fall gardening

my garden is flourishing. ive got peppers, tomatoes, garlic, lettuces, basil, eggplant, beans, peas, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts all growing happily right now.

I may skip spring/summer gardening next year. i should at least stick to the most heat tolerant plants and nothing else.  fall gardening in texas reminds me that gardening really doesn't have to be much of a hassle!

my tomato and pepper plants have been in since early March, but are happier now than they ever have been.

http://instagr.am/p/RgT_ycpcpr/

Garden Psychology: What Does Your Garden Say About You?

Good veggie varieties for containers

http://www.klru.org/ctg/resource/Article/Vegetables_in_Containers/

first melon

My first successful melon, and it was picked and chewed by someone other than me. (I'm guessing a racoon.) I don't have the balls to eat it, but I had to at least cut it open and admire it. I tasted a little bit of it too. It was definitely ready. I should've picked it yesterday, dammit!

Moment of silence for the beautiful, sweet melon. It had so much potential.

Tomato Problem Solver | Aggie Horticulture

My other babies.

On this mother's day, here's an update on my other babies! Just counted about 100 tomatoes and a third as many peppers (but double the plants, many of them recently planted). Basil is going nuts, eggplants and cucumbers are finally starting to flower, melons are thriving too! Counted at least 5 squash. Grocery bill for the next 2 or 3 months should be much lower than usual!

garlic tips

5 Step Guide to Growing Gorgeous Garlic |

#gardening

I tried  making my own  compost tea and  fed it to  the leaves and roots of  all my plants today. Should see  some improvement soon if it worked! If so, I will do that all  the time because it's  cheap  and  easy! The compost tea I bought at the farmers market worked wonderfully, but I like to learn how to do things  myself, and spend  less money of course.

Also hung xmas  bulbs on the tomato plants today. (To deter birds.)

I pulled  my still growing kale  plant because I found  tons of  worm larvae  underneath the leaves.  I also kept some  lettuce in too long,  because it  turned disgustingly bitter.  Pulled  that too.

Other than try two for okra (which I decided  to  start/transplant this  time) I am done planting things for  a while!  I really hope all my hard work pays off in a month or so.  Everything looks great so far!

How to Brew Compost Tea in a 5 Gallon Bucket to Enrich Your Garden - YouTube

How to Brew Compost Tea in a 5 Gallon Bucket to Enrich Your Garden - YouTube

List of Spring plants!

My battle with caterpillars is not through, but I feel that they are under control now.  The compost tea I fed the plants on 3/17 and 4/1 has given all of them a noticeable boost in growth: they don't seem as susceptible to injury and possible death anymore.

The eggplants look especially happier after the compost tea (or perhaps the warmer weather?).  I was worried the most about them.  The tomatoes and peppers have begun to flower! Things are definitely looking up in my garden!

This needs to be a quick blog post, so I will hold off on photos for now.  I have been taking them weekly to track growth. It should be fun to do a comparison post soon. :)

Here's a list of what's currently growing, to the best of my knowledge.  I would also provide the number of plants for each, but sadly I am unsure of about 40% of them.  I got lazy about labeling and now I am regretting it.  I am sure they will make themselves known at some point!  Aside from the thymes, oreganos, onions, lavender, and giant bell peppers, all of this was grown from seed:

1. black prince tomato
2. black cherry tomato
3. chadwick cherry tomato
4. break o day tomato
5. emerald giant bell pepper
6. jimmy nardello italian pepper
7. corno di torro giallo pepper
8. chile pepper
9. anaheim pepper
10. cambodian green giant eggplant
11. listada de gandia eggplant
12. arumugam's eggplant
13. red onions
14. garlic
15. genovese basil
16. lemon thyme
17. regular thyme
18. greek oregano
19. italian oregano
20. parsley
21. marjoram
22. lavender
23. zucchini
24. yellow crookneck squash
25. sugar baby watermelon
26. bowling red okra
27. okra (another variety i can't remember atm)
28. hale's best melon
29. kentucky wonder bean
30. russian kale (one plant grown from seed that has been producing since winter!)
31. malabar spinach
32. black seeded simpson lettuce
33. vates (collards)
34. red romaine lettuce
35. rocky top lettuce mix
36. brune d'hiver lettuce
37. jericho lettuce
38. space saver cucumber
39. marketmore cucumber
40. another cucumber variety 

Wow, I didn't realize it was that many! And to think that I have probably 3-4x as many seed varieties as I do plants in the garden right now.

