Garden guild meeting June 2014

We had probably one of our very best speakers of the year last Saturday at the Garden guild meeting. Sam Slaughter from Gabriel Valley Farms spoke to us on organic pesticides at the meeting. He was incredibly knowledgeable and it brought sheets for us to take notes on that had all the different categories of pesticides that he discussed. 

He stressed at the very first thing you needed to do was identify what the pest was that you were wanting to treat or eliminate. You can do a web search looking for pictures or images of the pests you have found, take a picture of them with your camera or phone, and ask the county extension office to help you identify what the pest is. Once you've identified the pest then decide how aggressively you want or need to treat for this particular pest. Sometimes you may want to use a trap, just hose them off with a stream of water, or pick them off by hand. You may also want to promote beneficial insects in order to control the pests. Some of these are ladybugs and lacewings or special companion plants that serve to deter pests. If you are going to use beneficial insets remember that many of the pesticides will kill them as well so introducing ladybugs and then spraying with the pesticide is not in an effective way to manage the problem. 

Next he talked about a broad spectrum organic pesticide called spinosad. This is found in several other products as well as a product in its own right. Oils that can be used in the garden are listed as neem oil, cinnamon oil, orange oil, and karaja oil. He said it is more a presence and aroma thing and they are all about as effective as each other.  They are surfactants that clog up the thorax of the insects they are fairly general i.e. not specific to anyone one pest. It is best to use them in the evening as they have about a 24 hour lifespan and most of them need to be used under a temperature of 92° and when it is not sunny to prevent burning of the foliage of the plants.

There are number of soaps on the market that are specifically organic one is safer soap a second one is Desex. You can also use Castile soap, Ivory soap but detergents like Dawn are not organic.

He also talked about pyrethrins which come from a specific Chrysanthemum. This is a much older class of organic pesticide and  is a neurotoxin to the bugs but not to people. The lifespan of these also is about 24 hours give or take. They are great to use on aphids one time. It seems that the pests that are not killed off the first time around develop a resistance to the pyrethrins and need to be treated with a second products to eliminate them. Perhaps a really bad infestation of aphids can be treated with pyrethrins then after about 48 hours ladybugs released to take care of the remaining infestation.

He also discussed diatomaceous earth. it's great for deterring ants. it's a contact dust so if you're sprinkling it around you should be wearing a dust protective mask to not get it inside your lungs. If it gets whetted it becomes ineffective. Sam talked about using sticky cards in the garden and was telling us that there are a lot of them now that have specific pheromones on them to attract just the pest that you are trying to eliminate instead of wide swath of them.

We also talked about Bacillus thuringiensis or BT one of the products on the market is called dipel. It is a stomach poison specific for caterpillars but it will kill all kinds of caterpillars including the larvae of any butterflies that you're trying to attract to your garden. This also should be used in the evening to treat the plants but it takes 2 to 3 days to kill off the caterpillars. You might have to retreat because some of them had not hatched yet when you treated the first time. There is a product on the market for grasshoppers called Nolo but it treats juvenile grasshoppers not adults. Sam says garlic and pepper spray on the foliage is fairly effective as well. 

There are new biologicals being developed that are just coming out on the market commercially they are fairly broad. one is called Preferal the other is called Mycorral trawl they actually are a living fungus that you spray onto the leaves they last for several days and they are trying to specific size them as they are being developed.

We also discussed killing weeds naturally and talked about the vinegar and salt treatment for weeds there are several variations on this listed on the Internet the product not to add to this blend is Epsom salts it is a folio or you can use orange oil in it you can use Nemo oil in it you can use the vinegar and it's sunny days are the very best and retreatment will be required because you're killing the foliage and not the roots. If you're pouring this on the soil the salt may prevent anything else from growing in this location for sometime to come.

We also talked about ways to treat poison ivy and other poison exposures from that family including feels Napfor soap Ivory soap which both defat the skin there a number of products to treat your reaction once you at once you've been exposed. We also discussed that under no circumstances are the plants to be burned as it can cause your hospitalization.

