Is it Spring Yet?

Oh my gosh what a winter we have been having here in the TX Hill Country. We had several days, in a row mind you, in Jan of 14 degrees during the day and 9 at night. I am so hoping for my fruit trees and bushes to have made it through those cold temps. I guess time will tell.

As I spoke about a while back on my square foot gardens and how I was going to plant all this great stuff for my winter garden. Hah! The winter garden is not much of a garden because if the constant cold and rain. The rain is fine and the raised beds shed that off, where before the veggies would be doing the back stroke to stay afloat. The cold has kept the ground to cold to get the seedling growing never mind making it possible for the seeds to germinate.

The broccoli plants I put in during the fall have taken giant steps backwards. Ok so I should be glad they are still alive. The beet seeds I planted germinated and then it got cold and are still sitting there with the two little leaves they get right after they germinate and pop up out of the ground. Is that depressing or what? But hey they are still alive even after all the wind and 9 degree nights. If it ever warms up they may just grow. Ok hope springs eternal. Theres that work spring again.

One thing I need to do this next week or so is get the fruit trees pruned. They will start flowering soon. I also plan to get my seeds started first part of March. Can't wait to try out that seed starting heat mat. Since the greenhouse isn't heated with a heat source other then my heat lamp which works when it isn't too too cold. I just could not subject those poor little seedlings to that cold. I have been wanting to start my seeds so now with the night temps warming it may be a good time to start.

I promise to get back and write more. Now that it looks like warmer weather is coming I will have more to write about and I will post some pictures of my garden boxes. Also I want to tell you about this cool talk I attended on Heirloom Tomatoes.

Happy planting.

Time to rethink the garden

The weather is great and I am ready to take up the summer garden and start fresh. This past gardening season is one I would like to forget. When I lived in MA the garden was over by mid Sept. so if it got out of control or the weeds started taking over, it was for just a short time. I could pull it up and till it in and forget about it. But here in TX that isn't the case. Yep the garden got out of control and there are still plants producing a little bit. I hate to yank them out yet. So, what I am doing now is planning the winter crops and how I will deal with this garden next year.

I have a hard time with disorganized gardens. Last year was the first year I had good results in this fairly new veggie garden. Nothing got out of control and the weeds were not a problem. For some reason this year was different. I didn't have weeds as much as I had grasses. Even though I had laid down a weed barrier the grass traveled underneath it and came up where the plants were. Eventually by the end of July the heat and the grass was my downfall. Enough of that.

After some contemplating what to do so that I can enjoy the garden and keep it in line I concluded I needed to add some garden boxes. This way the paths would be permanent and I would not have to deal with them any more. I am going to lay down weed barrier with some mulch on top. When I run out of that free really good weed barrier I may let grass grown and then keep it clipped. Of course if it isn't watered it could die down if we have another baking summer again and no rain. Not sure if that would be as nice to walk on. Keeping nice paths between the plants was one issue I had so this should solve that problem.

My first 4 boxes will be 2x8 feet. I have a square area off the main garden that these are going to be placed in. It has a shade cloth for summer and I can place the summer squashes in there and a few other veggies that need some relief from the heat during the summer. But for now I will plant my beets and other cool weather crops there. The shade cloth will be pushed back since I will want to have the sun for the winter crops but also to heat my studio.

Since this patch of garden had not been planted this summer the grass grow like crazy and was a foot tall or more. I hit it with the weed eater and knocked it down. Even though we had several days with out rain the soil was still soaking wet and sticky and could not be tilled. We have rain coming in again mid week but if all goes well maybe by next week it will be dry enough to till. The reason I am tilling is this: I want to take some of that good soil I have in the paths and add it to the boxes. I can sink the paths some lowering the boxes some giving me more soil in the box and less I need to add.

