Garden Guild visits Boggy Creek Farm

She had some very interesting perspectives on things including early blight on tomatoes. She says every year some of the plants get it. It is the climate as much as anything. she leaves the plants alone and just keeps picking until the crop is done--in another few weeks here. her plants look like mine--some brown and dying leaves and branches and lots of growth still, blooms and fruit. She plants in long rows --kind of in hills with valleys between. she runs drip line down the row along the stem and waters when the plants are newly transplanted and until they set fruit then hardly at all. she does have clay soil under the composted and organic soil she has built up over the years. Squash and melons are blooming and setting, she seems to have some bees.


I didn't see peppers but she had them for sale in the tarped area out front.  She did have okra, sunflowers, eggplants and melons. She kept telling us that people put on way too much nitrogen and to not pull the plants out after the season but to just cut them at the ground, chop them with a hoe, add a bit of sulfur and gypsum, and plant the next crop between them to use the nutrients that the plants have brought to their root area. It seems to be working for her and she has had the concern for nearly 40 years now.


It was interesting that she started raising chickens for the droppings and sells the eggs to pay for the feed, adding the droppings to the brush/leaf/compost pile she builds and uses.
Boggy Creek Farm is at 3414 Lyons Road, Austin TX 78702.

Heat happy plants coming into their own

With all the 95 degree days we are having my heat thriving plants are coming into their own, blooming and setting fruit that we are really looking forward to. Not to say anything bad about the greens (especially as they are responsible for my recent weight loss!) but they have been very productive for a long time. It is nice to see the eggplant and peppers of all kinds on their bushes. I am growing both kinds of eggplant this year-Black Beauty and long purple. The many pepper plants are thriving in the shelter of the converted greenhouse giving us a few peppers every day from one or another of the plants.  Putting row cover cloth over our GH frame is giving a great sheltered place to grow them. We have Anaheims, small orange and red sweet,  jalepenos, habeneros, sweet banana, poblano, and giant red sweet. Now for some new recipes. 
As you can see I am adding lots of mulch to keep the soil mosture in. I have been reading the pros and cons of this method and it is sure food for thought.  We have been discussing how to expand or continue the design in the front shade garden. While I have added begonias and inpatients I am still looking for more ideas there and for the walkway.


Wish the cucumbers and squash were doing as well--getting squash borers on many of the plants that the pill bugs let grow. I have an organic spray by Green light with  Spinosad  that is highly recommended so I have hopes otherwise, it is grow bags for us this summer. I have looked at homemade organic treatments to keep the plants healthier but haven't needed much this year. 


I have lots of New Zealand spinach growing and finally put up a tee pee for the Malabar spinach. Cannot say enough about planting the varieties that are recommended for our area. 


I was intrigued by the new SF garden on our tour and need to investigate the soil mix Steve and Karen are using to produce the stunning amount of vegetables in such a small raised bed. I am also looking at how best to maintain a great level of nutrients that matches what I want to grow or when to supplement. Lots to think about before fall. 

Spring bringing change to the gardens

 The winter garden this year was amazingly productive but as I pull out the cauliflower and broccoli plants I have all kinds of spring summer plants ready to slip into the ground. Using the window grow box and the greenhouse to grow my transplants has helped me to provide plants for the garden that I know were grown the way I want them grown. I kind of jumped the season a bit by planting tomatoes on Christmas day but when they were transplanted in the  last couple of weeks they

were ready. Some had buds on them and many now are blooming. A few even have tomatoes on them already. We refinished a bench glider and put it on a platform against the house looking out on the gardens. We can sit morning and late afternoon and have a drink and rest looking out at our bounty. More than that, people who are walking by stop and ask questions about the garden and the plants and are amazed that the plants are largely vegetables with a smattering of flowers here and there.

I thought by now I would be taking the sides off the greenhouse and replacing the plastic with row cover cloth but the extra humidity has the peppers going crazy and setting lots of fruit so I am holding off a few more weeks. I found a variety of cucumbers that do not need pollinators to grow in the greenhouse and have a nice showing already.
Off to do more planting as there are still a few feet of unplanted soil that I can drop seeds into.

