Not Looking so good this year

So for some reason, the garden is not doing so well this year.  I am not sure what the problem is.   The only factors that have changed since last year are that I planted everything about 2 weeks later than normal and I decided to mulch around the plants to retain moisture and cool down the dirt underneath. 



Today I was able to harvest one measly little corn cob from the small batch I had.  From the evidence on the ground, it looks like the squirrels at least enjoyed my corn.  I lit up the grill and threw it on for a few minutes, buttered it up, and added some Tony's seasoning.  It wasn't that bad.  With corn being 6 ears for $1 at HEB, its not even worth trying to grow in the backyard.








The only reason I had it was that I planted it up at the school I work at for the students' garden
and transplanted it after school was out because first, I wanted to see if it would transplant, and second, I didn't want to just waste it.  It actually transplanted better than the other plants I brought home.  The problem was that the batteries in my water timer went out and a few days went by without my plants getting any water.




Mechanics of Gardening:

I finally finished the rain barrel, but Austin still hasn't had much rain this spring and summer.  However, I will be ready for when it does.   Austin will be going to a Stage 2 water restriction this Monday due to the ongoing drought.   So to help out, I have my timer and soaker hoses going off at 4am for only 20 minutes.  After some Internet research, I think I am not watering long enough.  I am going to change my watering routine and see if there will be any improvement.

 

To assist in water conservation and with the mosquito problem, I added some river rock in the gutters.  This will displace the amount of water needed in the gutters but still be able to raise the level of water to reach the baskets in the bottom of the 5 gallon buckets.  The day I filled the gutters with rocks and refilled with water, my little frog friend popped out.  Not sure if he is still around anymore since there is less room for him to lounge around in the gutters.  

It's been about a month since I started the garden with small transplants and seeds and as of today, I have only harvested a handful of grape tomatoes, a few basil leaves, 1 ear of corn, a lot of lettuce, and 2 small acorn squash. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

A little friend and foe

So things are slowing beginning to produce in the garden.   So far a few little grape tomatoes have been ripe enough to pick and a couple of the Early Girls as well.  Looks like I have a three cabbage shoots sprouting up to in one of the raised beds.  Everything seems to be going well with the old beds.  I laid out a soaker hose and covered it with some mulch this year to see if it helps with the watering.   I am still using the timer on the hose and have only been letting it water for 15 minutes.  I recently decided to increase the time to 20 minutes to see if there will be any change.

I spent most of my weekend working on the rain barrel for the self-watering gutter grow system.  I finally have it finished and still need to install it.  So far I have just been dumping collected rain water from five gallon buckets into the gutters to feed the plants.  One day as I was moving the buckets over, I found a little friend sitting in the water just soaking up the coolness of the water.

To help with the mosquito problem, I went to a local pet store and purchased some 10 cent fish to eat the larvae.   Not sure if its working or not.  Only bought 4 fish, so either I didn't buy enough or there are just to many larvae.   I ended up doing some research and found that I could use the mosquito dunks in the gutters and that it would not be harmful to my vegetables.

This past week I spent all day Monday trying to fix my fence (it was leaning in my neighbors yard at about a 45 degree angle. So I straightened up the post and decided to cut the pickets in half and make a 3ft fence.  This will allow my neighbor and I to talk with each other, keep Cassie in my yard, his kids in his yard, and the sun to hit both of our gardens.

The squirrels are back!  I found this guy just lounging around, probably because he was full of eating my vegetables.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Getting 2013 summer garden up and running

Due to a late freeze this year, I finally got the garden started about two weeks after Spring Break.  Hopefully the late start won't hurt me to much this year.   So every year I try something new to experiment with in my garden.  This year its several things.  The first thing I am trying is companion planting.  I have been reading up on this in a few books and various websites and found it intriguing so I thought lets give it a go.  Another thing I decided to try this year is mulching over my soaker hoses to save on water loss.   Austin already has a stage 2 water restriction in place.  I know vegetable gardens are exempt from the restriction, but I figure if I can do my part in water conservation then that means it will just add on to the future of available water source.

The third thing I decided to experiment with I got from a friend of mine.  Its a self-watering gutter system using five gallon buckets.  After doing some quick research online, I found that this method was created by a guy named Larry Hall.  He has a few videos out explaining it and many people use this method for rooftop gardens in urban areas.  Since I already had a few plastic gutters laying around in the garage, I figured why not try it.  I found some food grade buckets on craigslist for $2 each, spent about $10 on some treated 2x4s at the home improvement store, and some netcups at a local nursery for about $5 for about 18 cups.  The only real money I spent was on the float valve to adjust the water level in the gutters.   I still have to find a barrel to hold the water in but I have guy who will hook me up.   Just need to call him.

So looking at what I started with this year is this
seedlings:
tomatoes- purchased 6 (variety of kinds), 16 that just popped up in the beds
zucchini- purchased 4, 3 that popped up on their own
cucumbers- purchased 6,
bell peppers- purchased 6
okra- purchased 3
grape- purchased 6 plants


from seed:
bib lettuce
spinach
mixed greens
bush beans
corn
radishes
cabbage
basil (not sure if I threw out some seed or it just magically appeared like last year)


 As of today, we have had several salads with the amount of lettuce and spinach I've grown.  I made some pickled radishes the other day, and have just started pulling off a few cherry tomatoes.

My one failure so far this year has been my "salad table" constructed with some leftover gutters and 2x4s from my garage.  The problem is that I drilled too many holes in the bottom of the gutters so all the water drains out and the shallow depth of the gutters dry out way to quick for anything to sustain growth.  The only way to keep things growing is to water 2x's a day and that's not good for me. 

 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!