Updated Vegetable, Herb and Ornamental Transplant Sales this Weekend, March 3rd, 2012 February 29, 2012

Early March is the perfect time to get your Spring vegetables and herbs in the ground, and there are several big sales coming up.  My favorite, The Sunshine Community Garden Spring Plant Sale is a big one.  Always the first Saturday in March, so this year it will be on March 3, 2012, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  This is more than a sale, it is a Festival with lots of vendors and things for the kiddos.  This sale has more heirloom varieties of vegetables, including many hard to find tomatoes and peppers, than you are likely to find at area nurseries.   Many of the transplants are donated by Gabriel Valley Farms, and some by local gardeners at the community garden.  Get there early, there will be folks lining up before 8:00 to get first dibs on the plants, and they usually sell out.

http://www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org

Another great place to buy your Spring transplants is Johnson’s Backyard Garden.  Also on March 3, 2011 from 10:00 to 1:00 at the farm.  You can also order online for pick up at the farm.  Johnson’s has a wide variety of heirloom tomatoes and peppers as well.  Johnson’s also has a limited variety of transplants at each of the Farmer’s Markets.

http://www.jbgorganic.com

Zilker Botanical Gardens will also hoast the Austin Organic Gardeners Plant Sale on March 3, from 9:00 to 2:00.  This sale includes vegetables, herbs and ornamentals as well.

http://www.austinorganicgardeners.org

Springdale Farm will have tomato transplants for sale at the farmstand on Saturday, from 9:00 to 1:00.   755 Springdale Road.  Get your just picked veggies for the week, and transplants to grow your own.

http://www.springdalefarmaustin.com

First of the Season Garden Tomatoes and Peppers = Fresh Salsa May 6, 2011

In a panic on the coldest day in May, ever, I think, I panicked, and harvested 4 not quite ripe Celebrity Tomatoes from the garden.  I’m not sure what I feared from the 45 degree low forecasted, but I have been babying these tomatoes like never before, so I pulled them.  Yesterday, I harvested a bunch of peppers, too – Joe Parker’s, Poblanos, Jalapenos, Shishitos, and a Bell.

Garden Tomatoes and Peppers

Most store bought (and restaurant) tomatoes have no taste at all.  I don’t even eat them at a restaurant, if they aren’t in season.  They are worthless and without taste at all.  Fortunately, it looks like a banner tomato season for me, thankfully, and knock on wood (or composite timbers)  the peppers are rocking along as well.  I have garlic drying on the patio, and already dried garden onions in several locations.  The cilantro on the patio has bolted, but is still useable.  I think I see a Salsa session coming on this weekend.  Oh how I do love the first of the season salsa.

Dog Days of Summer – How to protect the garden August 14, 2010

By this time last year, after prolonged record setting heat, I had pulled up most of my herbs because watering them was such an unpleasant chore.  Now, they are mostly safe under the shade of a pecan tree on my patio, and I’m still watering them every day.  The tomatoes in the raised bed are still looking good. I think I got some particularly heat resistant varieties, mostly Valley Girls.  Still, this morning, I improvised some shade cloth from burlap and covered the most exposed tomatoes up.  It reminds me of the straw hat that will adorn my head this afternoon when I deliver soil in the heat of the day.

burlap shade cloth

The corn in the Three Sisters Garden is now setting tassles!  The other two sisters have mostly given up their fight through the heat.  I’m watering the corn, and everything else right now, every day in the early morning.  The corn also gets a misting in the heat of the afternoon.

tassles on the corn

The lone watermelon is growing every week. I’m not sure how big this variety is supposed to get, because I always lose the cards that say all that important stuff, but it looks healthy nonetheless.

Ever Growing watermelon

I planted two tomato plants in an Earthbox, hoping that the constant supply of water provided to the roots would help them through these final (hopefully) horrid days of heat.  They look as good or better as those in the raised bed.

