Garden Journal

 March is traditionally the time to plant tomatoes in Central Texas.  I wish it had been warm enough to plant sooner, because these seedlings are really showing some stress.

But we've had an exceptionally cold winter -- the coldest on recent record, according to meteorologists -- and planting early is a little worrisome for me.

Still, plant tomatoes too late, and it will get too hot for them to set fruit.  It's a gamble, and Central Texas gardening is not for people who fear to take risks.

We needed to build new beds to handle the huge number of seedlings this year.  We also needed space in order to rotate the plants to prevent disease.  This time, instead of digging up a section of yard, we decided to try the "Square Foot Gardening" method.  The folks at the Natural Gardener really got behind this method, and we picked up the book late last year.  We simply built the frame, put landscape fabric underneath, and piled the soil on top.

The soil is different from what we've used before.  It's basically potting soil -- compost, peat moss and vermiculite.  It took the better part of this weekend to pull all of the soil ingredients together, and we put together one of the beds Sunday evening during a break in the rain.

We marked off blocks of 1 square foot, and then it was time to plant.  The tomatoes went in the two rows down the center -- 1 per square foot.  Later, when it grows warmer and we can take off the row cover, we'll put a section of bull wire down the center for a trellis.

I chose to plant the tomatoes that were doing the worst because I'm not sure if we'll have another freeze or not.  If they bite the dust, at least I have more.  If they don't.. we'll, they should definitely be better off on the ground than in the house.

The squares around the edge will be used for other vegetables.  I'm not sure what -- maybe some lettuce?  Or possibly some basil?

We built another bed and have the soil ready to go, but we decided to change the location to a more suitable place, closer to the street.  The only problem is we need to take out a giant agave in order to make it fit.  It's kind of dangerous to have that agave so close to the veggie garden anyway, and I've suffered from it's poisoned points at least twice, so I'm not upset about losing it.  We have another large one that puts out babies all the time.

Now that planting season is here, we'll probably be out in the garden every weekend tending to the seedlings and planting more.  I have plans for a new flower bed in an area where we'll be removing a freeze-damaged sago palm. 

And now that we know how cheap it is to bag your own stuff at the Natural Gardener, hopefully we'll be able to pick up enough decomposed granite to finish the strip of land between the sidewalk and the street.

Oh, happy, happy spring!

 Andy and I have been amazed at our green thumbs recently.  We decided to start seeds again this winter.

I felt reticent about doing so, because we've had so much bad luck in the past.  But Andy said, let's try it again -- we have nothing to lose.

So we did.  And... success!

Just look at those tomatoes!  If it weren't so cold, I would put them in the ground now.  Our last average frost date is March 15, so we have at least a month before they can go in the ground.

In the meantime, Andy and I will need to lift the lights onto blocks, because the light chains won't raise up any farther, and we may need to pot them up again.

I'm not sure why they are doing so well this year.  They are sitting under florescent lights, set on a timer to 14 hours of light a day.  They are also sitting on a heating mat, but we had it last year, too.  This year, I'm not feeding as heavily.  I've only given them seaweed once or twice, rather than once a week.  Water is the main nutrient.  We also started these seeds at least 3 weeks earlier.  But they are already larger now than the seedlings we had at planting time last year.

Our squash and melon are also doing well, but I started them much too early.  They are already blooming, but since it's so cold, there are no pollinators for them.  Darn.

Outside, the broccoli and cauliflower have little broccolis and cauliflowers! Wow!  I just hope the strawberries make it rhough the winter.  We've had a very cold and wet winter. Wet is good, but we could have sleet tomorrow, and my plants need protection.

I will also go outside and take photos of the 2 new plum trees we recently planted in the backyard.  Fruit trees!  They should start producing in a couple of years!

 I really need to do a better job of writing about the garden.  I get so involved in working in it, I forget to record what's happening!

This past weekend, Andy, Luke and I trekked down to our favorite nursery in search of strawberries.  Jackpot!  We picked up a flat of Chandlers and a few Sequoia, just for variety.

We created a new strawberry patch in the front yard where we had dug up the grass months ago.  I gathered stones we had sitting around in other places and bordered the area.  Strawberries aren't supposed to go in the same area year after year -- you've got to rotate them because of disease, so they couldn't go in the same place as last year.

This is what the bed closest to the sidewalk is looking like right now.  That kale is really doing well -- it's in the middle.  The garlic is also sprouting nicely.  That's chard in the very front.

 Here's the other patch of rhubarb chard and spinach.  Something is eating the chard, but not too badly.  It's still edible.

Here is a different variety of chard I have planted in another bed.  Chard does so well in Austin and it's so easy to cook -- I have it growing everywhere!  It's companion planted with basil.