Garden Austin � bugs

It's comforting to know that someone is having the same problems that I am!

Garden Austin � bugs

Container Gardening With Vegetables and Herbs - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Container Gardening With Vegetables and Herbs - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Free, Homemade Liquid Fertilizers - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Free, Homemade Liquid Fertilizers - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

saving bluebonnet seeds

Zanthan Gardens | Collecting Bluebonnet Seeds

night time predators

While reading up on pest control last night, I came across a suggestion to "check your plants at night, that's when most of the critters are out."

So around 1am I was out checking.  Turns out that was a great suggestion, because I saw all kinds of things.  Disheartening.  I have:

- black...fleas?
- caterpillars
- cutworms
- some other clear/white looking flea thing

So there I was in my garden gloves, spraying and squishing, at 1:30 in the morning.

Something tells me I am fighting an uphill battle.  And I have a lot more reading to do.

What's eating my eggplants?

Times-Georgian - Ask a Master Gardener What s eating my eggplants

I think this may be what's going on with my baby eggplants. :(  Though a few other plants (mainly peppers) have been disturbed as well, and I also found some caterpillars in the lettuce last week.  ARGH!

Austin Citizen Gardener Resources

LOTS of resources here for Austin area gardeners.

Gardening Resources

fork you!

Someone mentioned this pest deterrent to me today and I thought it was brilliant! I had a box of plastic forks just sitting there for years. The kiddo really enjoyed helping me do it. :)
It occurs to me now that this idea may not be suitable for the long term (chemicals could leech into the soil, perhaps?)  but I'll bet it does the trick for now! I have caught many a cat napping inside my herb planters!

head of cabbage

Harvested the cabbage today to make room for newbies. It is bigger than I thought!  And Beautiful, if I say so myself. :)  Here is my toddler demonstrating:

The dianthus plants have also started to flower. This time of year is so incredible!  Perfect bare-foot in the grass weather. The ground is soft and lush from rains and there's life everywhere. The weather is a perfect 70-to-80-something. I hereby name March my favorite month in Texas. Good thing it's only half way over. 

Spring has definitely sprung!

I bought this daisy plant for my daughter in the fall. It died off but came back to life! It looks a lot bigger than when I took these photos (on the 11th).  There are 2 buds now.  She is SO EXCITED about it growing too.

Gerbera (?) daisy

I planted two tomatoes in the back bed early (February 26).  They are doing well amongst the onions, shallots, garlic, spinach, and lettuces.  I think I'm going to throw a melon or two back there as well.

Rear bed on March 11th

The small, non-raised bed has squash in the center.

Strawberry flower! 

The luscious front bed is spitting out lots of peas and a never-ending kale right now, and that dang cabbage is finally ready!  I planted it (from seed) way back in September.  I read today that spring planted cabbage is ready faster, but something tells me that I'm too late for that!  These guys take up way too much space anyway.  Make room for eggplant! :)

cabbage

Oregon sugar snap peas; planted (from seed) in December-ish

We were out of town this past weekend, and are busy the coming weekend, so I made time to plant these guys on the 8th (3 tomatoes, 2 peppers, 2 eggplants, all grown from seed.)  

Newly planted tomatoes, eggplants, peppers

I was very happy to return and find them NOT dead from the 40 degree cold snap we suddenly got (these photos were all taken after.)  However, I am prepared with several plants still living indoors and in the greenhouse. They're all doing great, too!  I may end up having to pawn some plants off on locals. ;)  Free to a good home soil!

Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, basil

Freze/Frost occurence chart (Texas)

http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim20supp1/states/TX.pdf

Hope for the Future - Nature and Community - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

I read this article last night in the latest edition of Mother Earth News. I really needed to hear this, and I'll bet you do too!

