Ol' Jon's Homestead

05/30/2026

Seldom captured not doing something productive.
Pre-grilling wind down.
Can’t always be burning the candle at both ends.
Enjoy your weekend good people. ✌🏻❤️

05/25/2026

Yellow squash is producing big time. Some got a bit too big, still good for baking.
Zucchini is doing well, not as much as yellow.
First flowers on loofah.
Something keeps nibbling the okra leaves but some is making it.
Tomato plants are growing well, just starting to see small tomatoes. Hope they beat the heat.

05/25/2026

05/23/2026

Sandy red dirt.
Just needs nutrients, drains well.
W**d, mix in some dried leaves to break down, frame up with some old bricks.
Works.

Left to right: lemon balm, sage, flat Italian parsley, dill. We’ll fill in with more when cuttings are ready to go in the ground. They look little but we did trim them a lot to let them put energy towards roots.

05/22/2026

’Jon’sHomestead

05/22/2026

We’ll be moving many of the herbs we’ve been propagating into the ground this weekend (yeah!).
One more post about how to make many from one and I’ll shaddup about it.
In this case with the basil, cut right above a node.
Trim the lower leaves from the cutting, plop in water.
Oh, once the little leaves on either side of the cut on the plant start popping out, trim the single big leaf left on either side. This will let the plant send its energy to the new leaves.

While I’ve been on about this for a while, volume takes time or money and, money takes time.
It’s all good, we’re growing. ❤️
No more rooting posts (unless it’s something special 😁).

05/20/2026

For those that have been following our journey, it is with great sadness that we share the passing of Tango Monday night. Although we don’t know exactly how old he was, one could clearly see the signs of age around the eyes and other areas.

We adopted Tango and Cash when we bought our property over a year ago. Knowing nothing about donkeys we learned quickly and found how loving they can be once a bond is built.

We are very fortunate that we adopted the stray donkey we named Butterscotch so that Cash is not alone. It was clear yesterday that Cash was upset with Tango’s burial. Butterscotch stayed close to Cash’s side the whole time.

We laid Tango to rest beside a nice pink flowered crepe myrtle in the pasture that we will prune to grow into a beautiful tree.

Rest well friend, we’ll take good care of your buddy.
💔😢

05/19/2026

So we ran a little experiment…
Supposedly plants such as marigolds and rosemary are pest deterrents. Not wanting to use any pesticides (and we won’t), we read on the various natural ways.

This corner developed a very large colony of fire ants. Roughly two feet long and a foot wide with thousands of the nasty boogers. We considered giving diatomaceous earth a shot and will in the future but, we had a lot of marigold seeds on hand. Just free sowed on top of the ground and watered. Later, we had a rosemary we could plant. Had to do that quickly and took a few hits in the process.

They’re gone. Took a couple of months for the plants to get big enough to run them off. Always a bit doubtful with the videos claiming this works since fire ants are so tough to get rid of without heavy chemical warfare but now we’ve seen it work.

Had already planned to continue growing more rosemary for the various health related things that can be made from them but now marigolds will definitely be strategically located throughout.

05/16/2026

Definitely going to check this out.
An all things blueberry festival?
In.

https://facebook.com/events/s/36th-annual-texas-blueberry-fe/949869238219843/

05/16/2026

It’s not that we don’t buy mulch ever.
We have and we might again.
Now that we’re composting at the farm and using biomass, solid nutrients are covered for the most part.

Covering the soil layer around the plants whether in ground or pots to stop the soil drying out in the Texas sun is an all year task but definitely once the sun starts producing those wonder summer temps.

We have ample natural resources that we’re increasingly using. In this case, simple gardenia flowers. Still providing soil aeration and water flow, they buffer from the faster soil drying that happens full sun days. Bonus points with their decomposition, feeding the plants when watered.

You do have to pay attention to what plants you’re using for mulch since some have higher tannins (which blueberries and azaleas love) but nature often gives you what you need.
After all, nature does just fine without us.
If we pay attention we can learn a thing or two about it. 🌱❤️