Tomatoes in Earthbox

The serrano peppers need no protection, and are setting peppers faster than I can keep up with.   However, the pimiento varieties I bought the last couple weeks at the farmer’s market did not tolerate the heat at all and gave up the ghost rather quickly.

happy peppers

Sorry for the foggy pictures.  I’ve got a gazillion people coming to my house this weekend and I was impatient with the camera fogging up, so I just rolled with the bad pictures.

Planting the Potatoes for Fall and Winter August 3, 2010

This is the first time I’ve planted potatoes at this time of year, so as with all of my gardening, this will be an experiment.  My potato Grow Bag experiment was not very successful, so I’m returning to what I know, the raised bed.  I decided to plant potatoes in the 4x8x12 bed in the back, that is currently overrun by lemon cucumbers.  It took me several hours to untangle the cucumbers from the tomatoes and peppers they had overtaken and wrapped their tendrils around.  But I managed to clear a 4×5 foot space in the back of the bed.

Cleared spot for potatoes

I turned the soil, added two wheelbarrow loads of Hill Country Garden Soil and amended it with Ladybug fertilizer and turned that in.  I dug out furrows and placed the potatoes where I wanted them to be.  I planted fingerlings from Johnson’s Backyard Garden, Kennebecs and Red LaSodas.

3 Varieties of Potatoes

Rows of Potatoes

I planted the whole potatoes about 6 inches deep.  Once the plants emerge and grow to about 6 inches in height, I’ll add more soil to mound up around them for maximum yield.  I did not do this in the grow bags like I was supposed to, and that was why my yield was so dismal.

Potatoes take between 75 to 140 days to mature, so I’ll hope for potatoes by late October to late November.  An any event, if all goes well, I’ll have home grown potatoes by Thanksgiving.

Planting Guide for August, Zone 8 Austin July 29, 2010

Lima Beans – first two weeks of August

Snap Beans

Beets – last two weeks of August

Broccoli

Carrots

Cauliflower

Chard

Chinese Cabbage

Sweet Corn

Cucumbers

Collards – last two weeks of August

Fennel – First two weeks of August

Garlic

Kale

Okra – first two weeks of August

Endive – last two weeks of August

Black-eye peas – first two weeks of August

Popatoes

Rutabaga

Shallots

New Zealand Spinach – first two weeks of August

Summer squash – first two weeks of August

Winter Squash – first two weeks of August

Head lettuce – last two weeks of August

Leaf lettuce – last two weeks of August

Mustard – last two weeks of August

You could probably get away with planting tomato transplants here in the next week, but you would be pushing the envelope on having green tomatoes when it gets cold.   Look for varieties with a shorter “days to maturity” date and cherry tomato varieties.

Battling Stink Bugs Organically July 8, 2010

This year has been really bad for stink bugs on my tomatoes.  The tomatoes at the Farmer’s Markets are all afflicted with cloudy spot, so I’m not alone.  I’ve tried Safer Insecticidal Soap, which doesn’t phase them (it does help with the leaf-footed bugs).  By now, the stink bugs are huge and have become somewhat evil.  I knock them off, hoping to step on them, and they fly at me.  I talked with several farmer’s yesterday about their methods of battling stink bugs.  Larry at Boggy Creek Farm uses two methods – the most productive is torching them.  Apparently he has a way of torching them without burning the tomato plants down.  The method he recommended to me is pulling them off and plunging them in a bucket of soapy water with olive oil.  He said this method will not do much to get rid of them, but at least I’ll get the shear pleasure of watching them drown.  Springdale Farm also uses the torch method, with less effectiveness.  Yesterday at the Triangle Market, there was one farm with no cloudy spot on their tomatoes, Engel Farms.  I asked Chris how their tomatoes looked so perfect, and he said they treat the plants with Neem Oil and Mineral Oil.  My friend Stephanie also uses Neem Oil and says it works well.  So, now I know what to do.  Buy a torch and some Neem Oil.

