Late Spring 2014 Update

Transitioning From Spring to Summer

Its late May, and many of the cool weather plants are done.   The lettuce has all bolted, and has been pulled out except for a few volunteer plants here and there.  We had a huge amount of lettuce this spring, and almost got tired of eating salad.  We gave much away too.  I even gave my chickens many of the bolting plants to eat.  The Spinach all bolted too.  It also did very well, and I froze a couple of gallon zip lock bags of it for eating later.  I have kept a few plants around, to collect their seeds. They are almost dried up now.  I like to save spinach seed, since you need really fresh seed for them. (they have very short shelf lives).

Brassica Plants 

There are still some cool weather plants around.  The aphid onslaught ended.  I think the parasitic wasps is what did them in, along with lady bugs and other predators.  And the cabbage and Brussels sprouts all recovered somewhat.
Here is one of my green acres cabbage plant. (which I mentioned in my last blog).  Its head is not very big, but it might be ready to eat.  I think the aphid setback might have stunted it enough to not let it get very big.  Besides its not supposed to be a very big cabbage anyway.

Green Acres  Cabbage

 When I planted many of these plants in the late winter, I had mixed cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli plants, but since then I have forgotten which plants are which.  So I have a number of mystery plants that are still around and growing

Mystery brassica plant

I'm pretty sure these are Brussels sprouts

I'm not sure what to expect from these... will they just hang around all summer and produce in the fall? But right now they are all leaves, huge leaves, and they take up a lot of space.

The Summer Garden

Its late May, and its starting to feel like summer will soon be here.  Its been in the mid-80's the past few weeks.  Unfortunately we've been drier than normal this year.  For the past few weeks my garden has been transitioning to warm weather crops.  

Tomatoes

In the last post, back in late March, I showed a picture of the seedlings from the  heirloom tomato seed mix I had gotten from Gurney's.  They were planted in mid-April, and they have really grown big since then.  Unfortunately since its a mix of seeds, I have no idea what plant is what.  But I can certainly see that they are different type of tomatoes.

small variety of heirloom tomato

plants have overgrown their tomato cages

this type almost looks like a "beefsteak" type tomato. 

So I've been very pleased with these plants. They seem to be producing real nicely. And fortunately they have not been hit by the spider mites yet. (More later on these pests!)  But I know that later on as it gets hotter, and the plant get older, they become more susceptible to spider mites. 

Pole Beans, and Spider Mites

In early April I planted some pole beans, Kentucky Wonder.   It was a rough start.  First, some critter decided to chop off many of my young seedlings, almost down to the ground.  Maybe cutworms?  So I had to break out the sevin, and dust the survivors.  I had to plant more.  But then later in late April, I was really surprised to see them attacked by spider mites.  They came quick and hit hard, and soon the plants were looking very sickly and yellowing!  I started to spray the plant with soap and neem oil spray.  I think after a few treatments, I got them under control.  I've seen been spraying once a week, and wetting the plants daily to keep the mite at bay.  I think it was the dry spring we've had, and the warm days we had that got them going so early.  

discoloring on leaves, due to spider mite damage.

If you look closely, you can see the tiny red dots on the back of the leaves. And you can see them move too.

stippled discoloration from mite damage

The plants seem OK now.  The mites persist, but hopefully I can manage them until I get a good harvest from these plants. The vines are growing fairly well, but no signs of flowers yet.

Squash and Volunteer Pumpkins

I also planted a couple of round zucchini plants early this spring in round pots, and transplanted them in mid-April. These are from the same seeds I planted last year.   But unfortunately the spider mites that attacked my pole beans also liked these too.  I also noticed the discoloration on the leaves.  So I had to spray these with soap/neem too, and the plants seem to be recovering nicely.  Also they have been covered with tulle netting (to ward off the Squash vine borers) until early this week, when they started blooming, so I removed the covers. This morning I had two female blossoms that I pollinated, so I am looking forward to the first crop of these soon.  This is one of the plants.  The other one is smaller. It was a weaker plant, and got hit by the spider mites worse but now its recovering well.

