Feelin' the Earth Day energy

Today is one of those days I long to be outside in the garden rather than working. It's overcast and warm, but not blazing hot... so it's a good time to be weeding or planting or something that adds green to the yard.
Ahhh... in a perfect world, right?

This weekend, we decided to celebrated my husband's new job with a trip to my favorite local nursery, and I actually managed to restrain myself from bringing home everything I saw.
Since my seed-starting efforts were flat, we picked up more seedlings to fill in the last remaining spaces in the garden -- cherry tomato, verde tomatillo, watermelon, 2 summer squash and cantelope. MMMMMmmmm...
And check this out, since we've been harvesting and eating the chard, the remaining leaves have gotten huge! They're gorgeous!

Next weekend, I'm hoping to start on a long-planned and long-procrastinated garden project. I often mow the lawn, and I REALLY hate mowing between the garden beds in the front. My plan is to dig up the grass for paths rights around the beds and fill in the space with decomposed granite. Eventually, I would like to put a short fence around the garden just to dress it up a bit, but that's way down the line. I figure it will take me weeks of digging before I should even order the DG.
I should have some very strong arms by the time I'm finished digging, too.

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Categories: vegetables and fruits |

At least the green beans look good

One of the garden beds is right outside my bedroom window, and I did a double-take the other morning when I cracked open the blinds.
"Andy! Did you see the beans and peas sprouted?!"
"Yeah! You hadn't noticed yet?"
I guess I hadn't. I have been so bummed at my third losing attempt at starting seeds indoors that I have been avoiding my garden of late... only lingering long enough to make sure the rain didn't wash anything away.
SIGH.
Well, the beans and peas have encouraged me. I planted some of each in two different place in the yard, in an effort to hedge my bets. I did the same with several herbs and leafy greens... testing different configurations to see what works.
Since my seeds didn't do much, we bought a small number of transplants -- peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos. I knew we weren't done with the cold, so I tented them, and almost everything is thriving. A tomatillo was obliterated by the wind and a tomato looks like its suffering, but I'm pretty pleased.
In fact, the chard I planted last fall is huge and beautiful, and we're eating chard nearly every night. Plus, I can't wait to harvest the garlic in the next couple of months, because the tops are giant!
My next step is to mulch all the beds to help keep the weeds down. I really like using cedar shredded mulch, because it breaks down nicely and has fewer weeks. It hasn't been essential so far, but the heat is on the way!

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Categories: vegetables and fruits |

Springtime in Austin

This is my favorite time of year, especially in Austin. Early spring. The elm trees are bursting with bright green leaves, but the pecans are still bare. The red buds are gorgeous shades of pink and the mountain laurels fill your nostrils with the enticing scent of grape bubblegum.
I fell in love with spring in Austin years ago as a student, because spring meant school was almost over, but also because it felt like everything was alive. It's intoxicating, that feeling. It makes the hair stand up on my arms, and I tend to slow down and take a renewed look around at nature and my garden.
I haven't done much gardening to speak of recently, except tend to the seedlings and check that the plants outside are warm and watered. But each evening lately, I have been making the rounds in my garden, taking mental notes of what needs to be done and making sure each and every plant has what it needs.
The plants I have been most interested in lately are the young trees, especially the ones just planted -- Mexican plum and Texas red bud. Both are just now showing signs of bud-break. I had been a little worried because so many other trees have already bloomed.
I was really excited last weekend to see the Kidneywood well on its way to leafing out, and my husband and I both stood on the sidewalk admiring the larger mountain laurel, which has one gigantic bloom.
Yep, everything is coming alive.
I plan on doing some outside garden maintenance this weekend... clearing away the leaves that helped keep everything warm through the winter and composting the dead stuff. I also plan on hardening off the seedlings and planting a few outside -- under cover of course. I was thinking of trying some tomatoes in the ground and some in pots, just to see how they do.
And I've have a request from my family to plant strawberries. Well, I'll guess I have some reading to do.

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Categories: trees and shrubs | vegetables and fruits |

Family gardening connections

Luke helps water the newly transplanted seedlings.

I decided I wanted to pot up the tomatoes into slightly larger containers this weekend. The seedlings were as tall as the containers, and we're now about a month away from the last average freeze in Austin (March 15).

Looking back, I could have definitely waited. The roots weren't as well developed as I expected. But I tend to either act too late or too early when it comes to gardening, so I'm taking my "leap before I look" gardening habit in stride.

The transplanting became a family activity... with my husband making the pots with our pot-maker and newspaper, me putting the seedlings in their respective containers, and my son scooping dirt. He actually did a little more "playing" than gardening, but that's what it's all about right? Later, he helped me water the plants before we took them back inside to their respective window and lights.

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Categories: vegetables and fruits |

Tiny tomatoes transplanted

This morning, in the few minutes I had before leaving for work, I checked on the little seedlings still going strong on a table in my office.
They look great... very strong. I've even spotted tiny sprouts in the seed sprouting soil that had been barren for so long.
It was time to thin out the tomatoes. Their second set of leaves have been growing for more than a week.
Carefully, I chose the weaker of the two plants and pulled it out of the pods one by one... but instead of tossing them, I transplanted them into the empty pods that had not sprouted anything.
I'm anxious to see if they take.