A very bountiful winter

I have to admit that I planted a few too many seeds in my little starters. Never in my wildest imaginings was I prepared for all of them to germinate and thrive. The winter crops have been incredibly bountiful enabling me to share with friends and put some bags of cauliflower and broccoli in the freezer for later in the year. Now the kohl rabi is starting to head up and the cabbage is heading nicely. Should hold us for another 6-8 weeks, maybe more. We even made our first batch of sauerkraut and several batches of slaw--from the cauliflower leaves and bok choi. Fabulous tasting and better than just composting the leaves. My husband says we are on a cabbage diet and maybe we are as we are focusing on eating what I am growing.

The Malabar spinach and new Zealand spinach that did not do well last year both have seeded themselves and are thriving.  Even the regular spinach which we can only grow over the winter and early spring here is much more productive this year than it ever has been. I am also having a bumper crop of peas that I planted last October and suddenly took off with the rains this winter. Chard, of course is thriving and so pretty.

I wound up with 4 different kinds of cherry tomatoes/small tomatoes so they are going to stay in large pots and sit next to the greenhouse. I tried to find tomatoes that would thrive in the heat of our summer and am trying a couple of Porters and Porters Pride, Creole, Heatwave, super Sioux, and Arkansas traveler. I may have a couple of Romas or not. They did so poorly last year that I am about given up on them. I have both Black beauty and oriental eggplant, one that wintered over is blooming to beat the band--now will it set fruit? I haven't figured out where to put the green beans but they are so good fresh that we have to put some in. I am going to put more cucumbers in the greenhouse with row cover to try and avoid the bugs.
If I can find room for most of the plants I will be lucky. Maybe I'll have to share a few of the little guys with friends to turn them on to gardening too.

Home-made heat mat for seedlings

I got a link for a homemade light box to start seedlings in my http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/11658/diy-heat-mat-speeds-seed-starting email this week but it used expensive rope lighting that I did not have on hand and many of our local stores did not have in stock due to clearance sales. I also was not sure I wanted to construct a box of plywood right now as we are redoing the kitchen and that takes priority. I did have a heavy cardboard box the right size and several strings of mini-lights that are not LED  to make a try. 

1. After cutting the box to size for half my windowsill  I added a 3" wide box in the center for stability and possibly to set transitional plant on top of. 
2. Next the lights were divided between the 2 halves and mostly  positioned under the lids of egg cartons. This give a good surface to set the plant trays and keeps the light a bit subdued. 
3. Next I secured enough plastic to make a cover and added a couple of pieces of styrofoam to insulate near the window. The plastic keeps in the heat and humidity pretty well. 
4. I added a tray of seed for the first trial. The temperature at top of soil level is an even 70 degrees which is perfect for the tomatoes. We used the top of the  freezer last year but some of the seeds need light to germinate or shortly after and the hotter and cooler cycles probably weren't the optimal either.

I  made my own starter cups using a clear XL egg carton with its top as the drip tray. Of course I did use the organic seed starting soil I have used in the past. Next week we'll see how things are actually progressing.

Heating my greenhouse easier than expected

Keeping the plants from freezing was easily accomplished but keeping the soil temperature in the pots above 50 degrees to let the tomatoes and peppers continue to ripen and maybe to set more fruit on the cherry tomatoes has provided a bit of a challenge. 


A single layer of 6mil plastic was letting the temperature drop a bit too much at night so I added a night cover of a reflective back tarp I got on sale at Harbor Freight over the summer. Using it has let me turn the heater down to low and still maintain temperatures 10-15 degrees higher than ambient over night. It has been a bit of a hassle putting it on at night and taking it off in the morning but I am finding new baby tomatoes so I do not mind so much. 


The entire structure has a double layer of cardboard about 20" high around the base right now but will slowly be augmented with 2" thick styrofoam blocks. I will also try adding large cell bubble wrap to the inside of the roof in hopes of limiting the use of the tarp. Bubble wrap could stay in place all day and actually add a bit to the heating.