In the Q&A's we talked about crown disease in cotton and lavender and the need for a root shod that is a living fungus to protect it. For powdery mildew on peas and other plants use oil spray regularly to prevent it. For trees like crepe myrtles it may be as important to adjust the sprinkler heads and promote air circulation as to treat. For leaf miners and shot holes in leaves use oil sprays too. 

Sam has invited us to come out to his nursery for a tour and I believe that George Holcomb will help us organize this trip later in the year.

Tim wows the garden guild with fall prep and planting information

 The room was full and Tim Pfluger ( Green 'n Growing) was in high gear talking about how to get a new or old garden ready for planting and what plants and seeds to put into in in the fall. He talked about out clay soils and how to amend them using a variety of organic products which he whipped out of his bag to show us so everyone could examine them and ask about them. He says he starts with a good application of compost (about 1 cu.ft/ 12 sq. ft of garden--double for new beds) each time and mixes in  a bit of green sand which provides iron for the plants and some of the rock phosphate or alpha meal, then spreads this over the area he is planting and digs it in with a garden fork. He says the alpha meal is a natural growth stimulator. He also may add dried molasses to stimulate the micro-organisms in the compost. 


For seed starting he showed up a product to add that stimulates growth called mycorrhizal Fungi (at right) apparently does not need a lot to get things going. 

He also showed a couple of products to use once the plants are established that aid bloom and fruit production pictures below. Both contain a mixture of minerals and other nutrients. Each is a different blend and can be used as a side dressing about once a month.   He also mentioned Lady Bug flower power. Questions were asked about MG and the nitrogen content is way to high to promote fruiting but green growth is enhanced. 


 Tim referred us to the county extension chart for planting and discussed serial plantings so that not all the production is at one time. It is too late to see the brassicas but not to put in transplants. Great time for seeding lots of vegetable that will take a light frost or be ready to harvest within 60 days. Good time for lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, radish, kale, chard, bush beans, snap peas and even summer squash.  Onion sets get planted in November for harvest in last spring.  It was a great meeting and good information. 

Our first seed/plant exchange had lots of items switching hands. 

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.

Mystery plant identified

I thought I was being so clever amending my soil after the broccoli was finished with my own wonderful compost. It was hot all winter and really looked perfect for digging in. (It is working great!) I transplanted the eggplant in a square then added okra seeds in a cross and the middle. Apparently none came up but these beautiful plants did.
At first they looked like okra until they had tendrils. They were so healthy I left them and got okra that was already in 6 packs and added cages and a triangle trellis to support the vines . My next guess was cucumbers as the leaves early on were not too big or dissimilar to the ones I have out back but as they bloomed and began to set fruit the mystery is solved--cantaloupe! we ate a lot of it last fall and threw the seeds into the compost along with their rinds. What a wonderful present for us as we really like it. this is the only way we have grown it too--mystery surprise. Guess I should screen the compost but then look what I would have missed out on.

Our garden is a destination

Twice in the last week people actually came by to show off my garden--people we  did not know! My husband was working out in the garage when a man and his son came into the yard. The man was pointing out the different types of vegetable to his small son--that is a cabbage, that is carrots, etc. Quite interesting to observe. The second time a woman brought her mother by in the car to see that the garden was in the front yard. We are managing to share more growing information than we otherwise could. Every day someone walking by stops to comment on the plantings. I have the tomatoes out now and am ready to start taking cabbages in. Most of the kohl rabi are already pulled but there are quite a few yet to bring in.

There is also a fair bit of interest in the rain barrels and how to build them and use them. So much fun!

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.

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.

Funky weather is great for spring crops

I am excited as I have never grown peas or cabbage successfully before but I am watching the cabbage begin to head and ready to start picking peas today. We have had lots of lettuce and spinach almost all year. The bibb lettuce is beginning to bolt as is the spinach so it is being replaced with other leaf lettuces that did well last year. The peas are filling quickly but do not seem to be string-less, however they will be wonderful. The new summer peas are coming up well too so we will get more, I hope.  
I have been doing a lot of mulching all the beds to combat the lack of rain and the winds. I am using lots of shredded newspaper in the vegetable garden out back and shredded cypress mulch from the store out front over paper.  I like it better as I can identify the mulch and add compost where needed too. 


