Early April 2016

Hello again!
Being early April, wanted to give an update of my garden.  It was a pretty mild winter as I said in my previous post.  Since my last post back in the end of February, we've only had a couple days that were barely below freezing.  I took a risk and planted some of my warm weather plants into the ground real early (the tomato and squash seedlings I had shown before that I was growing in pots). I'm glad I did because that let them get a great head-start.    I've only had to cover them twice, due to the threat of frost, but that's all behind us now.
There was one set-back back in the end of March.  We had a big hailstorm!  Some of the hailstones were quarter-size, and they really tore up my onions, spinach, and my spaghetti squash, and busted a few heads of cabbage. The other stuff was not hurt much fortunately.  Since then the weather has been very nice, lots of sun, and rain occasionally.

One thing I noticed this year is that as the aphids showed up, many of the beneficial insects I had towards the year of the season last year have been showing up in good numbers too!  I've seen lots of ladybugs and ladybug larva around, plus some hoverflies, and lacewings too. Its nice they have shown up early because last year it was a struggle with the aphids!

Below is a picture of the broccoli patch.  Last post they were just a couple inches tall, but now they are getting pretty big.  Still no flower heads forming, though.  Also the cilantro next to it has bolted already.  Right next to them are three "Popaver" poppies.  These came up by themselves (I had spread some seed early last year, but none came up then!). They are about the bloom.

Here are the onions I planted this winter.  I didn't mention them in my previous post, but they have been steadily growing since late January.  There are some garlic in there too, elephant garlic, from cloves I had saved last year.  These I also planted back in the early winter.   And some more broccoli plants mixed in among them.

Below is the spaghetti squash.  And behind them are the tomato plants.

 There are actually 4 plants, 2 per hill.   They got clobbered by the hail, and two of them, their stems broke or bent badly, but fortunately above the leaf nodes, so that the plants were able to develop the runners below as their main shoots. So these have fully recovered and have started growing very quickly now.   The tomatoes are the "rutgers" variety.  They have recently started growing pretty fast, and in fact, one already has a couple of blossoms!  I'm sure glad I've gotten such an early start on these.  With the tomatoes, its important to be able to get a good harvest before the heat hits in full force.  And for the spaghetti squash, to get a  good head start on the Squash Vine Borers, which usually show up late May.

Below is the acorn squash I mentioned last post too, the Table Queen variety.  I have 3 hills of these, and they are not quite as far along as the spaghetti squash but they are starting to grow pretty fast now.

My first spinach patch, which I started late fall last year, has bolted already, and I've let it go to flower, for seed-collecting. Since spinach seed have a short shelf-life, I like saving seeds for the fall or next spring.
Below is the second patch I started in February.  They took a hit from the hail but have recovered pretty well, and are ready for picking.

Right above the spinach above are the Sweet Peas.  They have been growing slower than the snap peas,but are doing well though.  I don't see any flowers forming yet, but I'm expecting some great flowers around early May, and will post pictures.  I applied some "Bayer Systemic Rose" fertilizer and insecticide/miticide to them, because since they are not for eating, and they get hit by spider mites often, I'm hoping that will let them last further into the year.
Below are the snap peas. They are in full bloom, and there are bunches of small pods beginning to form.  I need to provide some more support as they keep growing because they have surpassed their tomato cages.

The yellow flowers at the bottom are the turnips which have all bolted. We did get some very nice turnips, and enjoyed some greens too, but I've pulled out most of them except for a few plants I've kept for collecting seeds.

Below is another section of onions, and the third small spinach patch next to it.  And on the right is the catnip plant which survived the winter, and is growing very nicely now.  I've also noticed some new catnip plants around it too.

Here is the remaining Cabbage. It did very well,and we've eaten lots of cabbage. Most of what you see is the remaining plants, what has grown after the head has been picked. I'm planning to use these like collards, if they don't form small heads, or don't bolt. Some of the cabbage has bolted, and I've had to pick it and feed it to the chickens.