Thanks to all who helped find the ideal temperature for the greenhouse as the cherry tomato that went in covered with blooms a couple of weeks ago is setting fruit like crazy--saw 8-10 new ones today. The celebrity tomatoes that were already on the plants are thriving and the first one is ripening. I do not expect more fruit to set. Peppers seem to have a few new blooms but again am not expecting anything but growing out those on the plants already.
 

cabbages and bee baths

The cabbage continue to get bigger even with the temperatures over 101 every day. They are making little cabbages at the leaf junctions so I cut the top head and some of the huge leaves. I want to make more cabbage rolls and slaw but found some of the bottom leaves have created little water wells--bee baths to be precise. Coming into the garden around 6pm there were dozens of bees under and around the cabbages landing on the leaves and taking a sip from the water that accumulated in the leaves. If I had laid soakers, I never would have created these havens for the bees.

The  purple basil is going to see and blooming like crazy right next to the cabbage providing lots of spots for the bees in addition to the cosmos on the other side. Here's hoping they keep coming.

Wells Branch Garden Tour this Saturday

Wells Branch Garden Tour!!

June 4, 2011 Time: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

We will meet at the first garden on the list and spend approximately 20 minutes at each garden, have some discussions and either walk and/or carpool to the next garden location. **Open to everyone!**

 Order of garden tour:

1.      Patsy Nelson-Farmer      2302 Rick Whinery Dr.

2.      Tara Fisher-Muñoz         2300 Rick Whinery Dr.

3.     Mona Speranza                2102 Nathan Dr.

4.     Mari Noga                         2027 Cervin

5.     Dianne Koehler                 14909 Alpha Collier

6.     Kathleen Clark                  2209 Quiet Wood Dr.

7.     George Holcombe            14900 Yellow Leaf

We will have some refreshments and mingling at George’s garden! Please join us for this fun Wells Branch Garden Tour!!

Rainwater harvesting and rain barrels with Hari Krishna

Is collecting rain water worth the effort? Is it hard to do? What do you need to do this? How much water can you collect and how do you use it? Where do you get equipment to harvest rainwater? Does it need any treatment?

On Saturday, February 5th the Wells Branch Garden Guild will host guest speaker Dr. Hari Krishna, noted expert on this topic. We'll explore the ways to collect rainwater and to effectively reuse the water we collect, how to find and pay for the systems (rebates available?) and more. 

"At one time Wells Branch probably had more Rain Water Reuse than any other neighborhood.  We still may, but I'm not sure. The one thing I can add to the conversation is how every single drop of treated water we save helps lower the whole neighborhood's water bills." per Donna Howe, WB MUD.

Gardeners investigate growing fruit trees and bushes

With a turnout that filled the room to over-flowing into the hallway, Wells Branch gardeners turned out to share information and learn from the experts about growing fruit trees. Topics ranged from which varieties would actually grow in our soil to how big does the tree get to pruning and planting and location. Many of the attendees have fruit trees or have had them but still had questions on their care or if they had the right variety. We viewed a video clip from KLRU featuring Drew Demler from last year then followed with a Q&A session with Tim Pfluger from Green and Growing in Pflugerville. 


We got information about root stock types and how to plant bare root and container grown trees.  Lara's pears are rock hard. "Normal for that variety, probably a Bartlet, as it is a cooking pear," said our expert Tim. Best fruit trees for our area are pears, peaches and plums, and of course figs. Several varieties of apples grow well here too and are available locally in dwarf types that are much more suitable for back yard gardening. Apricots don't always do well as they are not very tolerant of late frosts, much like citrus that does best in containers that can be moved to a warmer location.  Several people noted using CDs in the trees to scare off the birds but one lady said her grandchild asked if she was growing CDs which produced quite a bit of laughter.


Now is the time on a warm day to spray the fruit trees with dormant or neem oil to reduce the incidence of insects damaging the fruit. It is also the time to do pruning to shape the tree properly for fruit production. We even got advise on thinning the fruit on the trees to get larger, better fruits by removing the little ones right away to make room for the remaining ones to grow. Tim recommended a trip to Love Orchards in Medina, TX for apples. I found a blog entry about them too. 


We also discussed berries, which to grow and which to leave to the farmers. Grow blackberries and raspberries in the ground and blueberries in pots. Leave the strawberries to the farmers unless you just want to nibble. More later on all the advise on soil amendments.