Looking forward, the tomatoes are all blooming and I am finding some little tomatoes on the plants. YEAH!! The peppers have been setting fruit for several weeks and may give some up soon, Green beans are blooming with tiny beans beginning. The pole beans and climbing cucumbers are finding their way up the trellises so I am hopeful. I have several types of squash with nasturtiums planted around them to try and repel the borers this year. Hopeful on this too. 
Time to transplant the dill and parsley into the ground. Maybe I have enough this year to get past the butterfly caterpillars and have some for us too. 

The chard and peppers in the flower beds look beautiful. I have a section of red ruffled lettuce out there too under the tree that should be wonderful to look at and eat. 

Peppers: A Growing Guide: Organic Gardening

This was such a good overall article that I am sharing it here. I have 5-6 kinds of peppers out in the garden and hope to be eating a lot this year. Peppers: A Growing Guide: Organic Gardening
 This companion piece on the pepper support is interesting as well. http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/pepper-support

March is here--what to do II?

 In the ever expanding garden spaces, I continue to move plants from the greenhouse to the land. The land that is filling up fast. The self-watering boxes are taking off and the peppers look fantastic. I converted all the pots of peppers that wintered over to double buckets and most of them are set up for self-watering. I re-potted most of the peppers but a few were putting on blooms so were left alone. 


Almost all the tomatoes are in the ground and are already double in size and growing well. 

One of the Celebrity tomatoes I bought has a blossom on it! The potato leaf heirlooms are looking good and may actually do something this year. Speaking of potatoes, although they were attacked by something that cut the tops off at the soil line, I put on large plastic collars and they are thriving. The ones in the tub are much larger than the ones along the fence. I only put in 10 seed potatoes this year but they are Yukon golds which we really like. I did plant a few shoots this weekend that were growing from store potatoes in the holes. We'll see if anything comes of them. I put down paper mulch between the rows of bush green beans--tried something new: shred office and newspaper, wet it good and fill the row with it, put on a lattice board to keep it in place.

 I found a folding screen in the trash last week and it will be the frame for the pole beans and cucumbers to grow on. They are in the new triangle raised bed. soil may not be deep enough but the beans have always seemed to have shallow roots and I'll add more compost and mulch as the plants get their heads up.  Put out the pickle cucumber seedlings and added a short row of okra next to them. Have the wando peas in 3 rows--supposed to tolerate the heat and NZ spinach on the other side of the bed--definitely does heat if it is watered. May want to find a way to mulch better before the plants get so thick this year. Some seem to be coming up from seed too  I hope to move a few around to the front beds to use as an edible border.
 I have 2 sections of the garden to rework a bit--one by the fence that is too heavy and gets a bit of shade and the other is against the shed that gets blistering sun but the soil is not so great there. Maybe this is the place for the eggplant that are really very small yet. Another  bag of the organic garden soil is in the future here and some peat and compost for the first spot, I think. 

The gardens out in front are a combination of flowering plants, shade loving plants (under the canopy of the tree right), and veggies. I put in red cabbage, rainbow chard, red cherry peppers, ornamental peppers, beets with red tops, purple basil, oregano, and an edible border of parsley and dill so far. The geraniums, begonias, and vincas are thriving and most of the perennials are coming up to be identified. The white irises are blooming here and there but the new multi-colored ones are probably not going to bloom this year. I moved some of the  liriope around and put in some of the hostas and nasturtiums. I also added 30 caladium bulbs that I sprouted in the greenhouse. They are a nice mix of multi-colored ones. I have lots of coleus that I propagated and am putting into the shady locations to add punch of color.

Bees, Bees, Bees!!

I was all ready to trim my holly bush way back as it is huge and is shading some new plantings but when I went out today to look at it, it is just full of honey bees. Whatever boom is there is so fragrant and there must  be 100s of  bees in the bush. 