Round Zucchini

 I also planted some acorn squash around early April.  Its the Table Queen Acorn Squash, the same I planted last year. I also ended up covering them to ward off the SVB, but the plants got too big for my tulle netting piece I used, so I uncovered them, and have just been covering parts the vines with mulch whenever possible, to encourage secondary root formation.  And I have been looking for SVB eggs and hand picking them off whenever I see some.  I have 3 squash that are definitely growing now, and 3 more that I hand-pollinated a couple days ago.

Table Queen Acorn Squash 

Table Queen Acorn squash

 Unfortunately some critter has taken a liking to my female squash blossoms.  I noticed that two of my blossoms, on the day they opened up, were shortly chopped off,leaving the tiny undeveloped fruit behind.
This was very frustrating, especially since that morning I had hand pollinated those flowers.  So the past few day I have been covering the blossoms to protect them.

Protecting the female blossoms

I did not intend to grow any pumpkins this spring, but some volunteers have come up.  This one is a pretty big plant. I suspect its from  a jack-o-lantern type pumpkin my daughters bought to carve last year.  I remember composting some of it, and I used some of that compost around my corn this spring.

volunteer pumpkin, maybe Jack-o-lantern type?

Its much thicker and stockier than my sugar pie pumpkins plants that I am used to.  I've been trying to take care of it, mulching it well, and picking any SVB eggs I see on it. 

Sweet Corn

The other thing I am trying again this year is sweet corn.  But it has not gotten off to a good start.  I also started them in April, but they also had a rough start.  Some varmint quickly discovered that I had planted the seeds, and I would find neat little holes when the seeds had been, and I found parts of the corn kernel that had been dug up and chewed.  So I suspected rats.  I set out many rat traps, and ended up killing two rats.   After replanting more, they came up, but took forever to grow. And the seedlings were rather sickly looking, and some even got spider mites.  They are starting to recover, but I'm not sure I'll get much from them

Sweet corn

Now these may look pretty normal, but some are already developing the flower heads, even though they are so short.   

Other Plants 

This early spring I noticed a few familiar plants that came up.  I recognized them as the german chamomile that I had grown last year, so I took care of these volunteers.  Love these plants, they are so pretty and bloom so profusely.

some volunteer german chamomile came up from last years plants

I have two of these volunteers. They are doing great.  

 Here are some dual-purpose cucumbers I have growing (pickling and slicing cukes).  They are starting to take off, and climb up a homemade trellis.

Cucumbers, growing towards the back of the yard, along a trellis

 I tried growing watermelons this year, but for some unknown reason, they have been a bust.  They are been growing for about a month, and are still tiny, and stunted.   I think maybe the spidermites got them too, and they are sickly. I might try planting some more next weekend.

These watermelons are a bust.  I think I'll have to start over.  Not sure why these are stunted and yellowing

 The strawberry path I referred to in the last post is doing well.  The junebugs like the leaves unfortunately, but otherwise they have been problem free. These are everbearing strawberries.  We had the first harvest, and will be waiting for the second round.

The strawberry patch, doing well. We've already eaten some strawberries.  

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!

Changing Weather -- Mid October Update

Fall is Definitely Here!

And from the weather we've been having, lows in the low 40s and highs in the low 70's, you can tell winter is not far behind.  Last few mornings have definitely been sweater weather.

Okra

Since the last update, the okra has been doing a lot better.  The aphids are now under control, probably thanks to the ladybug and green lacewing population catching up to them and keeping them under control.  These plants are huge. Their  main trunk looks like a small tree trunk.  I've harvested lots of okra so far.  Been real good. I really like this variety of okra, "Emerald".  Some of the pods I have harvested have gotten real big (like 7-8" long) and the pods have still been edible.  Here are some that will be ready soon

And here are the plants.  Really pretty flowers too.  These plants take up a lot of space as they have spread out pretty far.   These six plants I put have given us as much as we want. so that's good note to remember for the future when trying to decide how much to plant, and remembering how much space to allocate for them.

