they take it, garden update

THEY TAKE IT
despite what was reported in the austin paper
the largest 300+ clinic where i use to work
austin regional clinic
does take the obamacare insurance or aca insurance

they like me did their due diligence and selected what
they and what i thought was the best policies
many of the companies they are not signed up for
but
they werent signed up for them before the affordable care act
remember theres a reason why

click on www.austinregionalclinic.com to read their ceos statement

you cant always believe what you read in the paper
or hear on the news or read on the internet

GARDEN UPDATE
this is the time of year when its the best to garden in central texas
you have to be careful though and know your plants
i knew the cold front was acoming so i covered my stuff up
with row cover to protect it
but
i knew that some things if it gets cold enough wont be protected
these plants just do not like real cold weather

last night it got into the mid 20s here at the country n
but
i was ready since i went out on tuesday and picked all those
things that i knew would not survive this cold weather
despite the row cover

tomatoes bell peppers banana peppers jalapeno pepper egg plant
poblano peppers red potatoes and basil
that basil does not like the cold

here is a picture of my produce i picked to save it from the freeze
from left to right
poblano peppers banana peppers potatoes basil green tomatoes
bell peppers jalapeno peppers

the peppers will be bagged and frozen to use later in cooking
the bell peppers will also be used in salads and will be stuffed
later and cooked

the basil is mixed with olive oil to make a pesto for cooking
we had four plants that filled up a trash bag full
our house sure smells good
especially from the lemon basil we planted this year

the green tomatoes will be allowed to ripen on the shelf
the potatoes will be stored and eaten as needed

here is one of my keyholeless beds made from a 6 ft
diameter water trough with a central composter
that had eggplants banana peppers jalapeno peppers tomatoes
bell peppers poblano peppers lemon basil sweet basil some arugula
planted in it
its all been picked as above

still in my garden and really not needing much protection
is this 58 plants of garlic

in my other keyhole garden in a 8 ft water trough i have
lettuces spinach carrots beets cilantro asian greens kales
broccoli parsley sweet peas swiss chard
providing salads and greens all winter long

in late january onions i use 1015 onions and red potatoes
will be planted also

i let my wild arugula go to seed this time of year
as it provides a source of flowers for the bees butterflies
and humming birds and it reseeds itself in the garden

then finally heres that dang monkey pod vine
this year i was successful in getting it to grow
but those dang grasshoppers would shear it off at the
top and it would never grow higher that 6 feet and make
those beautiful flowers ive been told they will produce

this year unlike previous attempts at least they produced
monkey pods for next springs plantings

ill be ready next year for those dang grasshopper though
just you wait im ready for you

the organicgreen doctor

growin stuff

GROWIN STUFF
ive written about the monkey pod vine
im really not sure what plant it is and what it
eventually looks like but
i was told it has a beautiful flower that grows on it
later on in the year

to review a family friend my med school friends friend
told me about it and gave me some monkey pods to plant
this is my third try to get them to grow
one year i got them to 6 feet but they died when the drought
hit and i had to reroute the water to the garden

this year i have added a dripper to the two i planted in my
garden so that when i water my okra this summer im
watering my monkey pod vine

here is what it looks like before i plant it

here it is early on
its climbing the white string in the bottom right of
the photograph

here its what it looks like now

i cant wait until the flowers bloom this summer
ill post a picture when it does

this is a three year project
ie the first two years failed












here is a picture of an okra bloom
you can see some okra starting to grow in
the background

this is a red heirloom german okra from seed my rainwater brother
got from the organic garden guru malcolm becks wife
in san antonio

these are a larger in diameter okra but are my favorite
okra ive planted
i saved seeds from last years crop










then here is my wife she holding one of our heirloom
tomatoes
i think its a brandywine
these things are so delicious and juicy
we call them sink tomatoes since you have to
eat them over the sink since they are so juicy
and so flavorful

thats what has been removed from a lot of the
tomatoes you buy at the food stores
we picked this one a little early so we will let it
ripen more to that juicy stage


then finally i want to write about that paper mulberry again
dont ever ever ever ever plant one in your yard
you may not ever be able to control the new
mulberry plants that pop up in your yard

