New season... New experiments

 So this year I am trying the dry farming method.  This procedure you spread out your plants 3 feet apart and water less. The goal is for each plant to take up any available water to use. Best way to describe this method is to think of plants that live in the desert. You bury your plants deep and water less frequently. So far the tomato plants have not grown very much. They're only about a foot tall. Last year at this time my plants were about 3 feet tall and already starting to produce fruit. Not sure if this method is going to work, but patience  is a gardener's worst enemy. 

A cool thing is that some bell pepper and jalapeño plants that I used in the buckets last year are starting to produce again.

I used one bed as my random salad bed.  I just took the seeds and randomly threw them in.  Growing is broccoli, lettuce, and carrots.  

Another experiment I am trying are some worm composting buckets.   Not sure how well they are working yet either.  

Took some cuttings from the grape vines and pear tree in January and they are taking root.  

I also started some seeds back in late March and some are coming up.  Looks like butternut squash from grocery store produce, watermelon, bell pepper, honeydew, and green beans.  

I have big aspirations to turn my whole front yard into an edible garden patch but just haven't had time to get it started.  I did however put in some 4x4 posts and planted 4 grape vines between them.   I want to create a living fence as part of the edible garden design.

Until next time...

Go Garden and Get Dirty!

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!