Its a jungle in my garden

I am way too busy in the garden with all the rain we have had this year and neglect writing about what is going on. We are blessed daily with enough food for the day and some to put by. This is good and bad as it give us green beans in January but the shelves and freezer are so full of the bounty it is hard to eat it down. Also the beauty of having so many perennial flowers in the garden makes it hard to come in the house. 

The mild-warm spring has had the tomatoes on hyperdrive! Just as the ones out back are taking a breather, getting pruned of all their suckers and putting on new blooms the plants out front are into full production. Good idea to plant them a month later. The Queens and Juliets take the heat pretty well and I have a couple of green strip there too. Our favorite so far is the black krim. I will plant several of those next year--large and sweet. Cucumbers are being weird--lots of growth and blooms but slow on the fruit. The lemon cukes are nice for slice and eat though and doing better than the straight 8s.
I am having great results from my eggplants in pots. The ones I did in the soil last year were barely productive. the oriental one I over-wintered in the greenhouse is full of eggplant and we are having a meal weekly, the black beauty has provided a couple of meal already and some for the freezer with the plant full of blooms. The Rosa is slow but keeps putting on one at a time. All the peppers but one are in pots and have peppers on them so good there too, including the jalepeno I thought I killed due to drowning not only came back but has peppers on it.  I just harvested a few more late beets to roast  3 1/2" in diameter with lots of greens. Have even managed to get a few decent zucchini from the plants and keep them going.

Only planted 1 seed potato and have had about 5# from it so good on that. I'll put more in about August. Onion storage is full--all 4 shelves and a quart to the freezer plus a pint to ferment. There are a few stragglers and we have used plenty already to cook with. Not as big as the ones my friend Yvette grows but good.Carrots didn't want to come up well but have gotten about 8# from what has and a few still in the ground, nice 4-5" long 1" diameter ones and a fair smatter of purple. I think the soil is not sandy enough. 
The sugar baby watermelons are really doing well. I have 2 huge ones ripening and several more thumb size ones setting. Happy happy face.

Herbs too are really showing their stuff. I planted large leaf basil and it is!!! Great pesto and lots put by already. Made mozzarella bites with it too. Purple basil is pumping it out too and I have shared so much lemon thyme I thought I wouldn't have any--wrong!! It just pops right back! The dill planted itself and I have cut and cut, given a lot away and still there are many heads to harvest. If only I had planted garlic last fall...sigh...but this fall for sure.

Garden tour recap

There were some fantastic things to see on the tour this year.Take a look at pictures of the tour from start to finish on the WBNA page: 2014 Garden tour 
Loved Rachel LeBansky's yard and am looking forward to a start of the colored yarrow, the trailing rosemary at Barbara Romero's was so interesting all trained over a wrought iron piece and the Victoria salvia a real hit as was her stacked wall around her patio; George Holcombe got to show off his new sweet potato starts and the irrigation system that runs off his rain barrel. Yvette Shelton showed off the plants that are thriving in the shade at home and her 2 gardens at the community gardens, chandra Patel even demonstrated the irrigation system for us and showed how it was laid out--the plants are thriving too. I got to explain those hugelkulture beds and brag on their water retention then we looked at the cinderblock bed with planted squares and the onions. Thanks to Yvette for explaining how to grow great ones. At the school garden we got an up close look at how the hoop houses were constructed and the new tank beds and how both conserve water. Last stop was the community gardens with Heather Johnson , Dianne Koehler, and Yvette Shelton showing us around the beds. Heather and Dianne (me) lead classes during the school year and add considerable expertise in gardening to the program. 

Garden tour in WB

We have 8 gardens on our tour this year. Thanks to all who are sharing their yards with us. Invite anyone who is interested to join us. We will meet in front of the Rec center 3000 Shoreline dr. Each site will have a sign and maps will be available the day of the tour.
Schedule for Saturday's Garden tour:

Meet at Rec center 9:00am
9:15 shady garden—Yvette Shelton 2111 Fuzz Fairway
9:35 veggies &fruit trees, drip irrigation setup — Pravin"chandra” Patel 2409 Rick Whinery
9:55 General garden—Barbara Romero 2440 Rick Whinery -
10:20 xeriscaping —George Holcombe 14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
10:40 water wise, mostly perennials, butterfly attracting flowers—Rachel LaBanski 14904 Yellowleaf Trl.
11:05 Hugelkulture beds and alternative raised vegetable beds—Dianne Koehler 14909 Alpha Collier
11:30 Hoop houses, tank beds, greenhouse, kids gardens—WB Elementary gardens enter off Town Hill in back
11:55 Community gardens —Heather Johnson
garden tour map

Easy to grow and drought tolerant plants for Austin TX

One would think that most plants would be easy to grow here. We rarely get freezing weather, we have decent soil, we used to get an adequate amount of rain especially in the winter. Now and for the for forseeable future it looks like we are going to be in a drought. 

