Quilt, cactus & Esperanza

I made an announcement at my quilt group that I was taking a hiatus from doing quilts for anyone else until September.  Well it seems that one lady had a grandson getting married and another one had a grandson graduating and another said she wasn't in a hurry, so if I didn't get hers done until September it was OK... oh yes, there is the two quilts my sister sent to me and of course the lap quilt for Beth.  Well, I finished quilting one of my sister's quilts a couple weeks ago, and the wedding quilt needed to be done last Friday, so I got that one done on Tuesday... she needed to have time to put the binding on.  The graduation quilt needs to be done before June 7th, so I figured I had time to squeeze in the one that I have had for about 3 months.

I had decided how I was going to quilt the blocks that are set on point back when I first received the quilt... which was 3 months ago.  I had it all figured for a continuous line.  Well I loaded the quilt on my frame the other day and when I looked at the block I knew I had to go to my drawing board to figure out how I did it with a continuous line.  It took some doing, but I got it done.  I meandered on the rest of the quilt, but this is the block (and 29 more) that I was able to get done with a continuous line.  I was able to finish this quilt on Saturday and I was very pleased with the results.  When I called the lady to tell her the quilt was done, she was really surprised.

A couple days ago when we were heading out, I noticed that the cactus I had put beside the driveway maybe three years ago has finally decided to show some blossoms.  Wow, are they pretty.

The cactus I planted back three years ago was just a couple paddles (not sure what the proper name is), but all you have to do is stick it in the ground and you would not believe how they proliferated.  Cactus is one thing I have no problem growing here, which is more than I can say for my garden.  My garden is doing OK, but as each day goes by I am convinced that I started too late and it is getting too hot already. The other plant (bush) I have been very successful with is a native plant called an Esperanza.  I thought I might have lost my big established Esperanza with the hard freeze we had this winter, but it is coming back and actually has started blossoming already.  It blossoms profusely with brilliant yellow trumpet blooms, right up until it freezes in November or December.

I may not be able to grow veggies yet, but I can sure enjoy the cactus and the Esperanza.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend.

My garden is planted

 

My exposure to gardening since our move to Texas has been very limited.  I think the first year I wanted to give it a try and planted a hill of zucchini in front of the house.  I got a big bushy plant and it grew lots of blossoms.  When the blossoms dropped off and little zucchini started to grow, they got about 1" long and then they shriveled up and dropped off.  I had planted the seeds in mid-May... something you do not do here in south Texas.  It is already too hot by the time the plants are ready to produce.  I think it was the following year that a neighbor gave me a couple pieces of a spineless cactus that I stuck in the ground beside the driveway... I did nothing special.  The picture of the cactus today shows how much more successful I was at planting cactus.  Two little paddles to this massive cactus... I'm impressed.

I have been wanting to have a garden ever since we moved here, but that experience the first year made me realize I had alot to learn before I could become a gardener in Texas.  We have some friends that are ranchers, and one of the things they feed their livestock for a treat is some kind of special grain that has molasses on it.  This grain comes in big black plastic bins... perfect for a container garden.  One of the things that makes gardening so different, besides the climate change, is the soil where we live is almost exclusively sand.  I am used to dealing with soil that is closer to clay, so this is really a challenge.  Our rancher friend JB gave us about 8 or 10 of the black bins last year and I have been trying to get the courage to try my hand at gardening in these containers.  Today I began digging.

Yesterday I stopped at WalMart and picked up some bags of top soil.  This morning I started the process of submerging these containers about 1/2 way into the ground.  I drilled holes around the base first for drainage. After the bin was in the hole I dug, I put about 1/2 of the sand back in the bottom, then I put a layer of leaves, about an armful, then covered the leaves with some more sand.  Then I added a bag of topsoil.  Voila, I had a mini garden... so I dug five more holes and ended up with six mini gardens.  After I had the first four in place, I planted one with zucchini, another with watermelon, and a third one with basil.  These were seeds I had on hand, so if they are not successful, it could be that the seeds are too old.  After lunch Ron and I took a ride into town and bought some more topsoil and 2 tomato plants and 2 pepper plants.  I also bought some onion plants and a package of green beans.  I used one bin for the tomato plants and one bin for the peppers.  The last bin I planted the green beans.  I had another friend give me a small orange tree that you can see in a smaller container beside the six bins.  To the right I planted the onions... directly in the sand, not in any bins.  Ron thinks they could be in danger if we get a big rain, but I'm hopeful they will survive.

We shall see how my garden grows.  I still may be just a bit too late, but I'm much closer to the right time.