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!

Getting the fall garden ready

So after a couple of days a good rain, today was a good day to get the beds ready and plant some seeds.  I removed what was left of the cantaloupe vines and tomatoes and planted some seeds. I also took some cuttings from the cherry tomato plants and transplanted those into different beds.  While transplanting some the cherry tomatoes I found this little green fella, first one I have ever seen.   

Hopefully he is taking care of these little things. 

For this year's fall garden I planted cantaloupe, carrots, watermelon, beets, broccoli, cilantro, brussels sprouts, and kale.  Plants that are continuing to grow from the summer are tomatoes, jalapenos, eggplant, sweet peppers, and celery that I took from the kitchen and planted.  The Swiss chard which was completely eaten by bugs, a couple of weeks ago, I just cut everything off and after the days of rain, new leaves have started to grow.

The herbs are doing pretty good still, after the rain the basil has sprouted back, the mint has come back and it looks like new basil has started popping up in A few new places.

Can't remember if I posted this in my last post but some onions that I planted four years ago in one of my old beds are still growing. I transplanted them to some new beds and they are still looking good. We cut off the tops and eat fresh scallions.

About a month ago I planted some tomatillos and forgot about it. Plants that were popping up where I planted them. I. thought they were weeds and so I ripped them out but it looks like that's what a tomatillo plant looks like.  So I'm gonna leave them in this time.

I decided to make some markers for my plants because I always forgot what I planted and the old markers I used had either faded or they broke so this time I took a paint pen and wrote on some rocks I had in the backyard. 

I am still thinking about transplanting my grapevines but my neighbor keeps telling me not to. He tells me I should make some cuttings and then plant those into my new spots. I just don't like how my trellis project looks and I want to build a new one. I want to take the the cross support beams that I used for my grapes and move them to the side of my bed and use it as a wall for my cucumbers and watermelons to climb up. The only problem would be that after a while the plants would block out the morning sun from the rest of the garden. 

Some other good news that happened to me this week, a friend of mine called me up because he got a garden plot at community garden in downtown Austin and wants me to help him out getting it started. It made me feel good to know that my gardening experience is getting recognized.  

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

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!