Early Spring 2014

I'm Back!

I cant believe its been since last fall that I posted. I guess I got busy doing different things and forgot to make updates, and I kept putting it off.   But that doesn't mean I abandoned my garden.  My garden has remained productive through the winter, even though its been a very cold winter.  We had some pretty nasty cold spells, a few ice storms, sleet, and some snow.   I had to use my big tarps numerous time to protect the plants that I had growing.

Onions and Elephant Garlic

I got some elephant garlic cloves from a coworker, and planted them late last fall.  They came up during the winter, and with the help of covers during the nastiest weather have survived well.  There are about 4 plants, and they are there right below the spinach and lettuce. 

Not sure what to expect with them. I was told that once they die back later in the summer I can pull out the bulbs.   I had a few onions in the pantry which began to sprout this winter, so I planted them also, below the garlic.  I've planted the whole onions, and as they grew and stared to separate, I then  uprooted some of them and separated the plants, and replanted them individually.  Those are growing good too, and I hope they form good bulbs.   We'll see what happens.

Spinach

Spinach is very cold hardy, and here in N. Texas, I've learned its a great winter crop.  I planted some in the fall (See my previous update) , and a second batch around January, and then in late February I planted a third section.   I did cover them during the coldest snaps we had (in the teens), but they didn't seem very affected by the cold temps, even though the brassicas next to them (cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli) seemed not too happy at the time.  But we've picked these plants over and over, and have had a steady supply of spinach through the later part of the winter. 

A patch of spinach with a few volunteer lettuce plants mixed in.

Unfortunately I expect some of these to start bolting in the next few weeks as we hit April, and temps get into the 80s.    One more note regarding spinach, their seeds have a very short shelf life, so you have to have very fresh seeds to have much success.  These above were grown from seed I collected from my plants last year.   I also purchased a packet of Goliath Spinach from Gurney's.  They say those produce huge leaves, Those are what my third planting are. (Feb). I am looking forward to see how they compare to the ones I already have growing.  Hopefully I didn't start those too late!

Brassicas (Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Brocolli)

Its been a bit rough with these plants this winter.  The problems began with the rats (which I mentioned in my previous post).  They decimated some of my fall Brussels sprout and broccoli plants.  So with the use of many rat traps I was able to kill about 4 rats.  I have not seen any damage from them recently.  The picture below shows the surviving Brussels sprout plants (left) with some cabbage plants (right).  The cabbage are the same type I grew last year, "Ferry's Round Dutch Cabbage".   

The temps in the teens had a toll on some of these plants,especially a second planting of broccoli, which was almost killed by temps in the teens. (despite me covering them with a tarp).  You can see in the above picture some freezing damage still on some of the leaves.  But the most annoying problem, which has affected many of my recent seedlings, including my mustard, and my "golden acres" cabbage (seed from Gurney's) has been aphids.  These winter aphids are tough! They can handle very cold temps, and with no predators to keep them in check, they have exploded. 

Here is a small mustard plant that has bee decimated by aphids.  It has barely grown for the past few weeks.

small cabbage plant that got attacked by aphid as soon as I transplanted it.  You can see the deformed inner leaves.

So I was able to gain some control of the aphids by applying soap solution (ivory soap mixed in water, about 2tablespoons soap (grated with kitchen grater) in 1 gal water.   I have also applied neem oil too (mixed with soap and water) and that has killed many of them. So hopefully these plants can recover and produce well.

Lettuce

One of the easiest to grow, and most useful cool weather crops is leaf lettuce.  I like growing mixtures of different varieties.  But lettuce is not extremely cold tolerant, so it was to be protected from very cold temps.  Through the early winter, we got most of our lettuce from big planter, that I grew some plants in, and I would bring inside when the temps got really cold.  But then in late January, I built, using some spare bricks and a large glass pane (which I had saved from an old storm door) a cold frame for some lettuce.  That was a success as you can see below. There is various lettuce types there, and some radishes sprinkled around.  They have outgrown the cold-frame now, and are doing very well.  During our last cold blast I lowered the glass and covered it with a tarp, and it survived very well.  

Now since its late March, we should be clear from any hard freezes.  A light frost, which is still possible, would not hurt them. 

The plants below are not lettuce, but are actually another type of mustard.  Those are purple leaved ones.  I grew them in some pots this past month, and just recently put them in my garden area.  Now hopefully I can fight off the aphids. 

Chickens

I love my chickens. All 4 of them are doing well,  We get about 3-4 eggs a day from them. Most of the time they are in their coop/run, but sometimes i let them out to free-range. (after I tie up my dog of course, who licks her chops every time she sees them)

Angel and Black Beauty

Goldie

Goldie, StinkerPot, and Black Beauty

Tomatoes

I got an heirloom tomato seed mix from Gurney's, and here are my seedlings.  They are about 3 weeks old.  I wont dare plant them until the second week of April. (I had some die a few years ago after a freeze on April 2nd).  Will keep you posted on how they do

Strawberries

This year I am trying strawberries for the first time. I ordered some ever-bearing strawberries from Gurney's.  They came out recently, and seem to be doing well. The spot I put them in doesn't get that much sun early in the season, but I know that spot will get a lot more sun as the days get longer. So they might have a slow start.  I have no idea what to expect.  I don't know if they'll survive the Texas heat.  We'll see!