Will post again soon!  Happy Gardening!

Late Winter, 2016

The winter of 2015/2016 has been a very mild winter so far, compared to the past years.  We're at the end of February, and we've only really had a handful of mornings with much frost, and only about 3 mornings that have dipped into the upper 20's.  We've been with highs averaging around 60 lately.. the weather has been beautiful.

Cool Weather Stuff:

From the fall, we still have the cabbage and spinach:

Ferry's Round Dutch cabbage and Spinach planted in fall from seed

Because we've had such mild temperatures, these plants have been doing very well this winter.  We've picked about 5 heads of cabbage already, and I've left the plant stumps to see of they form smaller heads later. (you can see at the bottom right one of these, next to the bricks.  I haven't had to cover them at all.  The spinach has been growing very slowly, and still recovering from the flea beetle damage earlier in the fall, but with the warmer weather recently have started growing again nicely.  

At the beginning of February, I had also planted some more seeds,  including more spinach, and also snap peas, and flowering sweet peas (not edible, but for the beautiful fragrant flowers).

In the picture below, you can see the sweet peas, and below it, the patch of spinach I started about a month ago from seeds.  These spinach are all from seed I saved from last year, so it might be a mixture of different spinach types.  The sugar snap peas are on the other side of the garden and are about the same size too. 

sweet peas (top) and spinach seedlings (below)

The turnips I started in the fall have also done very well and have gotten to about baseball size, and we've picked a most of them already. I started a new patch too, just in case the winter would be mild, and it worked out good.  These are the newer plants, doing very well, and are definitely ready for picking and eating the greens.

Here is some lettuce I planted about 2 months ago. Notice the large glass above it.  Since lettuce isn't as cold hardy, I had them covered during cold spells, but lately haven't needed to cover them, plus the plants are getting pretty big too.  There are some volunteer German chamomile plants in there too that I am letting grow. 

 

And I'm giving broccoli another try.  Last few times it hasn't done very well.  (weather problems mostly) But the last time it was successful I had saved a bunch of seeds, so I sowed a bunch of them to see if they would sprout, and they did!  I probably should thin these out soon, plus weed some of the area.  This is the "di Cecco" variety which doesn't produce the large heads but produces multiple smaller one.  

Broccoli (di Cecco variety). Can you spot the volunteer cilantro plant?

Warm weather stuff

I started some tomato seeds indoors about a month ago.  I'll bring them outside and inside depending on the weather.  I probably will wait another 3 weeks until I can try to plant them permanently.  These are the rutgers variety. I also planted about a week ago 2 pots of spaghetti squash, and 2 of table queen acorn squash. (the larger yellow "Dickey's" cups...you'd recognize them if you are from Texas) The spaghetti squash has come up fast, but the acorn is coming up too.  I'm doing this to try and get an earlier start.  Like the tomatoes, I might wait 2 or 3 weeks before I put them into the ground, but in meantime I'll bring them outside on nice days and inside during cold nights.

Happy Growing!

First Freeze 2015

Tonight we have our first freeze forecasted, and so I had to go out and pick many of the warm weather crops, including the rest of the green beans, and the peppers.

Peppers

The peppers have done awesome this year.  The plants are just huge, and still loaded with peppers.  Here is what I picked this morning, and there are a lot more that I need to pick before the day is over.  I need to figure out what to do with all these!

hot peppers of 4 different varieties, picked before the freeze tonight.

I am planning to let the red peppers dry out, and maybe freeze the green one. I may try and pickle the jalapenos too.    When I planted these, they grew so slowly at first I thought they were not going to make it.  It was only until mid-June that they started taking off, and have grown like crazy.  Next time I will thin to fewer plants, since I think it was way too much.  I think I will also focus more on sweet peppers, and do much fewer hot peppers.