most of the yard above was cleared of these trees by
hand
now after the rains they had the paper mulberry
plants now cover all that yard
again
they are about 2-3 feet tall

it is probably one of the most invasive trees to plant
on your property
you will never ever get rid of it totally no matter how
hard you try to

there is no good way that is organic to really get rid of it
you dig up the stumps as much as possible then
carefully apply the r word to any shoots that appear
being very careful to only spot treat them

there ive confessed i used the r word stuff

i feel better now
dont you use the r stuff in your yard

the organicgreen doctor

trying again, trying early

TRYING AGAIN

this thing in that white cup that ive written about before
is called a monkey pod vine

two years ago my medi school friends friend gave me
some of these pods
it was a bag full
i was worried since they looked so strange
they looked like something from those old science fiction movies
you know where those pods are sent from outer space and
they grow and take over the world
thats what these look like except on a smaller scale

they grow a long vine that is aggressive but apparently produces a
beautiful flower
ive never got to see them but have only heard the stories


two years ago after i planted them they got up on our arbor
which is eight feet tall
then the drought hit and i had to make decisions
on what got the water
monkey pod vines or tomatoes
i went with the tomatoes

our drought lasted 2 years then eased some but im afraid its
returned
we usually average 30+ inches of rain a year but since september
thats 5 months ago for those who cant figure it out
we have gotten only 3 inches of rain here at the country n
and that was in 2 days several weeks ago

despite that scarceness of water i plan to try again to grow these
monkey pod vines

when we were visiting our med school friend he said hey they
have some more monkey pod vines
you want them
yep
im determined to get them to grow

(i wonder if this is one of those tricks that he is known to
play on people you know like those pods dont really grow into
anything)

ive set up a special dripper to the area where ill plant them
to see if i can get them through the drought

ill post pictures if they grow

hopefully my med school friend isnt sitting on his back porch
rocking in a rocker in his overalls
having a good chuckle

TRYING EARLY
for the last several years when i plant my tomatoes some of them
freeze well all of them froze last year
ive usually had to replant them every year
sometimes twice
but i dont give up
since that nice fresh juicy tomato is hard to duplicate from
store bought ones

this year ive tired as i described in an earlier blog to plant a few
tomatoes deep in the ground in a big hole
and
so far they have survived a 29 degree freeze

the reason to plant early is to get good root growth and to get
an early start to the tomato season
since the hot summer can hit early and shut down tomato production

so i went to my favorite nursery
where lucky for me the vegetable garden guru was there working
in their garden
i had him all to myself
asked a hundred questions of him
so
i plan to go ahead and plant all of my spring tomato crop early
 (since these survived the freeze and those terrible 60-70 mph
winds we just had)
by planting in those deep holes hoping to survive the 1-3 freezes
i know are coming before april

heck that wind blew off my top layer of mulch and compost 

i had put on all my beds

always having to battle mother nature arent we

im glad im not doing this for a living

wish me luck

the organicgreen doctor

hog huntin, texas rain gauge, vines

HOG HUNTIN
am not talking about what the rolling tide did this last weekend
and what the aggies want to do this weekend

(hog fans remember there are 8 big 12 schools pulling for the hogs
to win this weekend against the aggies
one school and their fans in particular want it bad
show them what they will be up against next year)

in the north especially in the new york areas they are developing
a wild hog problem
welcome to what the south has been dealing with for years
texas has over 2 million wild hogs that are pretty much uncontrolled
my guess is the hog count is not accurate but is much greater
they sure do a lot of destruction in the million of dollars especially
to the agriculture industry

if they dont do something they will be where we are in a few years
thats because those hogs drop those babies more than rabbits do
> 12 per year per momma

in new york game ranches have bought in the russian hogs to use
for hog hunts
they did not let any escape they said and are not the source of
those wild hogs
interestingly all the largest numbers surround the big game ranches
a+b=c
seems simple to me

new legislation restricting their imports has been delayed for 4 years
lets see 1x6 females x 6 females x 6 females x6 females = 1296 females
if 50% of litters are females and each produces 6 females
then multiply x 4 years = greater than 5000 females from one female
know theres a formula to figure that out but i quit doing those after
i finished taking calculus in college years ago

think maybe they need to do something quicker dont you think
maybe export some of those red neck hog hunters from that
cable hog hunting show
theyll get er done for sure
then they could do a new series called yankee hog hunt

just sayin

TEXAS RAIN GAuGE
i have a large rain gage that is 3 feet high that measures up to
5 inches of rain so i can see it from a distance whenever it
rains
it is out in the open so i could get a more accurate rain
measurement of the rain

however the rain we have had is so scarce it disappears before
it gets to the bottom of the rain gauge
so i got this one
it was free off the twist top of a bud light beer
so now it can accurately measure our rain

