November Gardening Notes

So far we have had some heavy rains every weekend for the past 3 weeks (since mid-October).   I have taken this opportunity to transplant a few things with the help of the well saturated soil.

Maple tree- moved from the center of garden beds to the old original square bed located to the left of current garden beds.

Unknown tree growing in one of the back beds by the recently planted peach tree- relocated to a bucket for now until species has been identified and a permanent location can be determined.

Tomato cuttings- taken from a cutting from this past spring planting, planted one in each of the garden beds.   Some basil is growing well thanks to the rain.

Mango tree grown from seed is growing well, now about a foot tall in a large pot.

Green onions are springing back thanks to the rain.


Notes for future work-

• prune front yard pear trees in late January- early February to avoid damage from freeze
• prune back yard and side yard ash trees- long branches to avoid potential damage from splitting or breaking off (fence, house, pergola)
• prune grape vines and transplant early February and transplant cuttings
• put in post and lines for grape vines
• move raised beds to make room for grape vines

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

To Do or Not to Do... that is the question

So this year I have been pondering whether to do a fall garden or not.  I am thinking of giving the beds a rest and just prep them with more compost to revitalize the nutrients back into the soil.  This would be like a crop rotation for a large farm.  After a very dry summer, we had about 3 months without a drop of rain, our fall has been the opposite.  The past two weekends was nothing but rain.  Yesterday, Austin got 14" of rain in some areas.   My backyard is a swamp..... would make a great rice field!

A few weeks back, I watched an episode of Texas Central Gardener where I was introduced to the concept of dry gardening/ farming.  Being that our summer's can be pretty hot and dry, this peeked an interest in me, so I did a little more research on it.  The idea is that to produce more yield, you plant less crops and space them out.  So whatever the recommended space would be, you would double it.  The extra spacing between plants gives the plant less competition for water.  Once you plant it, you do a slow drip watering to get the roots to grow deep instead of wide toward the ground water.  There are other techniques to help with water loss like a light soil tilling a day after the rain so the top layer of soil doesn't dry out and crack.  This keeps the top layer like a blanket which keeps the water from evaporating.  Another thing you can do is to do a dust mulching, which after a rain, you lightly cover the ground with a thin layer of organic mulch.  Remember to keep the mulch a few inches away from the actual plant to avoid any burning.

Its been about 3 months now since the completion of the backyard grape pergola.  We have enjoyed it a lot, retreating to it after a long day of teaching, with a beverage and light snack.  I spruced it up with some rope lighting and a few fans to help keep the mosquitoes at bay and for a cool breeze.  I also found an old metal chandelier at a thrift store and took out all the wiring.  Its just hanging above the 8ft picnic table, but it gives it a touch of ambiance.  I threw on some screen fabric to provide a little shade over half of it and its all good.



 New plants to locate for future planting:

• garlic chives- perennial, fast growing, great for adding to cooking, spreading plant
 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Last summer harvest

Even though it hasn't been a bountiful growing season,   I still harvested enough for Jennie and I, with a little left over to share with friends.

With the temperatures now consistently hitting triple digits, I have stopped watering and am just letting everything bolt and go to seed. The tomatoes plants only have a few tiny fruits on them so no big loss there.   

Today I picked 6 good sized straight eight cucumbers.   Looks like I'll be making some more pickles and maybe some to Hummus or or dip.  

I am using the last of the tomatoes to make some homemade pasta sauce. Add some fresh basil, oregano, and peppers from the garden to some goat cheese, ricotta, deli turkey and prosciutto on some whole wheat crust and grill it on the grill, you get one delicious pizza.  

I ate half of it before taking this pic because it looked so yummy... and it was.  

Hopefully before going back to work, I can get my beds ready for the fall growing season.   Going to scale back though to give the soil time to replenish its much needed nutrients.   

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Vineyard table finally done

Got the legs stained and now just need a coat of poly to protect it from the elements. 

Harvested another dozen green and semi-red tomatoes, roasted them, and made some delicious salsa. Picked a couple cucumbers as well and made some cucumber,tomato,jalapeno,garlic, and sour cream salsa.  

Now that we have officially got the Texas heat here, the garden isn't looking so well anymore.  Not much growing still so I think I'm not going to waste anymore water on it and think I'll will just start getting things ready for the fall garden.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Halfway through summer

I had the amazing opportunity to spend 16 days of June in Ireland with my wife and her family.