Hope for the Future - Nature and Community - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Make Your Own No-Space Potato Barrel - Do It Yourself - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Make Your Own No-Space Potato Barrel - Do It Yourself - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Almost time!

Planting time is quickly approaching! Or maybe my big tomato transplants are just making me antsy. :) Seriously, though, they look awesome.  I am proud!

On one of the charts I've looked at (Doug Welsh's Texas Garden Almanac), they list Austin's average last spring frost date as 2/24! That's in four days! That on top of the next week's weather report is really making me itch to plant more this weekend. I may sacrifice one of these big tomatoes... or two. Perhaps a couple of my new pepper transplants.  I am fine with taking risks. I experiment with things so that I can learn.  For instance, I learned that the plants who have mostly lived in the outdoor greenhouse for the past couple weeks have not done nearly as well as the one's still sitting indoors in windowsills.  Some of those outside have fared better than others. Notes are jotted down in my paper journal. Lessons are being learned.  Sometimes I feel like I am back in elementary school science class. :)

Speaking of which, I was finally able to make up and finish up my Citizen Gardener instruction on Saturday.  It was raining and the place where it was held (an elementary school) was flooded in the (huge, impressive) garden area. We had to sit in the gym for instruction, but I didn't mind! It gave me the opportunity to write moe down.  I learned a lot and also scored an old olive barrel for rain collection, cheap! Now to get it set up and going.

My favorite "tip" learned from class on Saturday was that you can use Christmas bulbs to scare birds off your plants! They hate shiny things.

On Sunday I built my 6'x3' bed out back and vowed to either have someone else build these, or buy them preassembled from now on!  I tossed what was going of my compost pile (lots of decomposed leaves) in and watered it really well. I will fill it the rest of the way and plant soon.  Just one thing on my long list of to-dos. Can't wait until my toddler is old enough to help!

Growing Herbs for the Home Gardener

I like charts. :)

Growing Herbs for the Home Gardener

Mint - Growing and Using the Fragrant Herb Mint

I bought an apple mint plant yesterday, among other things (margoram, oregano, dianthus, lavender, and peppers.) I am doing a small (2'x2') raised herb bed in the front yard this year. Excited!

I didn't know how wild mint got until I read this. I now envision a hanging plant by the front door! I probably could use a few larger containers, too.  I foresee many more trips to the garden stores in my future!

Mint - Growing and Using the Fragrant Herb Mint

compost tea

How to Make Compost Tea | Harvest to Table

Free Urban Farming Online Course

root depth and plant height reference

Interplanting Vegetables: Root Depth, Plant Height | The Adventures of Thrive Farm

Great reference.  Thanks, Alli!

Keyhole Gardening

This looks pretty awesome!

Texas Co-op Power Magazine - Texas Stories: Keyhole Gardening - An Online Community for Members of Texas Electric Cooperatives

Keyhole Gardening

This looks pretty awesome!

Texas Co-op Power Magazine - Texas Stories: Keyhole Gardening - An Online Community for Members of Texas Electric Cooperatives

new hardiness zones

Central Texas Horticulture: Does the new USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map hold any changes for your garden?

rain rocks! pests suck!

Apparently the blogger app for android sucks. Every time I've made a post with it and specified this blog, it still posts to my other blog. Annoying! Anyway...

My makeshift rain collector took up quite the offering last night/this morning. :) Probably about 8 gallons. My greenhouse plants and indoor seedlings should be happy for the rainwater!

Rainwater excites us here in central Texas

I know this isn't the best solution, but it works for now.  I may buy a proper rain collection system with my tax return. This guy was $5 at Big Lots, and I actually bought it to store clothes in. :)

Something keeps digging up in one of my beds and is using it as a toilet!  Could be a cat, could be a squirrel, could be a raccoon, or could be all of these things!  I have tried laying coffee grounds and orange peels, but that hasn't deterred them.  My fiance often pees around the bed, but that doesn't bother them either! Aside from getting some kind of fence, cage, or gun (which I'm very close to doing! the fence, anyway), how do you keep pests out of your garden?

