2000 for home and contents. My vehicle is $11 a month, same as my car rego.



Russ

Most neighborhoods here have deed restrictions that include roofs. Every roof is exactly the same asphalt shingles -- and we can't change it. If you fly over the Dallas suburbs, you will see endless miles of rooftops, almost all of them exactly the same.

We better get back on topic, of MG is going to start a new thread in one of our names about roofs.

CD

 

[rascal]

Most neighborhoods here have deed restrictions that include roofs. Every roof is exactly the same asphalt shingles -- and we can't change it. If you fly over the Dallas suburbs, you will see endless miles of rooftops, almost all of them exactly the same.

We better get back on topic, of MG is going to start a new thread in one of our names about roofs.

CD

Lol. Sorry mg.

Russ

 

[TastyReuben]

We have asphalt shingles now, but when they're ready to be replaced, it'll be with a metal roof. Those are very popular here.

As to the garden...I have secret plans to triple our outside flower budget, but MrsT doesn't know that yet, heh-heh...

 

[caseydog]

We have asphalt shingles now, but when they're ready to be replaced, it'll be with a metal roof. Those are very popular here.

As to the garden...I have secret plans to triple our outside flower budget, but MrsT doesn't know that yet, heh-heh...

I may replace my Lantanas and Mexican Heathers. They are perennials, so you cut them to the ground in Winter, and they come back around May every year. For some reason, mine stopped coming back one year. They are native to Texas, and drought tolerant. That's the only flowers I'll bother with.

The two plants look similar, but different colors. I get yellow Lantanas, and Mexican Heather has purple flowers.

I plant them in clumps of two or three -- asymmetrically. No symmetry in nature, so no symmetry in my garden.

CD

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

particularly bad hailstorm year

There was something similar here. It was that bad that there are still vehicles unrepaired after nearly a year. Insurance companies were having to get the vehicles taken hundreds of kms away to get then repaired simply because all of the body shops and car glass companies were inundated locally. Not to mention There's lack of parts all of a sudden. There were a couple of collection locations in farmers fields where hectare after hectare of fields had become storage areas for damaged vehicles awaiting repairs. One locally (that's locally in inverted commas) was that busy that for a while they had to employ many road repair crews to man stop/go signs (we don't have temporary traffic lights here for some reason. It is always done manually.) to regulate the flow of traffic.

The damage done to vehicles was considerable. It left +150,000 vehicles needing repairs and not everyone is covered for damage to their own vehicle (you only need compulsory third party insurance) so many many more were left unrepaired. The dents Then them were the size of hammer heads or cricket balls in some cases. The worst I saw actually penetrated some vehicles!
People now go to extremes when severe thunderstorms are forecast because they usually involve hail stones.

We got lucky because I had both vehicles parked under our fir tree. (Hubby was away from home as usual). It's hard to convey the protection it gives but even in the worst rain they vehicles are usually dry and because of the direction of the hail very little made it to our vehicles and what did did no damage but i know we were very lucky.