So I'll wait a couple of weeks until it is done blooming and then trim it back. I do not remember it blooming longer than that in the spring. It is so nice to see all those bees.

Using software to plan the plantings

I have been trying out some of the limited time free software on the web to plan where different plants are going in the vegetable bed. I tried this on paper last year and soon lost interest. The place I tried out is Plangarden.com It has been easy to use and required almost no helps to get the areas set up and plants put onto the screen. I did have to measure all my beds and they are a bit smaller than I thought. It does not allow for intensive spacing so I just used areas to cover where multiple plants are.

I have also been using the myfolia.com site to log every planting and its progress and really appreciate the ease of use of that one and the information within the site. I have quite a few plants and have raised almost all of them from seed. It is my hope that keeping detailed logs this year will give us a better idea what is working and what to avoid or change. Keeping track of the variety on the peppers and tomatoes should help too. I already decided that  the carrots grown in tubs could be much longer than the ones in the ground. 

March is here--what to do?

The garden guild meeting was very informative on revving up our gardens and landscapes and thereby decreasing or eliminating our pest problems. Richard had a few books and websites to recommend and gave away PRIZES!  I am looking forward to using the Orange oil in the garden as it smells good and will deter pests. We also had a lively discussion on aphids. Do we squish them or squirt them or what? Also talked about ladybugs as the predator for aphids and how ants herd them.  

Found out the snails I have that go nuts every spring are called Decollate Snails.  They were imported for the purpose of controlling brown garden snails.  They track them down and eat them! (slugs, too) If you are getting too many, hand pick them and move them away but you may suddenly have lots of other snails, slugs, and pill bugs to contend with. The like to hide under decomposing debris so getting the leaves out of the garden last year helped a lot. They also do not seem to be attracted to well established plants but do feast on new transplants so they need plastic collars (the plants not the snails!)

We are continuing to till the new beds and bring in more compost to spiff them up. The soil looks really good but is not taking moisture too well so I am thinking enough compost and need a bit more of the vermiculite and peat moss in them. We put out the geraniums that wintered over in the sunroom along with some vincas and the begonias this week. I split up one of the blue salvias as it has many babies and spread it around. Several others are popping up so we'll get them spread out too in the next couple of weeks. I saw a bud on one of the irises that I transplanted last fall so spring must be coming fast. 

The vegetable beds look wonderful and full with lots of lettuce, chard, beets, onions, and peas. About half of the potato starts survived the freeze and seem to be thriving. The carrots are popping up too and I transplanted 6 of the tomato plants to a big bed. I used bagged organic garden soil mixed with some of last year's potting soil for their pots and the plants seem to have loved it---great root systems. I tried something new and put a layer of vermiculite in the bottom of the pot so I could bottom water them only and have not had one damp off. Must be a good plan. 

Last addition to the ever expanding space is the orange homemade earth boxes. I am trying this for the peppers to see if this will keep them more evenly moist. I have 2 done and 1 more to go plus a few double buckets to use in the same way. I am also trying out the colored mulches this year--red plastic and silver foil to see if there is anything in this. 

Looking forward to information on pest control

The garden guild meeting this month is going to address something we all battle with--how to share the garden with the pests but get the upper hand. Some of the pests turn into friends as they grow up and some do not. Organic gardening makes a commitment to not use heavy chemical pesticides  but instead use a variety of means to promote a healthy environment while having plants that flourish. 


The speaker this week, Richard Fadal of TexasScapes has long used less traditional methods on the green spaces in Wells Branch to keep our parks green and our water supply uncontaminated. It will be interesting to learn ways that each household can use to make their yards beautiful by treating the pests. The meeting is at 7pm on March 3rd at the library. 

Winter is a time of reflection, planning, and preparation for gardeners in our area

Winter is a time of reflection, planning, and preparation for gardeners in our area. We take time to reflect on what worked (or didn’t) in our gardens and yards last year: did plants tolerate the shade/sun of their location; did plants need too much water; did they suffer from yellow leaves; did the grass tolerate water restrictions or get out of control; did you long to plant tomatoes but not get around to it; did your peach tree give you peaches or grief; do you long for apples on your own tree?  