VINES
several weeks ago i posted a blog with pictures of two
plantings in my yard
one was the monkey pod vine
well the drought has taken its toll
i had to selectively decide to water plants this summer
and the monkey pod vine became my low priority

all did not make it except for one scrawny plant thats
next to one of my struggling tomatoes
i cant make myself take a picture of it since it looks
so bad
hopefully it will produce a monkey pod for planting next year

the other vine i planted was a christmas lima bean which is
growing great
its about 10 feet high and nice and green
hopefully i can get some nice big beans off it in time for
thanksgiving
will try to post pictures if i do

the organicgreen doctor

planking, monkey pod vine, christmas limas, garden stuff

PLANKING
ok so my niece started planking on facebook
so i started reading about planking
so i thought i could do that planking stuff

maybe ill do organicgreen planking
so here it is

rainwater harvesting water tank planking by
the organicgreen doctor

MONKEY POD VINE

the monkey pod vine is growing
see my previous blog about the monkey pod vine
it now is reaching the top of our
arbor which is about 8 ft high
more later


CHRISTMAS LIMAS

the christmas limas that i blogged about recently is growing
its now at about 8 ft
its a long way until christmas
wonder if it will outgrow the monkey pod vine

hope it produces a lot of beans
more later

that black stuff in the picture is a sun screen that
ive put over my tomatoes and peppers to give them
some shade from our oppressive 100+ heat

GARDEN STUFF
dont put your seeds in the freezer
put them in the refrigerator instead

be mulching your garden
i have a 4 inch layer of mulch on my garden
i use a dripper under the mulch
this way my garden doesnt lose as much moisture in
all this heat

when i recently harvested my onions i overseeded the bed with
black eyed peas
they provide nitrogen back in the soil and provides peas for us
to eat and will turn the vines back into the soil this fall

the organicgreen doctor

garden porn, monkey pod vines, christmas limas, bb

GARDEN PORN

so my wife she has a friend who
is very witty
she reads my blog a lot and
enjoys seeing pictures of my
garden

she called those pictures
garden porn

MONKEY POD VINES
so my medical school friend has a friend that has these vines
that grows along an arbor around his house in the summer
it takes over the arbor and looks so luscious

so we were talking and he said hey ive got a bunch of those
monkey pods you can have so you can plant them on your
arbor

here are those monkey pods

its the thing in the white cup that looks
an organism that you would see under
a microscope or something you might
see falling from the sky from outer space







here it is after its been planted for a few days

its the small string line vine in the middle of the picture
it sure grew out of that pod fast
then up that string
hope its not like one of those old horror movies from the
the 50s-the pods

will show pictures as it progresses this summer
hope it doesnt reach out and grab our cat

am a little concern since i cant find anything on google
about it
that means its not real and doesnt exist

CHRISTMAS LIMAS
so i read this article in a local paper about these christmas
lima beans that grow all summer and produce beans in the
fall
so i ordered some
here they are

they are the size of my thumbnail
sure are pretty
so i planted them and they look like this

whoa they sure grew fast
they might outgrow the monkey not on google pod vines

supposedly they grow all summer and love the heat and grow
to about 10 feet long
then in the late fall you can harvest the beans and eat them
apparently they have a meaty taste and have a lot of
nutrition in them

hope they dont take over the garden like the monkey pod
vines seems to want to do

will post the progress of these vines as the summer progresses
hope we dont have another kudzu on our hands

BB
lebron will have a great game tonight since
that reporter ticked him off after the game
am sure dallas will wish that reporter would have kept
his mouth shut

the organicgreen doctor