Mid June in My Garden, and Corn Update June 20, 2010

I’m watering every other day, picking Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes and peppers every day, and obsessing about the corn every day.  Welcome to my garden, where something works and something fails every season.  This season’s failure 1) the black beans.  They grew fine, but never produced beans, so I pulled them up and planted purple hull peas today.  Failure 2) my inability to keep the squirrels away from my big tomatoes.  Outsmarted so far, at every turn.  This season’s champion by far is the Chocolate Cherry Tomato.  If you want lots of really great tomatoes, that neither the squirrels nor the bugs seem interested in, plant these.

Corn!

More corn porn

Celebrity tomatoes

Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes in the Earthbox

Chocolate Cherry tomatoes in the garden

Lemon Cucumber

Squirrel Food

Poblano Pepper

Jalapeno Peppers

Watermelon planted late

Malabar Spinach

Limes!

What’s up next in the garden?  I still need to pull up the last of the strawberries, add some soil to the compacted bed and turn it to make way for the pumpkins to be planted in a couple of weeks.  I’m undecided as to whether to leave in all the Spring planted tomatoes, or pull the less productive ones up and replace them with new Fall plants.  The time to start planting tomatoes again is July.  I think the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes will keep producing through the Fall, they have been so productive all Spring.    Happy gardening!

Gardening Failure, Potato Grow Bag Experiment June 4, 2010

As a way to try to increase my raised garden space and grow more food, I attempted to grow potatoes in Potato Grow Bags, obtained from Gardener’s Supply.  Early in the season, they seemed to be doing ok. http://wp.me/po5VL-hT   I did not not keep up with the “mounding” protocol however, and the bags were not in full sun, which they should have been.  It became apparent that they weren’t as healthy as those I grew in the ground last year, and the bags were in my way, so today I decided to empty the bags and see if any potatoes grew.  In theory, once the flowers on the plants have bloomed and died, and the plants begin to yellow and fall over, you are supposed to empty the bags and loads of potatoes just fall out.  This did not happen.  I emptied them, one by one, into a wheelbarrow, so that I can wheel that soil in the compost pile, and this was my yield, sad as it is.

Sad Potato Production

The grow bags, especially after the rain, were heavy and difficult to maneuver.  With the available garden space I have, I think I’ll stick to the raised beds from now on.

I used to think that gardening was mostly skill, knowledge and information.  While there is something to be said for all of those, I think gardening is mostly hope, faith and luck.  So, there is never a reason to be discouraged, just more reasons to keep on trying, and keep on learning.

A Peck of Plums, and Peppers June 3, 2010

Peck of Plums

There is so much gorgeous fruit at the Farmer’s Markets these days.  I couldn’t resist these beautiful plums, sold by the peck and half peck.  They are not too sweet, and their skins are slightly tart.   I love the variance in color, it makes a pretty picture.

I harvested peppers a couple days ago, serranos and jalapenos.  Not nearly a peck. The serranos are not hot but the jalapenos are.  Arse backwards.  I wasn’t expecting such heat, so soon in the season, and made the mistake of eating one off the vine.  Yowza.

I’ll be looking at plum and pepper recipes today.  I’m not quite ready to start pickling yet, so I’ll do something fresh with the peppers.  Heirloom tomato salsa, perhaps.  Or gazpacho.

Not quite a peck of peppers

Cool Beans, Royal Burgundy May 7, 2010

I’m a bit of a seed fanatic.  Buying seeds and trying new things makes me happy.  I’m installing a garden for some children today, and wanted to take them some interesting seeds, and of course I got some for myself too.  Yesterday, at Zinger Hardware, I found some cool beans that I’m going to plant this weekend, in one of the, now almost empty, onion beds.  They are Botanical Interests, Bush Beans, Royal Burgundy, a 55-60 day warm season crop.  From the front of the package “Heirloom.  Violet-purple pods magically turn an emerald green after cooking.  Grow in garden or containers.  Tender flavor and stringless.”  What could be better?  Purple beans that change color when you cook them.