 While there we visited my FIL's 5th cousin and their farm.  His wife had a huge greenhouse that she said was her "little project". I was a bit jealous of the magnitude of it. I'm in the orange checking out the gooseberry plants.

  

Meanwhile back in the states I was fortunate enough to have rain on many of the days that we were gone. I had picked about 10 huge green tomatoes and left them on a plate for them to ripen. Our house and dog sitter ate the tomatoes and said they were delicious.  My neighbor looked after my garden and picked two zucchini squash to enjoy for his family.  When I gat back the tomato plants had lost most of there leaves, cucumber vines had grown to the top of my 10ft trellis, and the mystery tree (maple) had grown to about 5ft tall.  

So as of the first of July,  I have harvested a ton of jalapeños, about 3 bowls of various tomatoes (@ 10lbs), 5 zucchini, 3 straight eight cucumbers, and about a dozen bell and sweet peppers.  Not a bad season so far.  Thanks to the aboundance of rain this season, I have used very little city water.  I also think though that the rain drowned out most of my plants too.  

This year's homestead project has been my grapevine pergola.  It has taken me a few weeks to work on.  I just have a few little things left but it's pretty much done.  

I built a table and used some scape wood found on the curb to build three benches.  It's been a fun project.  

Lately I have been into growing fruit trees.  Here is a sapling of a mango tree I started from a grocery store mango. 

One of my three Bradford pear trees is producing fruit. 

If you haven't started your own garden it's not to late.  Get those beds ready for a fall garden or even plant a tomato plant in a bucket. With our summer heat usually lasting until almost October, you still have time for a late summer harvest.  Either way, as I always like to say..... Happy gardening and Get Dirty!

First produce of the season

The benefits of watering your garden with pure natural rain.  

The radishes are looking good and tasting even better.   With a nice bite to them, they have been the perfect addition to a real "garden" salad with the butter Bibb lettuce that is still growing from the fall.

Some jalapeños and Aladdin peppers are here thanks to the bountiful rain we have been blessed with for the past week.  For cast predicts two more weeks of rain which is wonderful for the garden but even better for my watering expenses.  

Tomato plants are a good three feet high and have several green fruits on them.  Maybe in a week or two some will be ready for picking.  Can't wait to make some roasted green salsa.  

The beets from the fall are likely as big as softballs, but can't decide what to do with them.  Roast them and put them on a salad and pickle the rest.  May try eating the greens as chips or sauted.  

Transplanted mint is doing well, but the cilantro and basil are not. I think the zucchini plants and tomato plants are blocking out to much sun for them.  Will just have to wait and see.  

The mystery tree is growing rapidly. The leaves look like a maple tree.  Need to do some research soon to see if it's a tree I want to keep.  The only trees I like are ines that give me something to eat.  Speaking of trees, the peach tree has a a couple of fruits on it already.  

Picked up a fig tree thanks to a student who gave me a gift card to Natural Gardeners.  Planted it in my new butterfly garden beside the future pergola.  

I finally got the three pergola post in the ground and planted three of the five grape plants beside them.   Not sure where to put the remaining two vines.  One of the ground vines as tiny little grapes on it.  Can't wait for it to grow and cover the future pergola where we can sit, enjoy the weather and view, and share a meal with family and friends. 

On another note, just returned from a trip to Boston where a visit to Fenway Park , I got to see a rooftop garden in person.  It was pretty cool. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Spring break garden chores

It's that time to get the beds ready for the spring/summer garden. I decided to move my raised beds around to get maximum usage of every bed. With the old layout, two beds got shade early and provided little growth.  The new layout will hopefully allow better usage of soaker hoses and sun exposure.  I also designed it to allow a space for a plum tree in the back.

I had to transplant my onions, cilantro, and celery.  Lucked out that it rained the day after to give them a good soaking to take root. 

The Swiss chard continues to grow like its a perennial.  I have planned several meals this week to use it and the cilantro. 

I had and wanted to transplant the grapevines (only one of five didn't make it). I think the oregano smothered it out.  I had an idea to build a pergola and plant them so that they would grow up and over it. Problem is that I don't know when I will have time to build it.  I also want and need to make some cuttings to root some more vines.  

The biggest achievement was finally getting the old cedar trunks out.  I even got rid of them on Craigslist within two hours of posting it.  I moved the old grape trellis to the side and plan on using it to train future cucumbers and cantaloupe vines.  

I spread out some oregano to grow in different places and built a little butterfly garden to help with pollination and insect control. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!