| We are over the half way mark into
November in Oklahoma and still no frost, although the trees are turning
beautiful colors and some are dropping their leaves.
The dry weather has sent us again looking
for ways to keep our lawn going with the minimum amount of watering.
Don't let my rancher brothers hear me say "Fescue" but,
I'm afraid this is what it is. For ten dollars I over seeded the
back yard until it is coming up, as we Okies say, "as thick as hair
on a dog's back." I'm willing to take the remarks about how
they feel about Fescue since, I don't have any cattle that won't
eat it. Now the neighbors are pasturing their acre to two or
three calves. My husband isn't so, all right, with the idea but,
I'm not complaining. After all they are up hill from us and all I can
see is free fertilizer. We have a well with three filters on it and we
still don't drink the water. The water we use for drinking and cooking
we buy, so this is no problem either. With a water sprinkler having a
very wide swathe we water by setting a timer and moving the thing
constantly after only about twenty minutes in one place. This is the
thing to have brought the Fescue seed up. The well flows at 50 gallons
per minute. Still, there is no reason to waste water.
Next month if all goes well we will have
our small greenhouse up and hopefully have some pictures as we set
tables and such up in readiness for starting spring seedlings. You
know gardening is a little like art work. One doesn't always have the
inspiration, but if you get all your tools in order, plans drawn out,
etc., when the weather is right and conditions are with you, a work can
be completed.
For the food preservation rather than
standing for hours cooking jelly during the summer when I'm already over
burdened with food storage, I simply can or freeze the juice of the
fruit, apples, grapes, whatever. In the winter when the pressure of
outside work is lifted I then take the juices and begin making jellies.
At the moment Pyracantha jelly sets in its bright orange red color on
the shelf. One of my sister in laws does this, using pretty little jars.
When gift giving time comes she already has a wonderfully delicious gift
already wrapped in gaily tied fabric over the tops and bright ribbons
around its lid. |