I love the beauty of the eggplant flowers.  It gives me hope -- but they are growing so slowly that I don't think we;ll be able to harvest them before the freeze.

The pepper plants are heavy with hot and sweet peppers.  We're letting them grow a little longer, and then I think the majority will be pickled.

I'm surprised the cauliflower plants are doing as well as they are.  Or is this broccoli?  No matter -- I'll eat whatever it grows.

Luke's eaten just about all of the peas from this plant, but that's part of the garden experience, right?  It's companion planted with dill and fennel.

The sunflower mix I planted in September grew beautifully.  I just love fall -- of course, the rain helps.  There are some gorgeous blooms that we plan to harvest with some of the basil in order to make a bouquet for the Thanksgiving table.

Happy growing!

 The yard has exploded in growth since rain starting falling again in Central Texas.  As a result, everything was overgrown and weedy.

I spent 8 hours in the yard today, trying to reclaim what is ours.  It consisted of bagging branches from several larger limbs that fell from the pecan tree during the most recent storm; trimming all edges with the weed-eater; mowing front and back; pulling back mulch from most of the trees and putting compost around them; pruning; readying part of a veggie bed for planting; sweeping; weeding; planting flower and veggie seed.

What a day!  Everything looks great, but, believe it or not, the work is not done.  There's still more compost to put down, and the garlic needs to be planted.  Ahh, well.  Rome wasn't built in a day.

I'm hoping to sit down with Andy soon and lay out our final vision for the yard.  Maybe then I'll be able to take one piece at a time, rather than be overwhelmed without an idea of what to do next.

 We checked the vegetable garden for pests this afternoon, and so far so good.  Other than the chard, which was completely devoured by some kind of caterpillar, everything else looks OK.

I need to get out there and give everything a dose of water.  We had a few days of nice, cool, wet weather, but when the clouds moved out the temperatures shot right into the 90s.

The grass is so long now that I can't ignore it -- I have to mow this weekend or the city will come calling.

 It's been a month since my last update, and in that time, the garden has COME ALIVE.

 I walked outside in the morning and stood there stunned when I saw the flowers on this Texas Sage bush.  All three look like they have more flowers than leaves!  And when you got close, especially in the middle of the day, there was a loud, buzzing hum.

I managed to capture this picture of a bee.  I'm surprised it turned out so well.  They were flying so fast, it was hard to pin one down.  I wasn't afraid of getting stung.  They were busy gathering what they needed, and the hive was far from my garden.  I'm not sure what kind of bee this is.  I'm not sure it's a honeybee, but you never know.

We saw butterflies, flies, wasps and other flying insects -- many of them pollinators -- all over the garden.

 I was really happy to see flowers on this little Yellow Bells shrub, which we transplanted a while ago.  It's been so long -- has it been a year?  Still, it's been a rough summer, and it finally put out some blooms for us.  I'm sure it would have bloomed through the long hot summer, but it's still establishing itself.

This Texas Lantana has been languishing all summer, too. It's a Texas native and drought tolerant, but most of my natives went dormant over the summer.  We just didn't have any significant rain until last week, when we had a few days of steady rain.  The rain seemed to wake everything up and cooled temperatures down enough to let the landscape breathe a sigh of relief.  Too bad the drought has still not ended.

This Plumbago is in a bed right in front of my front porch, which I've kind of neglected since it was planted several years ago.  The Plumbago is one of two that I planted there, but this is the only one that has bloomed, and it's the first time it's had more than just one or two flowers.

I have this salvia planted underneath the Persimmon tree, near the vegetable garden.  It's touted to draw hummingbirds, so I wanted to plant it near the fruit and veggies.  Andy and I have been consciously working to add flowers around the vegetable garden -- specifically to draw more pollinators.  My grand plans include a low fence, mulch pathways with stepping stones, and small flower beds chocked full of perrenials and shrubs all around the vegetable garden -- which I want to make look like a kitchen garden.

Speaking of vegetables, let me take you into the vegetable garden and show you this bloom on an eggplant I once gave up for dead.  Right now, the temperatures are hovering between 70 and 90 degrees, and it's the perfect weather for the nightshades to bloom and fruit.  My hope is that the first frost will hold off for a couple of more months so I can get another great harvest.

Check out that bloom -- and fruit -- on this melon vine! It's one of at least... a dozen!  Yeah, I get excited because I have never had such a thing in my Texas garden.  I think the secret this year is where the vine is planted.  It's protected from the harsh afternoon sun by the tall tomatoes and tomatillos planted around it.  The watermelon vine that is near it is also thriving.