Cool Weather Crops

Here are the mustard.  The are almost eating size now.  And right next to them are the turnips.  I think next week I'll start picking some of these for some "mixed greens" for dinner.

And here is the spinach. Had to cover a few more seedlings I set out to protect them from rats. Many of my small plants had been chewed to the ground.  I'm sure its been rats, as I have gone out at night and seen then scurrying  around.

The stinking rats ate many of my poor Brussels Sprouts and Cabbage plants.  You can see below some of the damage.

So I've had to put in many rat traps.  So far I've killed 2 rats.   I hate those things.  Last year I had the same problem too.  And 2 years ago they decimated my broccoli plants.  So frustrating!!!

Pumpkins

Finally getting a Rouge Vif dEtampes pumpkin to form. Its been frustrating that its been taking so long.  I'm not sure there will be enough time before the first freeze for it to mature. We'll see.  Hope this one gets good size.

In a few days I may try to gently shift it so its laying stem side up.  The other one I had this spring grew on it side and ended up looking lop-sided.   

The vines on the other side of the garden are not pretty much shaded over most of the day, so I don't have much hope for these. There is a small pumpkin that just started forming in this side, but I am not too hopeful.  Time's running out for these.

Speaking of pumpkins, I still have about 8 sugar pie pumpkins sitting in the pantry.  Yesterday I took a small one, and made these pumpkin scones.  I was inspired to make them after trying one at Starbucks, and I then I found this recipe : http://www.inspiredtaste.net/16810/spiced-pumpkin-scones-recipe/

They turned out really GOOD!! they were gone very quickly.  Unfortunately they are not the easiest thing to make.  I skimped a little on the icing, opting to go with only the spiced icing.

First Day of Fall

Can't believe its been over a month since I last posted!  Today was the official first day of Fall for 2013.  It was a beautiful day with high in the mid-80s and sunny weather.  Its been welcome relief from the hot dry weather we've had.  Summer was stubborn leaving, and we were in the upper 90s  for most of Sept so far.  Earlier this week we had a good soaking rain, and it brought in the cooler weather this weekend.  

Like I said earlier, here in N. Texas, we have 2 growing seasons.  The beginning of fall marks the beginning of the second growing season.  We have a good 2 months of good weather, and then by late Nov. we are likely to get our first frost.

Fall Plantings

I tried getting an early start in the beginning of Sept, but had mixed results.  I do almost all my plants from seeds. I am a very practical and frugal gardener, and would rather start from seed than spend $3 or so for a plant from the nursery... just doesn't seem that cost efficient.  

 I started many seeds indoors in small pots, since I was concerned about germination and the heat. I had a few lettuce plants come up, and I put them in the ground as soon as possible.  Many of them died, or got eaten by something once I transplanted them outside. I only have like 4 small plants that are still alive.   I  also sowed a few cabbage  and Brussels sprouts seeds indoors too.  I've had some difficulty getting good germination, and many of my seedlings have died while real small, (probably damping-off) so its been a bit frustrating getting them going.  So I put them into the ground while they were really small  and they have been growing pretty slowly.  I am guessing the heat has been affecting them, but hopefully they'll take off soon.   On the right are the cabbage plants, (next to a small okra which will probably shade the cabbages pretty soon... oops!!). And on the left are the Brussels sprouts. 

 Right below them I have a few mustard and turnip seedlings, These I directly sowed in the ground a couple weeks ago, and they are just starting to show their secondary leaves.  Since many of the turnips did not spout, there are many gaps between the plants, so I put in a few extra seeds yesterday in the hope that those come out and fill out the small rows.

I also started some spinach too.  I stared 2 batches. One was seed from last fall's seed packet I used, and the other was seed I saved from my plants this spring.  I put both in ziplock bags in wet paper towels. The saved seed sprouted real well, while the seed from last year's packet has not sprouted at all yet!  I've heard how short shelf-life the spinach seeds have, so that makes sense.   I planted the sprouted seeds in these small containers and will transplant when they get a bit bigger.  I put a few of the other sprouted seeds directly in the ground too, and will use these guys in pots to fill in holes here and there.  