Pumpkins/Winter Squash

2 Sugar Pie Pumpkins, 1 hubbard squash, and 2 spaghetti squash

The winter squash and pumpkins yielded much less than I was hoping this year, but at least I got something!  Lets discuss what happened and what I learned:

Spaghetti squash -  I had planted 2 hills, right close to 2 hills of sugar pie pumpkins, right at the back corner of the garden.  I think the big issue was lack of space.  The plants were too cramped together, so I was not able to get in there and take care of the vines, and bury them as I usually do to promote more rooting.  So the Squash Vine borers damaged much of the vines.  Much of the original vines were exposed, and since they are much thinner vines than pumpkin vines (reminds me of Acorn squash), they were less resistant to SVB damage.   Next time if I plant in the fall, I will maybe plant them about 2 weeks later, and give them much more space.  Planning on letting them run underneath the peppers didn't work very good either since the pepper plants were very dense.  I just need much more space planned for these.
Pumpkins - My 2 hills ended up producing just 2 pumpkins.  I think it was the same issue as the spaghetti squash, not enough space! The vines were way to cramped, and I didn't have a chance to bury them and take care of them as I usually do, so they got attacked by SVB and caterpillars, and later powdery mildew.  But thankfully I did end up getting 2 very nice pumpkins.
Hubbard Squash - I got one very nice one.  I really hoped to get more, and many of them had nice fruit set, to only stop growing a few days later, and then eventually die off.  Same thing happened a couple years ago.
I'm not sure that its normal to have low yields on this, or maybe the Texas weather is not really well suited for these.  But these are such cool looking squash, that I still want to keep trying in the future, and will definitely be saving seed from the squash in the picture above.  I think as is always the case, these also could have benefited from more space, because it seems only after the vines had gotten to 20 feet long did they start making female flowers.

Beans

I think I timed my pole beans perfectly this year!  Last year I was too late and the frost got them before I had significant production, so I planted a few weeks earlier this year (seeded around 8/19).  The plants came up and grew well despite the heat, and then started producing well in the early fall.  We've had  about three or 4 weeks of very good production, but this freeze will most likely do them in.

Pole beans growing up fence, next to basil bushes

Cool Weather Plants

In the previous post I had mentioned the cabbage, spinach and turnips we had just planted. They are doing very well, except for some holes in the turnip leaves.  Hopefully the frost will get rid of the bugs doing that,which I suspect are flea beetles, which are a big pest for turnips for me.  The cabbage are beautiful, and I can see the leaves are just starting to form heads.  The spinach is doing well, but growing much slower than the cabbage.  I have a newer patch of cabbage too ( bottom right of picture.)

These can all take frost and freezes fairly well, except if it gets down to the mid-20s, then I'll need to cover them.

Early October 2015 Update

Its early October (Oct 3rd today) , and today the weather is pretty much perfect... Sunny skies, 80 degree high, and low humidity.   The past few weeks the temperature has hovered around 90 degrees, and its been pretty dry, so I've had to keep on watering manually.

Cool Weather Plants

Right in between the Okra plants and the cymlings/yellow squash plants, I expanded yet another area, and put in some cabbage (Ferry's Round Dutch) and some spinach (from saved seeds in the spring) seedlings.  I had to pull out a few of the okra plants to make more room.  We had started the plants from seed a few weeks before, and put them in.  I seem to have a lot of problem with "dropping off" with seedlings in pots.  I am not sure why, but I lost many of the spinach.  I also sowed some spinach seed directly in that same area too, and those are starting to come up.

cabbage and spinach seedlings

I have noticed some tiny holes in my cabbage plants, and found some tiny caterpillars starting to feed on them, so I sprayed them with BT the other day.  As the pumpkins keep growing, I am going to have to keep them from growing over this area and taking over.   In the meantime I started another batch of spinach, cabbage, and turnips in small pots.  I may plant these in areas where the pumpkin and hubbard squash vines have died back.

