End of Year

And just like that I up and leave you for a month.  But never fear, I am still here.  It's just I haven't been blogging as much.

I pulled out old veggie plants in the garden and found that my newer bed (the west bed) is beset with root knot nematodes:

All I can say about this is, DAMMIT!

I also cut back a bunch of other plants (Cosmos, Mexican Petunia and Artemisia), mostly to make light for other plants growing in the area (namely the irises and the yaupon holly).

I planted new plants - Pacman Broccoli, Marathon Broccoli, a Cauliflower and a Brussels Sprouts.  Ivy broke one of the broccoli plants, but the leaves are still growing, so that's weird.

I also went back to working on the grass removal project in the back corner of the yard.  Part of it did include installing a trellis that Bob at Draco made for me.  It will involve planting a rose bush and therefore, removing soil and putting in Ladybug Rose Magic soil.  I have high hopes, even though my poor little grasses are still little.

For Christmas, I gave my parents some herbs and jars and vinegars, oil, and vodka to do some infusion projects.

Infusion stuff - got the idea from Vicki at Playin' Outside

It's finally time to start THINKING about sucking up the leaves in the yard -

Now if only those last few leaves will drop...

AND finally, I made a trip down to East Side Succulents to use a Groupon I got a little while ago.  Shawn even went with me, so I let him pick out most of the plants.  The next step will be to ask my cousins at Art Haus Ceramics to make some special order pots and pot everything up good and proper.

This is what $60 of succulents looks like.