Tomato transplants 2/9/12

These guys (especially the two black princes on the left) are doing pretty great!  I moved those two out into their own pots at least a week ahead of any others. That makes me think that moving them sooner is better (they were bigger than the others in the seed tray, though.)

Started from seed on 12/31/11.  Getting close to planting out time! :)

upper respiratory bummer

I came down with a upper respiratory infection (aka cold) and had to miss Saturday's citizen gardener class. If that didn't make me disappointed enough, I wasn't able to do much in the garden either.  Attempts ended with me feeling a bit winded and reclining on the couch. I eventually gave up and bought the Spring 2011 Heirloom Gardener for my iPad to make me feel better. It worked. ;)  I read all about tomatoes and am starting to feel a bit more knowledgeable. I am a little nervous about growing tomatoes! I have had really bad results so far.  Granted I've only gone two seasons, and had little to no clue what I was doing, but still!

E checking out a few pepper, tomato, and eggplant starts in the greenhouse

One of my collard plants started a flower, so I decided they were done. As much as that plant (which was actually 2 kind of intertwined together, oops!) produced, I really am not a big fan of the flavor so I hardly harvested it. I need to make room for other things. :)

Like more sugar snap peas! I have 8-10 of those plants growing right now, and the plant that I had left from summer/fall decided to spit out 4 pods before it turned brown and wilted.  Evie and I really enjoyed them as a snack on Saturday! She is actually quite nuts over those peas, so I am excited to have a ton more soon.  We like them enough that I want to start another set of them for springtime.

I'm also thinking about more beans and peas. We love them in our house, now to find out how well they do in this climate!  Also on the list now that wasn't before: melons, and perhaps a winter squash variety (I have 2 summer varieties planned for spring.)  Ever since I found out that peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes are not too fond of the superhot weather we are prone to get, I have been on a mission to fill my gardens with stuff that may work better. I've got a lot of space to work with and want to make sure I am using it to its fullest potential!

Back yard (before we finished mulching the back on Saturday)

I decided to raised-box the longer bed that I dug up in the back yard, again to help improve yields. We went to Home Depot and got some wood for that, so I now have a(nother) project for next weekend.  The scrap wood ended up being two 1' and two 2' pieces, which I plant to assemble into a small box, possibly for an herb garden, probably for the front yard.

I may be a little bit obsessed with gardening.  I can think of many worse things to be obsessed about. :)  I love the peace it gives me, the usefulness and practicality, the connection with the earth.  I appreciate food so much more now that I know all of the work that goes into producing it. And it definitely tastes better!  Plus I like to know that I am learning such a vital skill.  It gives me pride to go out to my own yard and harvest food that I cared for to feed my family. I picked some lettuce for lunch on Saturday and I swear it was the best lettuce I've ever tasted! I never knew how much I liked lettuce until I started eating it NOT from the grocery store.  I plan on growing a ton of it!  There's already quite a bit out there.

E bringing kale in for dinner Thursday night

Diagnosis of Mineral Deficiencies in Plants by Visual Symptoms - Wallace, 1943

Garden class #2

The big takeaways from gardening class tonight:

Add 30 to 45 days to the "days to harvest" if you are  starting seeds because the days to harvest start from a transplant.

Don't try to grow tomato, eggplant, or pepper varieties in Texas that take over 65 days. (oops.)

Buy the book "Seed to Seed"

Busy day!

I did a lot in the garden today! Scott helped. :)

• Planted another round of seeds: tomato, pepper, eggplant, lavender and basil
• Majorly thinned the existing seedlings
• Laid cardboard around the perimeter of the new beds and weeded
• Dumped a bag of some natural gardener compost in the rear raised bed
• Watered the cardboard and beds
• Went to the nursery down the road for onions, wandered around admiring and testing* plants for at least a half hour, came home with shallots, 4 strawberry plants, a russian red kale, a lemon thyme, and a lettuce (no onions)
• Went to Home Depot for mulch, found onion sets! Also finally found the soil testing kits!  (Last time I asked, they acted like they had no clue what I was talking about.)
• Mulched over most of the area (need more mulch, plus some good black mulch for on top of the beds)
• Planted everything mentioned above (minus the shallots, need to research!) in the way we were shown in class; gently massaged the roots, made a few pricks with a sharp point where necessary (the thyme plant had some pretty serious roots, but I wanted it too much to not buy it!)
• Watered some more
• Admired the work!