What makes plants easy to grow? Is it that the seeds come up easily? Is it that the plants thrive once they are up and produce? Is it that they do not require a lot of tending? A lot depends on the gardener in this case. 

One of the things that makes plants easier to grow takes a little work up front. Especially during times of drought and heat it is essential that the garden have adequate mulch around the plants. This serves to keep their roots cooler and to retain moisture in the soil. It is also beneficial to establish a soaking program for the plants so that they develop deeper roots and are less

dependent on frequent watering. Some plants however do not have deep roots systems, it is not their culture. This includes peas and beans and many of the cole crops like broccoli and cauliflower.  Many leafy plants can be grown in the heat of the summer like lettuces if they are grown in a much shadier location where they only get 2 to 3 hours of sunshine per day. Plants that have smaller leaves also tolerate drought better as do plants that have fleshier leaves or hard stems. You may want to choose plants with shorter days to harvest in the spring to assure a better chance of picking before it gets hot>> VegetableVarietiesTravisCounty   It is a good plan to place the plants with the same water requirements in the same areas of the garden. If you put your plants in pots, you may want to avoid clay pots that are not glazed in favor of the glazed and plastic pots. Darker colored plastic pots may overheat service of your plants in the summer causing them to die. Best to use lighter colored or to cover the outside of the pot with a wrap to not cook the roots.

When you consider what plants to grow in a vegetable garden for spring and summer most years we need to plant plants that we can harvest the fruits before July. The easiest plants that can be planted very early in the spring February through April are of course the lettuces, some greens like kale, peas, root crops like beets, radishes, spring onions, and carrots, and several types of beans. We are still able to transplant broccoli through mid-March but it frequently will draw diseases to the garden.

 There are several seed suppliers that specialize in plants that seem to do better in Texas and the Southwest where it is drier and hotter. A number of vegetable plants do well until it gets into the 100s in July and August like tomatoes, Peppers, and eggplant. These can be grown from seed on a windowsill and then transplanted into your garden when the soil is warm enough in late March through early May. Black-eyed peas or cow peas thrive in  the heat as does okra and malabar spinach. And sweet potatoes are very easy to grow the summer both for greens and tubers if you can keep them irrigated over the summer. Swiss chard will grow for several years at a time and does not mind a bit of shade.

Landscape plants for the garden should be selected from the list of Texas natives when at all possible. Most of these are perennials and unfortunately during their first year Will require much more water and in subsequent years. Gardeners get the idea that they want A blooming English garden but our climate just doesn't support those kinds of plants very well. It is possible even in a drought tolerant Garden to have blooms from spring through late fall if you pick the right plants and put plenty of mulch around them. They are finding that plants from the nursery that are grown and squarish containers transplant better because their roots don't get all wound around and will spread out better in the garden. 

links:

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/veg_variety/select.php   Recommended Vegetable Varieties for Travis County

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/  Fruit and Nut Fact Sheets

http://horttest.tamu.edu/travis/files/2012/11/VegetableVarietiesTravisCounty2013.pdf  Vegetable Varieties for Central Texas—Great list

http://www.attainable-sustainable.net/growing-food-drought/  

http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

http://www.rareseeds.com/search/?F_Keyword=drought  Seed source

http://www.southernexposure.com/blog/2012/02/what-to-grow-through-very-hot-summers/   seed source

http://www.tomatodirt.com/tomatoes-for-hot-dry-climates.html  seed source

http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/vegetablesaz.html#gsc.tab=0  has lots of hot weather seeds—got my summer lettuce here

https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Watershed/growgreen/plantguide.pdf

http://austinnativelandscaping.com/xeriscape-texas-native-plants-for-drought-toleran-landscaping-in-austin-texas/  nice list of plants with interactive features

http://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?collection=centex_drought

http://valleycresttakeson.com/watermanagement/resources/top-5-drought-tolerant-plant-resources/

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/organic/files/2011/03/E-512_mulching.pdf  great discussion on types

http://alternative-energy-gardning.blogspot.com/2013/05/shade-tolerant-vegetables.html  shade tolerant veggies


http://www.ivillage.com/best-plants-attract-butterflies-your-garden/7-a-535056?ivNPA=1&sky=stu%7Civl%7Chh%7Cbutterflies%7C%2F  plants to attract butterflies

Gardener's TO-Do list for October

From Organic Living

Our zone-by-zone list will keep you busy this month.