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Categories: vegetables and fruits |

Still growing strong

Well, my little seedlings are looking really good, right now. I am forgoing a picture for this update because they don't look a whole lot different than they did last week.... just a little taller.
The peppers and the eggplant have sprouted for the most part and the sage finally decided to germinate. Yay!
Interestingly, about four rows of seed cells have not sprouted, and I'm wondering if it has something to do with the soil I used. I had seed-starting soil for most of my seeds (courtesy my FAVORITE nursery). But I ran out and picked up another seed-starting mix from another nursery. I planted about four rows of seeds in it and that stuff hasn't grown ANYTHING yet. HMMMMMM....

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Tiny green leaves

Most of the tomatoes have already sprouted

A few hints of green have popped up in the seed flats I planted a couple of weeks ago. And I was very excited and relieved to see them.

It means my seed-starting system is so far working, and on the good stuff, no less. Most of the tomato seeds I planted have germinated and they appear to be growing stronger. I'm also seeing signs of growth in the hodge-podge tray of vegetables I planted.

The only downer for me is the last tray -- sweet peppers and eggplants. Still nothing. But I have hope. The sage is also taking a while to sprout, and maybe the peppers and eggplant also take their sweet time.

Having the seeds inside where I can see them everyday has helped me make a habit out of checking on them and watering them. I take a water bottle with room temperature water and spray each seed "pod" 10 times once a day. Then I rotate and shift each tray so they don't stay in the same place on the table the entire time they grow.

The seedling are less likely to grow at wonky angles looking for light.

Definitely don't want wonky.

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Categories: vegetables and fruits |

If at first you don't succeed....

These sage seeds are just a few I planted in flats.

I just couldn't wait anymore. My bowl of seed packets has been calling my name for weeks now... "Cindy..... Cindy.... plant us Cindy! Don't wait or you might start too late!"

I waited too long to get started for the fall crop. I don't want to make that mistake again.

The average last frost in Central Texas is March 15, which is a good 8 weeks or so away. Many of the seed packets I have from last fall have directions on them that say I can sow them indoors in flats and transplant after the last frost.

I'm there.

I had three seed-starting flats leftover from last summer's seed-starting adventure. I had seed-starting soil. I had liquid seaweed for fertilizer. I had seeds.

I set to work.

In one flat I planted "Red-Ruffled Pimiento Sweet Pepper" (a mild pepper that's supposed to turn red when ripe and be great for fresh-eating) and "Imperial Black Beauty Eggplant" (an heirloom variety that was introduced around 1910). I separated them with a row of sage.

In the second flat I planted three varieties of tomato, separated by a row of more sage and medicinal borage. The tomatoes are "Martian Giant Tomato" (which is supposed to be extremely productive), "Prize of the Trials Cherry Tomato" (a rare variety that thrives in hot, dry climates) and a "Roma Paste Tomato" (that is disease resistant).

The third flat has a hodge-podge of vegetables, herbs and flowers, including "Tomatillo Verde," "Waltham Broccoli" (I'm scared of growing broccoli, but it was a freebie seed-pack), "Lime Basil," "Sweet Genovese Basil," "Thai Basil," more borage and "Texas Hummingbird Sage."

But that's when I ran up against another potential problem.

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I planted a blackberry patch

Those sticks in the ground? Those are blackberries.

I've been talking about planting blackberries for so long, I bet you wondered if I was ever going to follow through.

Well, I did this weekend. Yay!

I've been telling every gardener I know about it... I'm so excited -- like a kid at Christmas!

I drove down to one of my favorite local nurseries this weekend and bought three blackberry plants. Well, "plant" doesn't exactly described them.

They're more like thorny short sticks with roots. The nursery was selling them bareroot. I saw they had two varieties, but one -- "Brazos" was already sold out. We ended up with "Roseborough" which is a variety developed by Texas A&M and is supposedly drought and disease resistant.

I wasn't sure how to get it home. We were standing there in front of several large tubs of sand with thorny sticks poking up out of them. Finally, we pulled three canes out of the tub, wrapped them in newsprint, threw in a little sand, and put them in a plastic bag. The sign said to protect the roots from sun exposure.

When we got them home, we set to work. I decided the raised beds I had originally marked for the blackberries would not give them the full sun they need... so I started digging.

And digging...

And digging.

Can you say 'Ow?'

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My garden is snoozing...

I'm back after a relaxing few days for the Christmas holiday... and of course I spent some of my time off in the garden -- cleaning up.
We gathered as many of the remaining pecans that we could... even climbing on the roof and gathering them there. I think we got about 4 more paper grocery bags worth. We chopped up leaves and bundled branches, hauling them to the curb.
I'm amazed at how much stuff one tree can drop on a yard -- branches, nuts, leaves... this tree -- as wonderful as it is -- can be a headache sometimes.

I've been worried about Limey.... Mexican lime trees do not like the cold, and we've had some very cold nights lately. Some of the new growth froze and some of the leaves have dropped, even though we covered the tree with a frost blanket. To help, we moved our rain barrel to right next to the tree and filled it with water. I'm hoping that the barrel is absorbing heat from the sun all day, which it will then release at night, helping to keep Limey warm.

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