* testing plants:  Paige taught us, while we were planting the bed, how to look for good transplant candidates. If the plant roots are coming out of the bottom, or look like they have completely overtaken the bottom, that's generally a bad sign; the plant will probably take a bit longer to establish itself than one that isn't so root bound. There were a lot of plants like that at the nursery!

The coming weeks should be busy, busy, busy. I plan to get a rainwater collection set up soon, hopefully a DIY/cheap solution. We will be learning about it in class, thankfully! I am also keeping a very close eye on all my plant babies. It's been so nice and warm during the day that they get a lot of time outside. I've moved a few (a tomato, a pepper, a cucumber, and an onion; plus the new strawberry planter) to pots and am keeping them in the greenhouse, sort of as an experiment (but mostly because I have no room for them otherwise!) So far they're still alive, and we're going on day 4 or 5.

I will post photos soon! I just downloaded the Blogger app to my phone; hope it doesn't suck. ;)

Citizen Gardener: class one

My first of 3 citizen gardener classes was this morning. I enjoyed it!  We built (and planted) a raised bed garden which will serve as the kids' garden at In.gredients -- the USA's first package-free grocery store, coming soon!  We also built a compost pile out of wood palettes (why didn't I think of that?!)

I already have a compost pile and a couple 4'x4' raised beds, but I still managed to learn a lot today! I learned about what kind of soil is best here in Austin (sandy! no mel's mix!), how to best utilize the space in square feet, how tying string around upholstery tacks is WAAAY easier than the retarded looking grid I made for my first bed (and how to better assemble the bed, for that matter: my first bed is pretty retarded looking, so the second was purchased premade!) I am looking forward to trellis building next week!

On top of that, I learned a lot about plants and their relation to the sun here in Austin.  I learned how to plan according to the sun angle (just googled this site), how the sun moves in this area and changes with the seasons, and how plants are affected by its position.  I was happy to start to understand this stuff and I really need to study it more! I also learned a little more about companion planting and placing plants so that some can shade others. This is something I have been studying a lot lately as I plan my Spring beds, a process that seems to be taking WAY too long, but the perfectionist in me is showing!

One other thing I learned about plants is that, in Austin, our Spring season is short, so we should be using veggie varieties that have "70 days or less" to maturity.  I hadn't paid much attention to this! I also learned how to best transplant and plant seeds. I can read as much as I want, but nothing beats seeing it in real time. :)

We got a nice sized packet of information upon leaving that I have been looking through as I have had time throughout the day/night.  There's a list of vegetable varieties for Travis County that I wish I'd looked at before I started buying seed! ;)  It will come in handy if I end up needing to buy transplants.  I can tell this part, in particular, is going to go a long ways toward helping me finally get that Spring plan done:

Plants that are OK in Partial Shade
beets
brussels sprouts
cabbage
carrot
collards
kale
lettuce
mustard
parsley
radish
spinach
turnips

Plants that are OK in Alkaline soil (most of Austin)
beets
broccoli
cabbage
cauliflower
leeks
lettuce
okra
onions
spinach
swiss chard
watercress
new zealand spinach

Succession Planting Guide | Garden Guides

Succession Planting Guide | Garden Guides

Succession planting has been a bit more difficult to nail down than I expected. Mostly because I don't really know what to expect, given that I'm still (technically) in my first year of doing this, and last Spring I had NOTHING produce in my little 4x4' plot! I've got a lot of catching up to do. :)

More links:

guide from Organicgardening.com

I love planners!

late January update and to-dos

I may have to give up on my onion seedlings. They're not doing so great.  I should've purchased sets/bulbs! I suppose it's not too late to do that. I'll have to make a trip to a local garden shop soon and hope I can find some. Worst case scenario: I have to plant something else. What a shame!  I have a box full of seeds, what ever will I plant?  (Beets, perhaps!) I will save that trip until after my first Citizen Gardener class, coming up soon! Really looking forward to it!  There will likely be at least one or two things I'll have to buy after that!  I need fertilizer, for one.