Many yard and garden tasks need to be done in the cold months of January through early March like pruning trees and shrubs and treating lawns. Trees and shrubs can be planted during this time in addition to late in the fall and be well established. Did you know there are special fertilizers for each kind of grass now that actually kill of some of the other grasses? Or do you want to be gentler to the environment and use compost and other organic materials? Wells Branch does have creeks and run-off continues into the aquifer where our drinking water comes from. Just a thought!

The Garden Guild will meet on January 15^th at noon at the Wells Branch Library to discuss fruit trees planting, care, and varieties. Tim Pfluger from Green 'n Growing in Pflugerville http://www.greenngrowing.com will be our guest speaker at 1pm in addition to a video from KLRU. Everyone should bring their questions and suggestions. Many books on gardening are available at the library and attendees are encouraged to browse.

·       A big thanks to Tara Fisher-Muñoz for her excellent web presentation on myfolia.com. Besides being a good source of information, this will help us keep track of our. She also led us in discussion on how to prepare seedlings for transplanting, which will help us with spring planting.

·       Bob Baugh shared the M.U.D. Board’s invitation to join the new Focus Group. Richard Fadal of Texascapes and Shelly Palmer are leading the group and are trying to find ways to cut back on invasive species and encourage native plants. More info is available on the M.U.D. website http://wellsbranchmud.com/cms/

·       Virginia Almon almonfamily@gmail.com explained Homestead Garden and invited volunteers to help with maintenance.

·       Yvette Shelton atyshelton@austin.rr.com got us up to speed on the Community Garden, costs per plot and other info. 

Topics for future meetings include:

Sat. Feb. 5 - Topic: Rain Water Collection (possibly Hari Krishna lives in Scofield Ranch Neighborhood)

Sat. Mar. 5 - Topic:  Backyard Gardening with John Dromgoole (Date may shift, Deborah Thompson will be contacting John, and it will a WBNA event again)

Sat. April 2 - Topic: Shade Gardening (Will try for Green & Growing owner)

Sat. May 7 - Topic: Tour of Neighborhood Gardens (Please sign up to have yours included)

Other topics discussed was beginning a Farmer’s Market in Wells Branch - perhaps a monthly event from April, May, June, July (?), Lara Bennet is checking regulations. Ideas floated - Neighborhood gardeners produce, invite local farmers...hold in front of the Homestead House. Please let us know if you would support this location. 

Wells Branch Gardening group has its first meeting at WBCL

We met Saturday and brainstormed on the kinds of things we'd like to discuss or find out and times to meet in the future. We settled on the 1st Saturday of the month at noon at the Wells Branch Community Library. We are working with Natosha Gibbs to be a regularly sponsored group. Our next meeting is November 6th and we decided to have someone in to talk about soil sampling and have a plant and seed exchange. We are hoping Shelley today from Central Texas Native will be able to do this as she is a resident.  My friend Liz, who is a master gardener in Williamson county directed me to the agriLife Extension for information about sampling. I found the form for urban soil and downloaded it from this link. It appears that the Travis county office suffered considerable rain damage and is not currently open.


As a group we really wanted to focus on more organic gardening and water conservation. Tara pointed out that residents were eligible for the rebate on water barrels with a receipt. Austin's program includes all areas that are served by them like our MUD. More information on this is at AustinWater page with tons of information on water conservation and the rain barrels, including ones purchased on craigslist. She also recommended myfolia.com for tracking your plantings and more. The link is on the left.


We also discussed the location of local Farmer's Markets in Austin and the surrounding areas. If anyone knows of locations and times, it would be helpful. I added Johnson's link to the list at left and it last a resouses tab that lists several. George Holcombe pointed out that the Eastside Cafe has its own garden and irrigation system. It might be worth a field trip to see the gardens there.  George is using a well laid out drip irrigation in his garden.He is just off the trail and the garden is well worth a look.