I have been hearing a lot about square foot gardening so I decided to check it out. Not a hard concept to follow or do and I am going to give it a shot. I will be putting my own twist on it a little bit. My soil is rich and full of composted manure and such so why go out and buy more. I will go ahead and add my peat moss and vermiculite to what I have and mix it up. I then shall lay out the grids and get planting.

I haven't decided how to lay out the main part of the garden yet. I have some left over 2x6's hanging around from some building projects that I will be using to build the remainder boxes. I have two 2x6's that will make a 5x5 and that may be the center box with other boxes arranged around it. I was thinking of putting it on the diagonal and use that center 1 foot for some sort of architectural item that vines can grow on. I have all winter to find something or build something for that. Of course I need to plan my drip system for this new plan as well. And one thing I am not going to skimp on is a timer. Last summer I used one that was great but was battery operated. Then the battery ran down and the timer went screwy. And putting a new battery didn't help. I think this year a hard wired or plug in type timer is how I will keep my drip system working correctly. One gardening friend is good at laying out drip systems so I plan on calling on her for help.

I also plan to use rain water for my drip system but if we end up running out of rainwater I will use the well as my back up.

Next week I plan to get to work on this new idea and will post more with pictures of what I have come up with so far.

Happy Fall and Happy Gardening

It's raining, it's pouring and a wonderful sight indeed

It rained and it poured for almost five days but no one is complaining. It is unfortunate that our rain gauge is broken but there is no doubt we got a boat load of rain. The pasture is greening up before my eyes and what is left of my veggie garden is also perking up. I was about to throw in the towel and cut my looses until Wed. afternoon when it started raining. As soon as it drys up out there I will see what can be saved for the fall garden.
I decided that I needed to do was build boxes for raised beds instead of growing in rows with no control or order. By August the garden seemed to be out of control and no organization as to where the rows were or the paths were. With the raised beds I can just work the beds as needed and then keep the rows untouched. Either I can lay down weed barrier and mulch or even plant some grass and mow it. Depends on how far apart I place the boxes.
On Labor Day I purchased some lumber to make 4 boxes to begin the process but with the rain it was put on hold. Each box will be 2x8 feet. I can deal with that size with out killing my self and it is wide enough to plant 2 rows 8 feet long. I am going to check out the Square Foot Garden book and see if this is the way I want to go. Since the soil in my veggie garden is good and is deep ( the only place it is on the property) I plan to place a layout of where the box will be and then make my paths by digging down a inch or two tossing that soil into the place where the boxes will go. My plan is to get this done as soon as possible so I can get my broccoli in. Beets, spinach, romaine lettuce, and some other greens as well. I am also going to try planting lettuce in plant flats on the deck. This way I will have them close at hand. If it is going to rain this winter like they are talking, not having to walk into a muddy garden would be great.
Yesterday Saturday Sept 12th I attended a workshop on planting your landscape with edibles. It was a wonderful day and full of lots of information. I am finding that some of my quirky ideas (other then what normal people have) are also being used by others. One of the speakers who is a landscaper/designer is working on the Boerne Green House Project http://www.boernegreenhouse.com/. Since she is living in a Tepee and hasn't much in way of creature comforts she has had to find ways of being as comfort as possible. One way was to build a compost toilet. http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html. I have been planning this for over by my studio once the studio is done. I don't think I will use it in my veggie garden but around trees, shrubs, and flowers is ok. Also she talked about ways of taking gray water and running it into a system to then be used to water the landscape. I have been emptying my washing machine out into the yard but really need to do more then that. We are doing the bathroom over and plan to run the gray water from the shower and sink out into a tank and then figure a way to get it out into the landscape. This project will be on going and I hope started soon.
Another good topic covered was inter planting edibles in with flowers and shrubs. I have been doing that for years. 20 years ago I lived in a condo with just a little border garden on the edge of my patio. Having left a large veggie garden behind when I moved I was not going to be without my garden. So I planted a few tomatoes and peppers among my flowers. When we moved to TX I did the same thing and still do even though I have a larger veggie garden too.
Her point was that we should all be growing some of our food. John Adams had a garden in the White House yet he did not get to enjoy it much since he was voted out of office. James Madison had a garden as well but the British took care of it and the White House during the War of 1812. More recent White House gardens were during the Franklin Roosevelt era and now the Obama's have a garden too.