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• 

Zone 8

• Plant more lettuce, Chinese cabbage, spinach, carrots, beets, peas, radishes, onions, turnips, garlic, shallots, and cress.
• Set out strawberry plants.
• Sow a cover crop of winter rye (Secale cereale), purple vetch (Vicia benghalensis), Austrian winter peas (Pisum arvense), or ‘Elbon' rye (Secale cereale ‘Elbon') in vacant beds.
• Use rye clippings to add nitrogen to compost, speeding the breakdown of fall leaves.
• In flowerbeds, plant anemones, oxalis, and ranunculus for spring bloom.
• Also, seed annual candytuft (Iberis umbellata) in bare spots of flowerbeds for spring bloom.
• Broadcast wildflower seeds to establish a meadow.
• Plant trees and shrubs: Warm fall temps will help them get established before winter.

For more zones or to look at other articles: organicgardening.com

Fall gardening into full swing with brassicas and root crops

I couldn't wait for fall so I could replace the under-performing plants that lived through the heat with the broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and beets/carrots that we seem to be able to grow in great profusion. I started all of the plants except cabbage from seed and am spending time fine tuning the soil with my little test kit and transplanting the little seedlings into the garden. I am also looking closely at companion plantings. The cool mornings are enticing me from many other tasks but the rewards are going to be many.

I found an interesting lettuce tower on Pinterest and got it made up with a few sprigs of red sails lettuce. should be fun if nothing else. I am trying fall green beans and peas to see if they do better. Seems that last fall the green beans did pretty well. I have a new really short season variety to try. 

The herbs are going strong compelling me to find recipes to utilize all of them. Sage stuffed pork roast was terrific, the Thai basil and garlic parsley butters are great on bread, potatoes, rice --the list goes on and on. I have  dozens of packets pesto in the freezer waiting to be  spread on pasta, bread, crackers and more. The lemon basil has appeared on chicken and on a zucchini torte.  George is using a lot more mint in his tea too. I haven't tried out rosemary dishes but will go there next. Garlic cloves are on their way from the grower so next year we should have really tasty garlic to use too. 

I participated in a few plant swaps in the last few weeks and have added a number of perennials to the beds and bringing in new color and textures. I got half a dozen coleus plants of various leaf types and rooted most of them to double or triple the plantings. Looks pretty good out there even with all the heat.

WB Garden Tour 2012 gives peek behind the fences

What an absolutely fabulous time we had looking at other people's gardens. We started at the community gardens that has around 80 plots and they have creatively used every inch of space there to grow a great variety of vegetables and flowers. We toured about a dozen sites in all ranging from full sun to deep shade and our gardeners found ways to create a restful oa sis and beauty in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Wish I had taken more pictures but I was too busy looking.
Many people added fences, birdbaths, critters, and all kinds of items to the gardens to create more interesting areas. Every kind of path was in use from crushed stone to mulch to pavers and grass paths. Most had punches of color and all shades of green. One of our gardeners has an intensive square foot garden that is amazingly full. Benches and chairs were everywhere so the gardeners could stop and relax to enjoy the areas they created.  I want to go back for a 2nd look as I am sure I missed as much as I saw.

Sunflowers planted by birds are stunningly large

Last fall I threw out some sunflower seeds from the pantry for the birds as they smelled bad. What a surprise for us this spring to have several come up in the garden and top out at more than 9' tall. I know now what Van Gogh was inspired by in the sunflower fields!

Looking forward to the Garden Guild meeting Saturday

Attracting the Birds and Bees and Butterflies, too.
Mar. 17, 2012, 11:00 AM at the Community Center at 2104  Klattenhoff – Yvette Shelton has arranged for Lynn Hill, an expert in plants that attract and help Birds, Bees and Butterflies, to teach us about the right plants to use in our landscapes. To have sustainable yards and gardens we need birds and bees and butterflies. This will be a great opportunity to get good info and your questions answered just in time for the Spring plantings.