On the other side of the bull wire from the melons is where I planted some of the new winter seedlings we picked up at my favorite local nursery.  Andy and I are really experimenting here.  We have planted each seedling in a square foot space, but they are all mixed up.  The cauliflower are not all together, out of fear of attack by insects and disease.  We hide the four plants all over in different bed -- same with the broccoli.  Here, the cauliflower is joined by Chinese cabbage, lettuce, kale, and collards.  They are planted on the far east side, and will get the full morning sun, as well as be protected from the afternoon sun, which tends to burn tender leaves.

This golden chard is hidden in the garden bed right in front of the house, behind Limey.  It was really languishing in the heat, but it put out these huge beautiful leaves right after the rain.  I'll be harvesting this week for dinner.

"We have a forest of basil!" Andy said as we worked in the garden yesterday.  Some of the seeds I planted a few weeks ago are coming up, and these basil that nearly died in the drought is back.  I'm going to make pesto and herb spreads and freeze them with the harvest.  It will be great for soups.

I just love the flower this Thai basil produces.  That gorgeous bloom helps draw more good critters to my garden.

I love fall.  And this year -- it's actually here.

 Oh wow!  It's been a long time since I've blogged about my garden.  Well, I took the summer off.  We never took the summer off when I lived in Virginia and Tennessee -- prime gardening season!  But everything's different in Texas I guess.  Today marked our 59th day of triple-digit heat this summer.  That's nearly 2 straight months.  I've been so busy, the only times I've had available in the garden have been when temperatures were at their peak.

But we're back in the garden.  This past weekend we drove down to our favorite local nursery, bought a few shade perennials and tons of seed packets for our fall vegetable garden.  I'll blog about the shade perennials and our dreams of a cozy hammock garden in the shade of the big pecan tree  -- but another time.  I want to share some pictures from our garden.

When I walked out Saturday, this is what I saw:

My tomatoes were still alive, though many of the branches had dried up.  The poor peppers had dried on the vine:

 I planted a bunch of seeds on Sunday, including snap peas, fennel, dill, basil, and all kids of flowers.  The peas, fennel and dill went in this bed:

I planted a mix of sunflowers close to the house.  Luke picked out a sun perennial that we also decided to take home and adopt.  I don't remember what it is, but I do remember reading that it is drought resistent, so we put it in the front, near the persimmon and agave.

The timer to the drip irrigation broke, so that's out of commission.  It;s just as well, because Austin is enacting Stage 2 water restrictions in less than a week because of our drought, and there is not automatic watering more that once a week.  I've been watering by hand twice a day.  So far so good!

 This is by far the most productive garden Andy and I have had in years.  Not since our huge front yard garden in Nashville have we seen a bounty like this.  It looks like we're finally getting a handle on the Texas gardening stuff.

There have been a number of challenges that we're still working to overcome.  One is vegetable variety.  Some things like to grow in Texas, and some things don't.  Another is planting season.  Packets of seeds sold in grocery stores usually don't have the right planting dates for Austin.  That's a problem.  It's taken me years to figure out when to plant tomatoes and what variety to look for.

Of course, there are always the old standards.  The tomatillos (top photo) were easy to grow in Nashville, and they're easy to grow here as well, as long as I know when to put them in the ground.

And hot peppers have been relatively easy too.   We planted several seedlings purchased at the store, but I also planted many of the peppers I started from seed this year.  While the ones I started are still small -- they ARE producing.  And that's a success in my book.

I'm not sure what kind of pepper you see in this photo, but I do know that it's hot.

Sweet peppers have been more of a challenge.  This year I didn't even try to grow them.  I have never been successful at growing them -- Nashville OR Austin -- and I just didn't feel like messing with it this year.

 I'm pretty proud of the tomatoes though.  We planted more than a dozen seedlings -- varieties we purchased at the nursey and some I started from seed.  I know now to look for varieties that produce early, because they just can't handle the heat in Austin.  And I know not to mulch them until late May (ooops -- I really need to mulch NOW!).

I also know to keep water consistent throughout the growing season.  Too much water early on and not enough later can lead to split tomatoes.  It's better to water deeply and then water again when the first 2 inches have dried out.

And I know that I probably will need to shade my tomatoes with a sheet or special screen to keep the scorching summer sun from burning them up.  It's near 100 degrees here daily now, and my plants need some protection!  (Did I mention the heat?  It's HOT!)

I would never consider myself a gardening expert.  I don't even rank up there with experienced gardeners.  It's all trial and error here in Brummerland.

But that's what gardening is all about.

 For the first time in... well... ever... Andy and I discovered a globe tomato growing on a vine in our garden.  This is huge.  It appears to be perfect -- not animal bites, no blossom end rot.  Of course, writing these words means I'm probably jinxing it.

Isn't it beautiful?

