If I had a garden

07/27/2026

When you have a small urban garden in Texas in late July… not everything can be ‘garden-to-table’ but it’s still brings so much joy to walk out the back door to get fresh herbs.

If I had a garden… I’d baste some Sunday eve pork chops in fresh thyme and rosemary.

Dry off thick pork chops and dry brine them in some salt, overnight or for a few hours. Preheat oven to 350. Heat a cast iron skillet to medium high-high. Add some beef tallow/ duck fat and then add the pork chops. Turn them every 90secs until they have a nice brown crust on them. Baste with fat and fresh rosemary and thyme; Insert a temperature probe and place entire skillet in the oven until 138-140f. Pull it out and set pork chops on a cutting board to rest. Serve with sides.

Tip! Pour that great fat through a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth and put it back in your fat jar that you keep in the fridge. So much more flavor!

07/05/2026

If I had a garden with stunningly pretty, heat loving Malabar Spinach…

I’d pick the tender tips before they flower and toss them in a salad. Gorgeous and so nutritious. Puts any medicine or supplement to shame.

SO MUCH more food than what you see in the grocery store.

07/05/2026

If I had a garden in the Texas July heat with some tomatoes and cucumbers…

I’d make a sweet tomato, cucumber and onion salad with apple c***r vinegar, water and sugar.

06/22/2026

If I had a garden with some tomatoes, a cucumber and fresh oregano..

we’d make some Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki

06/15/2026

If i had a garden with Rosemary & aloe…

and a little bit of glycerin, I’d make some Rosemary Aloe shampoo. Aloe is super hydrating and healing; rosemary is fantastic for hair and scalp. Stronger, darker, faster growing hair and less hair loss.

Soaked my aloe leaves for two days to soak out the aloin. The rest took no more than 30min. Simmered fresh Rosemary, added the rosemary water to the aloe and the added a touch of creamed organic glycerin and blended.

06/07/2026

I’m so excited when I visit a friend and they want to show me their garden. Sometimes it’s struggling, plants are stunted or dying and they don’t know why. They tell me they just can’t garden: have a black thumb. Most often from what I see, they haven’t thought (or thought enough) about these three (seven!) things…

1) SOIL the health and composition of the soil
2) SOIL is your soil covered, cooled and protected with organic matter or cover crop
3) SUN - there is such a thing as too much sun in Texas, is your plant getting ANY? relief.
4) WATER - rarely do home gardeners over water, water deeply to encourage roots to go down deep
5) SOIL
6) SOIL
7) SOIL

When I’m in the gardening forums and people post about lack luster plant health it can almost always be traced back to the soil

Healthy soil rich in well composted organic material and microbes feeds plant roots, boosts the plants immune system against disease, contains mycorrhizal fungi that pull nutrients and communication from far away, holds on to water, allows water and air to pe*****te deeply, is like a buffet letting the plant pull what it needs for growth, flowering and fruit set, and gives habitat for a healthy symbiotic eco system.

Not that the other things don’t matter.. but if you make sure your soil is right you’re 80% maybe 90% of the way there. Most store bought bagged soil is dead - either loaded with synthetic chemicals or is woody and dry with poorly composted wood chip mixed throughout that will dry out and steal nutrients from your plants rather than host microbes to feed them. Dead sandy soil without humus will compact and become rock hard, not allowing roots, water or air to move through.

Always keep mulches like wood chips, leaves, or straw.. on top of the soil. Don’t mix it in or it will rob nutrients.. but here are some things you can amend with (mix in)

Start with the best organic well matured compost or potting soil you can find. If I’m doing store bought I look for anything by Fox Farms. Stay away from Kelloggs, Burpee, Miracle Grow - and anything that looks woody.

Amend with things like,
Worm castings
Peat
Mushroom compost
If you can get rabbit manure do it!!!

The best soil is built with intentionality over time. Just like nature does, each year you add more and more decomposing, chemical free plant matter on the surface and soon you’ll have black gold.

06/01/2026

If I had a garden with some freshly picked May jalapenos…

+Tomatoes
Onion
Cilantro and lime

I’d throw together some fresh Pico de Gallo.

+ cilantro
Pepitas
Garlic
Shredded pecorino
Lime juice and
Avocado oil

I’d make up my own Cilantro pesto

In a couple of weeks the tomatoes will have come from the garden as well. ❣️

05/07/2025

05/05/2025

It’s been me against the squash bugs for the last couple of weeks; today I saw my first Squash Vine Borer Moth for the season. Dang those guys are quick and they fly… and the vines are getting too large for thorough egg/adult inspection; time to move to the next phase.
Phase one for squash bugs: inspecting vines and leaves daily and smooshing eggs and adult squash bugs - started with one or two of each a day. Today was 4-5 of each 😳

This included lifting and rolling the vines so that I can inspect the undersides (where the eggs and bugs usually are) BUT now that I’ve spotted a Squash Vine Borer, it’s important to move to phase two.

Phase two: Squash Vine Borers will lay an egg at the base of a vine and the larvae bores into the stem and can take out an entire plant. As a natural defense, squash plants will put down roots along the vine. That way if part of the main stem dies, the vine past the new roots can survive. By lifting and rolling the vines for inspection, I’m preventing these little roots from reaching the soil. So it’s time to stop. Phase two will include -

• making sure to have the healthiest plants possible. These are crown in clean, no-till soil and just got a big chop n drop of comfrey.

• looking for these little roots and trying to bury them with some good soil

• continue daily inspections for eggs and bugs without lifting the vines (make sure I have my special smooshing gloves since I’m a sissy and can’t do adults with my bare hands 🤢)

• water regularly and watch for adults to climb to tops of vines to get away from the water and directly spray them with a quick stream of Dr Bronners Peppermint Castile soap diluted with some water (they will die in less than 10 seconds if you make sure they are saturated)

• nymphs are harder since there are so many it’s harder to make sure you get them all and you get them saturated, so your best defense is still just diligent daily egg inspections.

You’ll miss some and you will have nymphs and you will have vines die because of Squash Vine Borers — just remember this is their home, their habitat and their food. They don’t have a grocery store to run too… so acknowledge that some pest damage and crop loss in a healthy ‘living’ garden is natural and to be expected, sometimes even welcomed. Do what you can but don’t stress. ❣️

Best advice I ever received from a seasoned gardener, when asked what if I lose some of my crops to pests? she said, ‘plant extra’