A walk through our summer garden in July

Our garden out in the front has been a great experiment and a joy to sit in the chairs and enjoy it. I am not missing the grass and looking forward to taking out another large swath of it this fall/winter. The soaker hoses are really helping to keep the water in the plants root area and not just evaporating.

Spring gardening in the perennial beds

This has been a really interesting experiment combining the flower and vegetable beds but I am sold on it! Not only is it a better use of the space but it has all the walkers that come down my street keeping tabs on the progress. Although I do intensive planting in the back yard, in the front I am allowing more space as I am trying to establish perennials. I am also trying not to purchase too many plants but grow them from seed or cuttings and so far, so good on most things. The cabbage is way too close as the plants got much bigger than I expected-1 ft spacing with plants around them is WAY too close but they are self mulching this way and will soon be harvested. The variegated chard is a color punch next to the greens in the beds. The calediums and coleus are both giving nice color to the shady areas and are good next to the hostas.  Some of the begonias have red leaves too which is a pretty punch of color in the shade. I added the red leafed lettuce there too for show and for our table.


We planted some of the wildflowers in the bed under the tree but they get a bit too much shade so when they are done blooming they are moving to the sunny bed. I already moved a plumbago clumping to the sunny bed and added a few marigolds that self-seeded alternating with parsley along the border.  The geraniums wintered pretty well and are showing off nicely in the middle of the sunny bed. George is able to see the zinnias and sunflowers from his office window now that they are tall enough. The blue salvia is doing so much better than the white one that we are a little over on the blue plants. 


We are using natural colored mulch and have put in 20 bags so far. I think 5 or 6 more bags will do the trick. I am sure the garden guys at the big box just smile each time I leave with another 6 bags of the stuff. The mulch we used before was soil colored and too hard to identify when I needed to cultivate. We did add massive amounts of compost and organic garden soil to the beds this year and I am delighted we did that. Plants really are growing well in the mix. The organic soil is reputed to have too much nitrogen and the compost too little so the mix must be just right. 

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.

Busy revising the plantings and transplanting

Expanding front perennial bed

Anyone who comes down our street has noticed our ever expanding shade garden of mostly perennials and seems to be waiting to see when it will reach the sidewalk. I am adding equal parts of peat moss and vermiculite over a weed barrier then adding composted soil on top. It seems to be working well. Finally the top is a layer of shredded cypress.

ruellia & salvia

 I was able to find 2 low mounding perennials that seeded well and transplanted gold dust alyssum and rock Soapwort today as they all have their 2nd leaves. I put them into groupings of 6-8 plants figuring some will make it. They take the shade and will only get about 6" tall and are supposed to spread. I also added liriope interspersed in each new area to hold the soil and provide interest until I can replace some of them with another planting. The blue and white salvia are blooming like crazy and I think all of the plumbago  are going to finally grow. I even found one of the 

mums & asters

ornamental peppers that came up from seed in the beds. The ruellia are blooming and taking hold in most of the spots. Lois tells me that they may begin to act like weeds--not for a while yet, I hope.

roses, mums & salvia

The asters,  mums, and vincas  I got at Lowe's are providing a lot of color next to my ever bearing roses. It is really pretty coming up the walk with all the blue, purple, and red rioting there. I had hoped for a bit more yellow with all the marigolds but not much of that survived the hot summer or spider-mites. The lantana looks great in pink/yellow so I guess that will do.

mum

Out back we have another section of paver walkway completed. I am not sure but we may be paving our way to Austin at this rate. I will border it with the liriope that is getting way too tight and have a nice protection when it rains to keep the soil in the adjacent beds.

Broccoli and cauliflower are taking well and liking the cool nights. I found tiny tomatoes on one of the 5 plants I have in pots. All of them are blooming and will soon be moved into the greenhouse room by the windows if it gets much cooler at night. The peppers are covered with buds but not setting any fruit that I can find. The eggplant is covered with beautiful purple blooms and lots of little fruits so I expect to pick quite a few of those. I love the oriental ones as they seem to grow better and are nearly seedless. Beets and carrots are both up. I moved some of the beets apart to give them more room. The bibb lettuce is bolting with the continued hot days but will soon be replaced with some ruffled red and more bibb as the days get cooler. I have to let the plants get a bit bigger before transplanting as the bugs are cutting them off even with collars around them. The multicolored chard are doing OK but nothing to brag about and the NZ spinach seems to be winding down but the regular spinach is not making it--bug or snail bait supreme!
I'm still considering getting the soil sampled as something is still not in sync with the plants. I am enjoying using the myfolia program to track the plants.