We plan to harvest it tomorrow with Luke's help.  He wants to be involved.  I want to get one closer look at it before Luke promptly devours it.

 That's my Luke -- he loves tomatoes.

Despite the extreme heat (temps have been close to triple digits for the past few weeks), the garden appears to be holding in there.  We try to water by hand every other day, and the drip irrigation helps on the days we can't water by hand.  I REALLY need to mulch.  That will help a lot with keeping the ground cool and moist.  It's a chore I plan to finally take on this weekend.

We finally harvested one of the peppers and left it on the vine until it was really red.  I think this one is hot -- I don't believe we planted any sweet peppers this year.

I just love this photo that Andy took of it. The pepper is nearly as big as the plant -- I swear!  I think we're finally getting the hang of this gardening in Texas stuff.

Of course, now is the time of year I don't want to work in the garden -- it's just plain hot out there.  But the garden calls me, and I better heed the call.  Otherwise the plants will stop producing!

You know how I know?  Our blackberries are ripening!

It's time to put up bird netting.  I'm surprised they haven't already been attacked.  Luke has already gobbled up the first ripe berry.  I can't wait to try the next!

 This makes me sad.  This squash and a volunteer in another bed have been attacked.  I'm thinking it was squash borers.

This is the one we got a huge zuchinni from.  I've already lost two other squash plants after their leaves curled all up -- not sure what caused that.

Awwww... sad.

 Our garden (and surrounding yard) is taking off thanks to a recent bout of consistent rain.  A soaking rain has fallen every few days or so, and as a result everything small has doubled in size -- and even the big stuff is loving it.

I noticed some green tomatoes on a couple of the transplants, and Andy found a fairly large pepper.  The strawberry transplants are huge and putting out a good amount of fruit for Luke to snack on, and we found a small zucchini on one squash plant with HUGE leaves.  Basically, everything is growing well -- store-bought transplants, transplants I started inside, and direct-sown seeds.  I hope the momentum continues.

There are wildflowers growing all over the yard, and I tried hard to leave patches alone when I mowed Saturday.   I'm not sure what some are in the backyard, but I did notice some Bluebonnets and Praire Fleabane popping up in areas around the front.

The weeds are also flourishing, and it's time I mulch the garden beds.  The soil is warm anough now to handle it.  That will have to be next weekend's project.

It's a rainy Easter Sunday, and I've heard many people lament the forecast.  However, I was very grateful to hear rain on the windows early this morning when I awoke.  It's not just dry... it's fire season.  Smoke from wildfires in North Texas blew over the Austin area on Good Friday, and before it blew out, at one point, the air was thick and it was hard to stand outside.

So rain is a good thing.  I won't need to water my vegetable garden today, which is doing pretty well.  The plants are intact, and when the overnight temperatures threatened to drop below 40 one night this week, I rushed outside with a frost blanket, which I cut up and placed over each row.  So far so good....

The strawberries are still producing, the chard leaves are huge, and the most exciting news -- healthy looking blackberry plants, with several young fruit!

In addition to vegetables, the wildflowers I planted last fall are popping up all over the place.  I found bluebonnets in the blackberries and in the side yard with the mountain laurel.  There is another prolific wildflower -- called Indian blanket I think -- that is growing all over the yard and now beginning to bloom.  They are a gorgeous reddish-orange and yellow.

I love spring. 

 SIGH.

Something ate my tomato plants.  I checked again this morning, and most had been chomped.  I can't find the answer in any of my reference books, and there is no sign of the culprit.
So we made our way to The Natural Gardener this morning and bought tomato plant seedlings -- 13 of them.  Along with 2 peppers and multiple squash and cantaloupe.
I have no idea what kind of tomatoes we got.  They're all different, but the one thing I focused on was the time to harvest.  I specifically looked for varieties that were 55 to 65 days to maturity.  The last thing I need is the Texas summer heat to kill them off again.

 This year we decided against the cages in favor of a larger trellis for the plants.  The bull wire we have wasn't large enough to make into a "lean-to" over the beds, so instead we rigged up the wire along the middle of 2 of the beds.  I planted the new tomatoes along the trellis on either side.  And...  just in case some larger critter is chomping on the plants (like a stupid cat, which has already crapped around the persimmon and dug up a strawberry) I put bird-netting over one of the beds.  We ran out of netting, so I'm hoping the plants will last long enough for me to go out and buy more.

SIGH -- all that work on growing the seedlings... Thank goodness there's a plan B.

 Argh!!!!!  Of the dozens of tomato seedlings we planted, only a few are left, and they look really pathetic.  At first I thought they just shriveled up, but now I think something is eating on them.  Trouble it, and can't find evidence of the culprit.

Argh!!!