Beans

kentucky wonder pole beans have reached the top of the fence.

Earlier in the summer I had done some bush beans, and I did those because they grow faster, and I wanted some beans before the really hot weather came.  They did ok, but we didn't really get a chance to get a lot of bean from those plants.  I usually prefer pole beans, because they grow vertically, take less space, and they produce a lot.  But they are even less tolerant of very hot weather.  Last year in the early fall I planted some but it was too late.  Just when they started producing well, we had a hard freeze.  This year I started quite a bit earlier.  They are doing very well now.  I can see they are starting to produce flowers now.   I have two areas in the garden with pole beans.  I am using twine to train them up towards the trellis I made for the birdhouse gourds, and on the other are, towards the trellis I made for the cucumbers which are all dead now.

Okra

We have had so much okra, we're kind of tired of it now.  I had frozen some and we've eaten them in many ways.  I have not picked much recently, so many of the pods are now mature. I collected a few for seeds for next year. 

Okra plants with mature pods

I thinned out a few plants a few weeks ago to make space for fall plantings.  Next year I need to grow less of these, because the 7 or so plants we had were too much, and they took over a lot of space, and tend to shade out other plants. They became like trees, and it was hard to keep up with them.  The plants did amazing though. They had no pest problems (Aphids had been a problem in the past years).  Next year I should only do 4 plants, I think.  

Birdhouse Gourds

The birdhouse gourd plants are still hanging on.  They have produces a lot of gourds.  I think there are probably about 20 of them out there of varying shapes and sizes.  Its cool that their shapes vary so much. 

My plan is to let most of these dry on the vines.   

birdhouse gourds maturing

 The plants have been hit throughout the late summer with a huge infestation of aphids (more below) and also powdery mildew.  These plants are very susceptible to powdery mildew.  Also cucumber beetles like them a lot too.  But the plants grow so quickly, they just keep going despite it. Much of the earlier growth has died due to the mildew and pests, but there are plenty of areas that are still growing.

much of the vines are dying but there is new growth too

gourd leaves heavily infested with powdery mildew

I have not done much about the powdery mildew on these plants, because there is just so much of it, its out of control.  But since I have so many gourds now, I'm not that concerned about it anymore.

Aphid Wars

This year I had a major aphid explosion in my garden.  The war started on the birdhouse gourds.  I noticed some of the leaves were getting heavily infested in mid-summer, but I didnt do much about it because I started to notice a few ladybug larva on them. 

birdhouse gourds, with lots of aphids, and ladybug larva feeding on them

Over time the aphids starting expanding their area, being helped by lots of ants that protect and move them around.    But the ladybug population started growing too.   The aphids then started moving onto the squash.  I mentioned last post that my yellow squash and cymlings that were covered in netting were starting to get attacked.  Well it got very bad.  Many of the leaves were becoming severely stunted and curled.  I took off the covers,and starting moving a lot of the ladybug larvae from the gourd plants over to the squash.  Also I stared spraying the aphids off of leaves with water.  

Other help started to arrive.  I've been noticing many hover-flies around, and their larva. (info here) They look like tiny caterpillars but are actually maggots that feed on aphids.  I've seen lots of them on my squash.  Also lacewings and their aphid-lion larvae showed up too (info here), I see lots of their eggs.  And the the parasitic wasps that attack aphids and make them "zombies" started showing up too.  I know because I see some zombie (or mummy) aphids around, which are infested with larval wasps, and become brown and bloated, and then shortly die. (info here) So on the squash plants the aphids are finally under control.  The birdhouse gourds still have them but in much less numbers, and I see plenty of their predators around.  

Squash/Pumpkins

The hubbard squash plants keep growing pretty quickly and expanding towards the other side or the garden.  The original hill area is pretty much all cleared now as all the older leaves have died, accelerated  probably by the powdery mildew and aphids too.