I am also starting some herbs too.  These I intend to keep in their containers, since I don't have any space for them in the garden. In this first planter I have some basil and sage. Much of the basil came up but only one little sage plant has come up. I also have some Summer Savory in another container. 

 Here are a few more herbs I planted... More basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme.  They are tiny, especially the organo!  I tried planting them in the spring but all except the basil died. I think I watered too much, and they got damping-off and died, so hopefully I have better luck this time.

Okra

Last time I had talked about my Okra.  Its gotten really big but has been disappointing so far because of the lack of production.  

The plants are very big, and have huge leaves. But they've gotten attacked by a number of pests.  Some caterpillars have  attacked them but the wasps have been keeping them in check.  The worst by far has been the aphids.  They have been terrible, covering may of the young leaves and flowers.  I have seen some lady bugs and their larva, but there are so may aphids, its been overwhelming.  So I've begun blasting them with the sprayer on the hose, and also spraying them with soap spray.  I think I've made a good dent in their numbers.   Some of the leaves have also looked curled up and stunted.  Probably from the aphids and cucumber beetles.    

Squash

Hubbard Squash- I still have a few vines growing, but they have produced nothing recently, probably due to the heat.  Barely any male flowers either.  The heat plus the Squash Vine borers...  I've tried burying vines when possible, and the vines have been growing quickly but the older parts of the vines have all rotted. So the plants are surviving via their secondary roots.  I have debated just pulling it all out, but have decided to keep them and see what happens. Same with some of the old Rouge Vif D'etampes from the spring. I have a few runners still going.

Decided this week to crack open the big Hubbard from this early summer. Here is what it looks like inside:

Already make some soup from it, and the rest is pureed and ready for making pies, or bread or whatever. 

Rouge Vif D'etampes - The two hills I started in the end of July are doing fairly OK.  At the end of August I had to take off the tulle netting since the plants were getting way too big for it. Once I took them off I have been burying the vines where possible and picking off SVB eggs too.  For next year, I think I will start my fall planting later, probably sow the seeds a month later than I did, in the last week of August. The main reason being that early Sept is often still too hot, plus the SVB are really bad then.  Only recently have I noticed their activity slow down.  I did  kill a pair that was mating today. That really surprised me because I had not seen as many eggs recently, so was wondering if they were almost done for the season.  These vines had not had any flowers yet. But they have been growing very quickly.  Unfortunately some of their runners have also shown signs of mosaic virus :(

I think its the cucumber beetles.  There were tons of them, and the leaves were showing signs of damage.   So I waged war on them earlier this week, and sprayed the vines with Sevin. Since I had no flowers I was not worried about bees.  It really helped, as the next day, most were gone.

I sure hope all this hard work pays off.  Its a bummer I haven't had any fruit set on them yet. I sure hope to soon!  Otherwise its a waste of space and effort.   The tulle netting in the picture above is covering a few small acorn squash plants that I also put in recently.   

Summer Squash - The yellow crookneck and Bening's green tint squash did pretty good. I also had to uncover them because they got too big. Unfortunately the tulle did not prevent them from getting aphids, and when I uncovered them I noticed the infestation. So I have also been waging war against them too, as with the okra.  I remember last year too that in the late summer/early fall the aphids got bad on the pumpkins.  But then eventually the beneficial bugs start making their appearance.

We have gotten a good number of yellow crookneck, they produced well early, but the plants have lost their vigor recently

 One  yellow crookneck plant died, and the others two are looking pretty sickly. Maybe the heat, and aphids have done them in. Didn't notice much SVB activity on them yet.  The Benning's Green tint have done better. Their vines are actually pretty long, longer than the Yellow Crookneck for sure.  But they also have been attacked by the aphids.    I have 4 small seedlings in pots that I started. At some point I'll pull out the existing ones and plant the new ones.  I am doing 2 Benning's green tint, and 2 Ball zucchini.