Fall Garden Update

Broccoli, carrots, romaine Lettuce and three varieties of Onions share the long bed.  

Once the temperatures dropped last month, everything started growing a lot better. I'm not that surprised. Today and yesterday we've had some really cool weather, and these fall crops are loving it.  The Front garden is doing very well, everything is full green and those that are fruiting are still going strong.  Even my peppers are still producing and doing well. We're also having Squash almost every night. I made soup yesterday with it. Nothing beats homemade soup with all raw veggies.  

The yellow squash has consumed a few pepper plants, it seems

 ok because they're staying warm and are still producing.  

I recently planted lots of onions, about 25 garlic cloves, and I have leeks in the backyard that I planted from seeds. So I've gone Allium crazy. The great thing about them is they store really well, and I use them all the time in my cooking. So I don't mind if i have an over abundance of them.  

I also picked up some different shade tolerant varieties of mint that I want to take over a few of the back beds.  There's so little light back there when the trees are full, that it's hard to grow anything useful. My brilliant plan  is to grow those mints and some edible flowers that like the shade. That should solve the problem and make it more colorful too.  We shall see.  

Reasons to Garden

I'm doing a presentation on gardening next week. I had to put together an information sheet. The first thing I did was come up with a brief list of reasons why everyone should grow their own food. It's by no means comprehensive. It doesn't even address the vast environmental benefits, because I'm afraid I'll lose the conservative contingent of my audience ( which is large here in Texas). I focused more one independent prosperity and beneftis from producing your own food.

A few reasons why having a Garden is one of the best things you can do for you and your family.

Lower Cost-
A small investment in seed and soil produces a large return in produce. No fancy or expensive tools are required.
Superior Taste-
Fresh organic produce that you grew yourself always tastes better than anything in the store.
Better Health-
Organic food produced in your own back yard will be richer in nutrients and minerals than in commercial foods that lose those benefits over time due long distance shipping. They are also free of chemicals like arsenic that are used to improve appearance and color of some fruits and veggies.
Improved Eating Habits-
With abundant fresh produce available 10 feet from your door, it will be easier for you and your family to snack on a carrot instead of a cupcake. This will help you and your kids cultivate good eating habits.
Preventative Care-
Childhood diabetes, obesity and depression are on the rise in The US. Studies indicate these problems can be prevented through better diets, including unprocessed foods that can easily be grown where you live.
Smarter Exercise-
Working with a shovel and a hoe in the garden burns plenty of calories, and develops largely unused muscle groups. You could pay a monthly fee and go to a gym, but all you’d get in return is sweaty gym clothes. Wouldn’t a bountiful harvest for the price of your labor be smarter?
Peace of Mind-
You know what your family is eating, how it developed, where it came from, and who helped it grow. No more worries about salmonella, ecoli or other pathogens that often afflict commercial and processed foods.
Family Unity-
Gardens are for young and old, plenty of fun activities can be geared around planting, growing and harvesting. Little ones love planting seeds and watching them grow.
Property Value-
In a time of a depressed housing market, a property with productive fruit trees and bushes, as well as a beautiful and bountiful garden, stands out.
Beautiful Yard –
Edible ornamentals like blueberry bushes and vibrant nasturtiums not only give you food, but also create a serene and beautiful yard.
Self Sufficiency-
Fruits and vegetables will grow during good times and bad, you can beat back high food prices with a trowel, and continue to provide food for you family in times of joblessness or other situational woes.
Good Stewardship- 
Growing your own food makes you aware of this beautiful earth and our responsibility to take care of it.
Great Therapy- 
Taking some time among the flowers and butterflies as you pick sun ripened tomatoes will do more to improve your happiness than any amount of time on the couch with the shrink.

Sweet Sweet Rain

The last week or so has brought the storm clouds. We've been having regular rain now for a while, and it's been magnificent. I can't remember being so happy for the grey skies.  Everything in the garden  has been thankful for the deep and soaking precipitation. I think we've had around 5 inches in the past little while. It's been great. I've never seen it so green. The hot Texas sun just saps the life out of everything sometimes. I'm excited for fall.  

Cantaloupe? Yes You Can.

Early stage of melon development,
note the remnant of the blossom on it's end .