 But there is plenty of new growth going on, and much of it is behind the area where the okra is, around the old cucumber trellis.

 Last week I finally had a good female flower open and set fruit.  Here is a Hubbard squash, about 5 days old.  I put a metal sheet underneath it so it doesn't sit on the ground and rot, as it grows bigger.  These things get huge!  I'm really hoping this becomes a nice one.  But I have had no other good female flowers yet.  I grew these a couple years ago, and only got 1 real good squash too.

I have really not seen any squash vine borer eggs in at least a week.  They seemed to have slowed down a lot by mid-september. I did kill a moth about two weeks ago.    I have quit burying new vines, because I think the threat of them is pretty much over.   

Summer Squash

Since my last update, I completely removed the covers from the "cymlings" (Patty pan squash) and the yellow crookneck.  As I mentioned above they were severely infested with aphids, but are now under control.  Also powdery mildew has gotten on them, and I started spraying with baking soda, and I ordered Potassium bicarbonate to spray on them too, to keep it at bay.  I have not seen any Squash borer damage on these plants yet, and with their recent decline, dont anticipate that will be a problem anymore this year.  I mentioned last post about buying Tricogramma wasps to help control them. I did release some of them, but its really hard to tell if they had any effect.  Hopefully they helped.    

Benning's Green Tint variety of Patty Pan (called Cymlings in the old days)

some leaves have powdery mildew, some are curled due to aphid damage

very cool "flying saucer" shape of these squash

yellow crookneck squash almost ready

I've picked some squash already, both cymlings and yellow squash, and there is much more on the way, despite the aphids and PM (powdery mildew).

Spaghetti Squash and Sugar Pie Pumpkins

I planted these really too crowded together, and was not able to adequately tend them.  The original hills are looking pretty bad right now, but some of the vines have expanded pretty far, past the peppers, and now meeting up with the Hubbard vines in the middle.  I can see a lot of SVB damage in the are, but its so crowded in there I cant really step in there.  I think there were many eggs laid there, (probably before I release the tricogramma wasps). 

pumpkins and spaghetti squash vines have grown through the pepper plants.

  My first spaghetti squash that was growing up the fence died, due to SVB damage on the vine. But the growing tip of the vine has reached the cucumber area, and that seems to be doing well (having rooted along the ground in various places). Here is a spaghetti squash fruit that set a few days ago, and seems to be doing well.  But that is the only one so far.

The sugar pie pumpkins have fared a bit better.  They have much thicker vines, and can resist SVB damage better it seems. The spaghetti squash vines are much thinner, similar to acorn squash vines.  So far I have two pumpkins growing.  The one below is one that recently set.  Its under the old cucumber trellis.

 Much closer to the original hill, I have one pumpkin that set about 3 or so weeks ago, and seems to be starting to turn orange now.  As you can see many of the leaves in that area are dying now.

Peppers

The peppers have been doing great.  Tons of pepper on them.  I have recently seen a number of leaf-footed bugs on them, and have tried to hand-pick them off.  I am not sure what damage they have caused, except maybe a few wilted peppers, but with so many, I have really not cared too much.

September 12 Update

Late Summer in the Cabal Garden

Today is a beautiful day here in N. Texas.  Low 80's and dry weather makes being outside wonderful, and I am writing this sitting outside, on my chromebook.

After a very wet early summer, and very dry mid-summer,  we've had a days of rain recently, and lowering temperatures means the garden is kicking it into high gear again.   Even through the heat of the summer, the garden has remained very productive.   The main things this summer have been the cucumbers, yellow squash, okra, and the peppers, along with the maturing birdhouse gourds.

typical harvest, from late August

From early Sept 5th  including the variety of peppers.

I have been really surprised how well the cucumbers have done.  They have been incredible producers, and we've picked, eaten, and given away tons of them...  all from 4 plants!  The plants are pretty much done now, and I have started cutting them back to make space for the incoming pumpkin vines.

