Well, we’ve taken a gander at what The Funny Farm’s all about. Now let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on inside the gate. 

It’s been almost as long as I’ve been dateless that we haven’t had any rain. I’ve become quite creative with hoses and timers to keep my plants alive.

It is obvious to me that I need to find a plumber to date

So, though nothing is growing very fast (gardening teaches patience), let’s take a look at what’s trying to grow.

Pretty Swiss Chard

I’m a big Swiss Chard fan since I found this recipe. Takes a while to make, but it’s just delicious. It’s from Kalyn’s Kitchen and is called Spaghetti Squash and Chard Gratin. Low cal, too! Here’s the link: http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2009/10/recipe-for-spaghetti-squash-and-chard.html

As far as I can tell, Swiss Chard grows all year in Texas and even survives a really hard freeze, though it does take awhile to come back. Grow it from seed because it’s easy to start.

Ah, spinach, the bane of my existence

I love curly leaf spinach and I find it very hard to grow from seed. Seems like it takes forever. If any of you out there have any tips on growing an abundance of spinach, please feel free to comment and share. I planted a whole row and only got 4 plants. Evidently pill bugs love spinach even more than I and just devoured one of my four precious plants. I’m on the attack! If I don’t win the war, I’ll just start dating Popeye.

Red potatoes next to red onions

These guys are really growing fast. I’ve already had to hill up twice with dirt. Next I’m doing hay as it’s easier to deal with. Never tried it before; we’ll see if it works.

2/3rds of the Three Sisters

In companion gardening, there is one group called the Three Sisters: corn, squash and pole beans. The idea is the corn grows tall, shades the squash and the pole beans grow up around the used corn husks. Problem is, corn just doesn’t get that big in Texas. I know because I tried this last year and the pole beans ending up all over the corn and then knocking everything over so I had sideways pole beans in two beds attacking each other.

This year I just went with corn and squash. Rumor has it, in companion planting, that Nasturtiums and Borage (an herb) will keep the squash bugs away. I couldn’t find any Borage, but I’ve got the Nasturtiums planted at each end of the bed.

I also have two beds right next to each other with corn planted. You need a big square of corn to make it pollinate.

These are my onions

It looks like they are starting to bulb, which I don’t understand. More importantly, I’ve yet to grown great onions. Last year I planted onion bulbs. They never did bulb probably. This year I found out it was because onion bulbs are used to grow small green onions. I ended up with very large, very hot green onions.

This year I planted onion sets and lost quite a few in the big deep freeze we had for 3 days in Texas. They’re usually not ready until May, so I don’t know why they’re looking so excited right now.

Tomorrow we’ll finish The Funny Farm tour with other things besides vegetables that grow in my garden.

Spreading laughter throughout the world…one chuckle at a time.

Mikie Baker
www.mikiebaker.com