Check our www.eattheview.org it is worthy of a visit. It is a program designed to get more high profile places to start growing food in their landscapes. You don't have to be a fan of the Obamas to find this a worth while project. They were not the first to have a vegetable garden and I hope they won't be the last.

I will try not to be away from my blog so much this fall. I guess this summer was just so stressfull with the drought and the heat.

Happy Fall Planting!!

A good bunch of grapes

Well after several years of waiting and trying to beat one small dog out of picking all the ripe grapes we have a wonderful crop. These are wine grapes and since all the tags have faded I do not recall what they are. All I know is that I am finally getting enough to make a small patch of wine. It is so strange that even in such a drought as we have been going through the grapes are doing really well. Two years ago we had way to much rain in a short period of time I thought I had lost the whole bunch of vines. Thank goodness that was not the case. So here are a few photos for you to look at and think of the bottles of wine it will make. I shall post a picture of one of the bottle once I get it made this winter. We don't have a cellar or cool place to make wine so I need to wait for cooler weather.

Some old heirlooms makeing a presences

As I had written several posts back I planted some unusual heirlooms in my veggie garden. So here is one of them I just recently harvested. It is a Sheep's Nose Pepper. I am still looking for those heirloom tomatoes to start producing now.

Rain Rain Go Away Come Again Another Day

That is a children's song I remember from when I was growing up. After almost 2 years of not having any really good measurable rain I am finding this to be a terrible song. Last week many of my fellow master gardeners and I attended a rain barrel making workshop. Billy Kniffen who is the big guru for rain water harvesting here in TX ran the workshop. I have posted some of the photographs my friend Marilyn Pease took at the workshop. I am now ready and loaded to make a string of barrels for over in my veggie garden. I will take pictures of my progress on my barrels.







This is Billy showing us how to drill the holes in each barrel.













There are several types of barrels and ways to use them here in the photo. You can use it to have a continual drip feed to a birdbath or wildlife water system, like the one below.





The next photo is a way of using rain water catchment for wild life. It is called a Wild life guzzler

Glorious Rain

The past two weeks has brought us some nice rain. I know we need so much more. It is so great though to see that everything is so green. I am finally seeing our pasture grass getting some length to it as well.
Last week's temperatures were so different one day to the next. Friday I had to work at the nursery and it was in the upper 80's if not 90 by the end of the day. Saturday was wet and cold. About a 30 degrees difference in the two days.
Thursday of last week I started to plant my garden. First I had to test my drip system for leaks. It was sure a test of my patience. I would fix the broken emitters, run a test and then several more would blow their little tops. So now I may have them all fixed but who knows until I run the system again.
I planted 19 of the 31 tomatoes that are going out in the big garden. Thursday as well. I tilled a trench down as deep as I could and laid all the lovely tomato plants down on their sides and covered them with soil. This will provide the tomatoes with lots of nice roots to help carry water and nutrition to the fruits. Now I just have to wait.
My plan for feeding all the veggie plants was to use a syphon system. One end of the syphon hose would go into a bucket with liquid fertilizer and then draw it into the drip system and feed it to the plants. Seems these syphons had a flaw and the company is working on them. This is what the nursery told me but there may be more kinds out there. I just need to look.
The rain this weekend kept me from planting the rest of the garden and it would have been perfect to plant since it was so cool. It was to wet and our soil is gummy when it is wet so you just don't want to mess with it until it drys out more.
I guess Sunday will be the next time I can get out and finish planting it all. I hope to recruit my husband in this task as well. I should then be able to lay down the newspaper layers and then the mulch with his help at the same time.