The okra plants are really now okra trees!  They are probably  about 7 ft tall now.

our okra trees

These also produce like crazy, and I've had to give away lots of okra too, in addition to eating it, and freezing some of it.  Our favorite is fried okra, although sometimes we will sautee it, although some of the kids don't really like the sliminess.  The frozen stuff will be good for soups like gumbo, in the winter.

Below is a picture of the pepper plants, mixed in there are 5 kinds of peppers, but the poblano-looking pepper is tallest variety, towering over the other ones.  

pepper plants

The yellow crookneck squash plants are looking pretty raggedy now, but I am hoping they might be able to push out a few more fruit.  The squash vine borers have affected them, but with some additional rooting along the ground, it has helped them.  They have done really well. I estimate around 25 squash from 3 plants.  There are 3 remaining growing tips, with some looking like they might start producing some more.

remnant of the yellow crookneck squash.

I've pulled up some wilted portions of the plant, and they have had some SVB grubs, which have become chicken snacks.  I'm not surprised cause I haven't been doing much to stop them the last month.

But their successors are almost ready to go now.  I planted some "cymlings" (patty-pan type squash).  I read about "cymlings" in an old book about gardening (that's what they called them back in the early 1900s) , and now for fun, I call them cymlings too.  Well I planted 3 hills of cymlings, and one hill of yellow crookneck.  I made a large frame for netting, out of PVC, to protect them from SVB and squash bugs.  Aphids have shown up, but I stuck some lady bug larva and adult lady bugs in there with them  (more on them later..)

more summer squash on the way

On the picture above you can see the cucumber plants They are just about dead.

I haven't mentioned these much, but I've had three big basil plants pretty much all summer.  They are great because they are constantly blooming and draw in lots of bees and other good bugs.  These seeded themselves from last year.

Basil plants, with Hubbard squash growing underneath.

The birdhouse gourds are doing great.  The plants have been severely infested with aphids, but there have been lady bugs among them, and they also have reproduced, so now I have lots of them too.  I've even put some of them under my netting to help with the aphids in my summer squash.  They have also been hit with powdery mildew pretty badly.  But they have produced lots of gourds.  Here are a few:

at the bottom of the picture you can see a leaf infested with powdery mildew.

Portions of the vines are starting to die off too, but other portions are now spreading along the ground.  

For the fall...

My main winter squash now growing is the Hubbard Squash, the sugar pie pumpkins, and spaghetti squash.  Below is the Hubbard squash.  It started close to the birdhouse gourds, and is spreading back towards the main part of the garden, now reaching the basil plants.  I've been burying the vines are they grow,but in the cramped space that becomes tricky.  The SVB moths are still flying around (just killed one today with a badminton racket.) but the egg laying has slowed down.  I do see some eggs here and there but nowhere as bad as it was earlier in the summer.   Next to the vines, growing up on tomato cages, are pole beans, Kentucky wonder.  I hope these get producing well before the cold weather comes.  Last year I started these too late, and they didnt get to produce much before the cold killed them.  This year I seeded them a few weeks earlier.

pole beans.

The plan is to let the Hubbard squash grow all underneath the beans, which are growing up the cages, and onto the fence.  

I think once again I got too ambitious with the sugar pie and spaghetti squash.  They have already taken over the whole area, and are almost impossible to reach for burying vines are removing SVB eggs, so I have really not done much there.   Hopefully the vines are established enough that any damage they cause will just have the effect of "pruning" the vines.

I also enlisted the help of "trichogramma wasps".  I had read that they are effective at parasitizing the eggs of Squash Vine borers.  So I bought some wasp eggs, for about $8 online.  I released them a few weeks ago, and am hopeful they are out there working.  They are very tiny, so it would be impossible for me to see them in action.  My hope is that they get established in my garden as natural pest control.

The vines have reached the pepper plants, and I am trying to train them to grow underneath, so they done cover the plants.