Gardener's group to meet Nov 6

What a great meeting this is shaping up to be! Come early at 11:30 for a seed and plant exchange then stay for this great program beginning at noon. 


First we'll have not one but two guests from the Native Plants Society of Williamson county who are master gardeners or naturalists (that means that they know quite a lot and have taken special certification classes) then we'll  be having a plant and seed exchange. Our first guest Janet Church, who knows something about soil, is bringing kits with her and will explain how to take samples and submit them to the lab for analysis. She says she is open to questions about the whole topic of soil so we can ask anything we want. I think she may have information on what to do with the results and may be able to elaborate on the soil problems guide I got from my on-line gardening group. 

Then WB resident Shelley Palmer (at left pointing out a tree to residents) will  lead a discussion on  “Sustainable landscaping with Texas native plants." She’ll talk about the reasons to do this, how to do this, resources and a city of Austin program that might be of help. This is so timely as the requests for funds need to be into the program by December. She will be bringing a box of the Green Grower books also.

Transplanting and planting time in September

The cool weather has me reinvigorated! I have been transplanting my lettuce from the picnic table (we may actually be able to use it this fall) into the garden mixed with a new multi-colored chard. The chard does not seem as ruffle leafed but it is pretty with red and yellow stems. I may even put some in my shade garden out front. I added a few spinach transplants to the far end and my seed some directly at the other end. Last winter that made them official bug food though so maybe more flats and transplants.


I transplanted the broccoli this morning and will pick up BT at Lowe's today. Using the companion planting theme (if it works) I seeded beets between them. The New Zealand spinach is loving the recent rains and the cooler nights and growing like crazy (lower left) I am getting a cup or so a day from this little patch.


The new cherry tomatoes are thriving in their pots so maybe we'll get some tomatoes this fall and winter after all. The purple basil is going crazy as well and needs to be harvested again. For a plant that is hard to start it sure gets going well.

I expanded the shade garden in the front yard another 5 feet and need to mulch it. Our plan is to bring it all the way out to the junction of the front sidewalk and driveway. 


I have some house plants in there that will have to come inside this winter if it freezes and lirope and a number of perenials which I hope to add to this fall. The Laura Bush petunias are finally doing well and blooming. The plumeria has held on and the new ruelia is taking hold. 

Revising the beds in September

This week George came into the house and looked so sad. The spider-mites have attacked all the marigolds in the front garden and even with spray, we are not winning. The tree is giving this garden too much shade so it needed a makeover badly but its been too hot and dry to attempt it before. 


Today it rained about 1/4" so I pulled out the sick marigolds and began to move plants around. We have lots of liriope along the walkway and in the back garden and it is blooming with pretty little white and purple spikes. I put some bunches here and there then pulled out some of the Aspidistra plants I had on the front porch with their pretty white blooms and added them. Lastly a few more blue salvia and a couple of the Laura Bush petunias and the bed does not look half bad. I guess I should have taken a "before" but it was way too sad!

The area down the side of the garage with the new walk way does look beautiful. I moved a few of the Red tropical sage from the front walk where they are dwarfing the blue salvia to along the garage wall behind the liriope. The marigolds over here are still holding on. Of course the crepe myrtles are thriving and dropping seeds everywhere. Turns out to be good mulch under the plants.

May and the plants are thriving

I keep thinking that the garden is going to thrive any day but all I am getting is greens. I found and installed a pump for the rain barrels not on the PVC system. It was only $9.95 at Harbor Freight and works well. It does need its handle permanently attached. I haven't had to use any water other than rain so far this year.


I was out in the garden peeking around and have about a dozen little eggplants on the plant I wintered over in the greenhouse.  It has been blooming for a week or so but the hot weather this week "bore fruit." The two new plants also look like they are going to set. So exciting! Now if the
tomatoes will put on more and ripen.....
I am really having issues with the bugs this year--some kind of mite. Suddenly I have Asparagus coming up so I am going to baby it. Only 2 of the 5 roots of Raspberries have leafed out. I am tending the others but don't hold much hope.