My carrot, leaf lettuce, and spinach seeds (planted 2 weekends ago) have all sprouted.  We had a couple days of heavy rain/storms this week, so I was slightly worried about the tender sprouts, but they all seem to have fared well. As did the rest of what's currently growing: kale, collard, snap peas, lettuces, garlic, and cabbages (which seem to want to take like months to mature even though they're supposed to be "early variety" -- I think our unseasonably warm winter hasn't helped).

Soon I need to support the peas a little better, trim some kale and collard leaves (both of which seem like they've been producing for months now!), and dig/amend the dirt up a bit more in the new beds.  Planting season isn't too far away!  I am surprised the peas have done as well as they have; they started flowering this past week.  I direct seeded them sometime in October, or maybe it was late September?  Or was in November? This is why I need to keep a journal now. ;)

Heirloom Gardener had a great article on garlic in their Fall 2011 edition, which I only came across tonight. I'm glad I read it!  I planted garlic in late October but I really didn't have much of an idea about what I'm supposed to do with it since. :) I only have around 10 plants growing.  With the way we go through garlic, that might last us 2 months. Or less, since they're bound to be way smaller than the crap we buy at the grocery store!

That's one thing growing my own food has made me aware of: how much supermarket veggies suck!  The abnormally large or unnaturally pretty things now creep me out a little.

plotting and planning

#gardening

Now sprouting: lettuce and carrots that I planted outside last weekend and the cucumber I planted in the seedling trays inside.  The outdoor spinach has not made an appearance yet, strangely.

This weekend I plan to move some more of my tomato seedlings into individual containers because they're getting crowded!

I just got the Mother Earth News garden planner (iPad app too!) and have been playing with that. Hoping it makes succession planting a bit easier to figure out.

Ode to the Pressure CookerI

Ode to the Pressure Cooker

I got one right before Christmas and have been singing its praises to anyone who might listen!

https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/pressure-cooker-z10w0alt.aspx

Get to Know the Wonder-Working, Timesaving Pressure CookerPressure cookers are useful in every kitchen, and help you save time, energy and money while providing better-tasting food. Learn how to choose a good model and how to read pressure cooking instructions.

Growing Onions

reading about onions and losing any optimism about mine growing this year. won't stop me from trying, though!

right i am trying to figure out if/how i should prune my seedlings to space them, move them, or what! among other things. :)

later this year, i will get some of these to try for sure.
http://www.texas1015.com/

Texas 1015 Onions

Developed in the early 1980's by Dr. Leonard Pike, a horticulture professor at Texas A&M University, Texas 1015 Onions are actually named for their optimum planting date, October 15. Grown onl...

Growing from Seed

Good resource! I wish I'd read it before starting seeds, but it's early yet and if I need to start more I've got time. I love spending as much time as possible doing gardening things on the weekends. Once it warms up a bit, I'll be enjoying it more on weekdays too.

This weekend I will probably move some lettuce and onions into larger containers to grow in. I still need to work out my exact plans with where to grow everything (and, the more difficult part: when it will be growing). I'll likely lose things and make more stupid mistakes along the way, but that's part of the fun, right?

(Not really, but it teaches! Thank god for the internet!)

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/seed/

Growing from Seed FAQ Page

The following are frequently asked questions from the Growing from Seed forum. Answers have been provided by other users and our staff. What is the dreaded damping-off disease? How do I prevent and/or...

12/27/11: Seed storage

https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/PSXFvEoajzX

12/18/11: Gardening books

https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/7weug6XGYS5

12/11/11: Austin friends' favorite seeds for Austin weather

https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/BpeH8C13PMY

12/9/11: Entering the world of Baker Creek

https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/dqYdBUB66Fm

12/2/11: Hooray for rain!

https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/EbRD342H5h9

11/27/11: return from Thanksgiving vacation

https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/DJShCNtqtCS

Seed storage discussion 12/27/11

https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/PSXFvEoajzX