Horrible puns aside, I've found it really easy to grow Cucumis melo, aka muskmelon aka cantaloupe. I grow the Earlichamp variety, an f1 hybrid that has is quick to mature, which makes my long growing season that more abundant in fruits from one vine. Some of the people I've talked to shy away from this large edible, because it takes up too much space and is a magnate for all manner of pests. Generally this is true, but I'm able to successfully grow them because I do so vertically. It only takes up one square foot of ground



This one is about 4 inches across,
its about this size that I usually put
the melon in a net and tie it to the trellis.

space, but it requires the support of a strong trellis. Eventually it's also wise to place the heavy melons in a net, or old rags or anything that can be tied around the fruit and the vertical support. Pests are nominal because most of the enemies of the Cantaloupe lurk on the ground. The verticality also helps to prevent melons from fungal attacks because air circulation is much better up there. It one of those killing-two-birds-with-one-stone ideas. For someone like me, who has a very very small area to garden, the vertical growing is ideal. As long as you have a sunny spot, good rich soil, temperatures in the 80s or 90s and a vertical support, you can grow tasty juicy aromatic melons in a mere square foot. There's no reason the urbanites can't enjoy a taste of the country.

My muskmelon vine scampering up the
modified room divider I found in a dumpster
and resurrected for the advancement
of urban agriculture.

Fall Beginings

It's September, which means that temperatures are in the high 80s and still flirt with the low 90s. So in other words its a northern summer. We probably won't get our first frost until mid November. That's what happened last year.

So, I've heard that this is the best season to grow things in this climate. I can understand why. I'm actually excited to get started. I planted nine broccoli seedlings. I am ashamed to say that I did not grow them from seed. My summer garden was almost exclusively from seed. I suppose that's just gardener's hubris.

I've also direct seeded some salad greens and a few root veggies. It will be interesting to see what works and what doesn't

Summer Wanes but the Heat Remains

This summer has actually been wetter and less hot than the last one. That doesn't mean it hasn't been hot, its just been less so. Anyway, my plants are doing ok. I harvested the muskmelon in the picture ( or cantaloupe) the other day from my vine trellis in the front yard. It's the most aromatic melon that's ever graced my olfactory scenes. The small potatoes I pulled a while ago, they are all that's left of what I harvested before it got too hot and my potato plants fried in the sun.

My backyard experiments have proven failures, the lack of sun just won't sustain anything I try to plant. It's kind of discouraging, becasue that's the only semi-large space I really have to plant

In other news, I',m getting a small plot in at the Frisco community garden. Yeah, I didn't know it existed either until recently. Most of the food they grow goes to the community food bank, as I understand it. I 'm excited to help out. I already shoveled several truck loads of mulch on Saturday for the garden. It was fun as shoveling mulch can be.

Garden Progress

My backyard presents an interesting problem. It gets only a small amount of sun per day, and that's only in localized areas. Since Texas likes to jump from the mid seventies in spring to the high 90s in June and even hotter in the two coming months, I have to plant things that are shade tolerant, as well as heat resistant. For obvious reasons, it's hard to find that combination. Still, I try.


The back bed has a smattering of things, from pole beans to cucumbers


I haven't finished the layout yet, but this is more or less the way things are. I'll probably be able to grow more things in the fall winter and spring, than in the violent throes of the Texas summer. Denizens of Hell ask to back after staying awhile here in the sun.


Here's the front yard.

I rent this house, so I still have a useless hedge and useless Saint Augustine grass. If i owned the place they'd be gone! Still I've made some ok beds, this one has some more vine varieties to preserve what little space I have. I've got more beans, some melons and cucumbers and some zucchini just coming out.



My small forest of Tomatoes of varied varieties, along with a few other heat lovers. I really need to get some more peppers, they're the only things that really put up with all this heat.

Garlic Harvest

I planted a dozen or so garlic cloves back in November. I haven't been keeping a very good garden journal, so I don't know exactly how long they've been in the ground. The past week half of the stalks started to brown and wilt. From what I've read, that means it's harvest time.


I sucessfully pulled out 11 bulbs of garlic. They were very aromatic. They look a little on the small side, but other than that look and smell ideal. They were extremly easy to grow. They were right up against my shed all winter and got the runoff from the roof. That and they were heavily mulched with leaves, so no weeding and no watering made them very easy to take care of.



I did an amature garlic braid and this is how they now appear in my kitchen.

Potatoes and Iron Age Technology.

Back in the winter I tried my hand at an old method for fencing, known was wattle. The people since the Iron Age have taken willow branches and woven them together to create fences for all purposes. Some craftsman still do this in the UK. I decided to build a container for my potatoes, and didn't want to use tires, so I thought about wattle. Not having willow branches at my disposal, I just used what ever branches I had. So this is what resulted.
They turned out looking very rustic, which give them a unique charm that you just can't get with some old tires. No offense to anyone who uses the tire method, I know it works very well. Today I took these pictures to show how my potatoes are doing.


All I've done is throw leaves and unfinished compost into the my potato basket, they seem to be growing rather well. We'll see what harvest they produce.