2016: Lost Gardening Year

In January 2016 I bought a new home in the city limits of Houston on a HALF ACRE of land--amazing. I had big plans (and I still do) but 2016 had some plans of its own. Shortly after getting fully moved in, my area of Houston flooded and the house I had just moved into had to be repaired throughout--4 months of ripping out & replacing drywall, flooring and cabinets. During that time I was back to apartment living and there was no easy opportunity to garden. It was sad: a whole year where I barely got any dirt time.

I did manage to plant pomegranate and lime trees on my half-acre. And in the fall when I moved back in I was able to start building vegetable beds. Here's the progression of the bed building, which is now back in full swing. Hopefully this blog will be back in full swing soon, too. Even if I no longer have bees, I have land and the pollinators will come for the food...

Texas Insects ID

The garden is growing up a storm in Houston, and does not seem to be worse for wear after our big flood. My pumpkin has taken over the secret garden (my walled garden area), as you can see in the photo below where the cat is disappearing beneath the leaves. I have numerous tomatoes (all green) and my fig tree has almost a dozen figs. Each is about the size of a quarter. Sweet potatoes, peppers, and most of the other plants look healthy.

I say most because some, including half of the regular potatoes, have been eaten by the snails. I find the tiny snails on the leaves, so I am pretty sure that's what did them in. I may be able to salvage some baby potatoes from the 2 plants, and I am looking into how to prevent the same damage on the two plants I have in a separate bed.

I've noticed a few moth larvae (possibly Diamondback moths) but they are easy enough to pick off and they don't return quickly. I also have the tiny orange-red insects (see photo) all over my pumpkin plant. They don't seem to do any harm (yet) but they gather on the small fruits.

I need a better book on insect identification for the Houston area. In the meantime I've been checking A&M's website on entomology.

Squash Flowers!

I'm no used to having squash flowers this early. The male flowers started a few weeks ago in mid-April, and now the female flowers are here, too. These were volunteers from the compost--I'm pretty sure they are Australian Butter Pumpkins from my mother, since those are the only mature squash seeds that ended up in my compost recently.

Seed/Plant Order for the 2015 Garden

I've just put in my primary seed/plant order for my first full year in the Texas garden. I went with Baker Seeds since I love their variety and I've always had a good experience with them. I will also be supplementing with some locally-purchased plants, seeds I already have, and possibly a small order from Bountiful Gardens.

The challenge with this order was the decision to include things I will grow for the next few seasons: spring through possibly next winter. So it is a big order! See my choices below. All photos are from the Baker order site.

Elena's Rojo Amaranth
Juana's Orange Amaranth
King of the Garden Lima Bean
Romanesco Italia Broccoli
Ozark Razorback Cowpea
Purple Hull Pinkeye Cowpea
Dragon's Egg Cucumber
Muncher Cucumber
Cambodian Green Giant Eggplant
Mitoyo
Naranjilla
Attila Strawberry
Crimson Clover
Boule d'Or Melon
Emerald Gem Melon
Golden Sweet Melon
Cassabanana Melecoton
Burgundy Okra
Pink "Okra"
Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Pea
Sugar Snap Pea
Bhut Jolokia or Ghost Pepper
Craig's Grande Jalapeno Pepper
Poblano Pepper
Quadrato D'Asti Giallo Pepper
Yellow Monster Pepper
Tomatillo Purple
Tomatillo Verde
Brandywine Tomato
True Black Brandywine Tomato
Peacock Striped Watermelon
Royal Golden Watermelon
Okinawan Purple Sweet Potato (PRE-ORDER)
Omani Pink Sweet Potato (PRE-ORDER)
Borage 1 oz 

 

 

 

Box Full of Vegetables: CSA Week 1!

I signed up for a CSA, which is a concept that seems to be a lot better recognized in Montana than in Texas. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The idea is that you buy in to a local or regional farm, and then you share in both the risk and rewards. The reward is generally food grown close to home: in-season vegetables and herbs that change each week based on what is growing well. Is there is a flood or a drought, you might get less or nothing at all (although I hear this is pretty uncommon to most CSAs). But the reward in the risk is that you may make it possible, through your finanacial support "rain or shine" for a local farm to push through a rough time then can pick back up again.

I love knowing where my food comes from, and I love when it does not have to travel hundreds (or thousands) of miles to get to me. Since I can't grow everything myself, a CSA is the best way for me.

I got the smallest share and I am signed up to get a box weekly from JBG Organic (https://www.jbgorganic.com/). I picked up the box at the Whole Foods near my house. Everything is organic and super fresh.

My week one share consisted of:

- 3 heads of red leaf lettuce
- 1 bunch of green onions
- 15-ish radishes (I think there were 15... I started eating them before I counted)
- 6 beautiful carrots
- 1 bunch chard
- 5-ish cups broccoli? They weren't whole heads so I'm not sure how much there was.
- 1 bunch of spinach

I am Now a Southern Gardener

I took a very big step this fall: I moved from Helena, Montana to Houston, Texas. I have been a Northern gardener for my entire life but I am very much looking forward to gardening year-round and experimenting with plants I could never grow in Montana. I have been here for two very eventful weeks!

Week 1:

• Picked up a copy of Neil Sperry's Complete Guide to Texas Gardening at an estate sale for $5 ($40 new/$25 on Amazon). Bargain!
• Assessed the garden spaces around the house: clay soil, lots of black mulch. It does not drain well at all... we'll have to fix that.
• Picked a couple of pounds of pecans off the ground after a big storm with a bunch of other random people on the side of the roads near Sugar Land. Apparently this is a common thing?

Week 2:

• Visited the Urban Harvest farmer's market on Richmond, bought okra & eggplant (in October!!!), joined Urban Harvest, and bought their gardening book Year Round Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers for Metro Houston: A Natural Organic Approach Using Ecology, by Bob Randall.
• Visited Wabash Feed & Garden Store and Buchanan's Native Plants Nursery. Both were very cool and I will be returning to both stores for soil amendments, plant starts, seeds, and more.

First Potato Harvest 2014

I have been pulling greens, peas, and radishes out of the garden for some time, but today I pulled out my first potatoes of the season: a few Colorado Rose and a few All-Blue. I also have French Fingerlings planted but did not find any yet and didn't want to dig too much if they aren't ready. I'm boiling the potatoes I found for an oil and vinegar salad for lunch tomorrow. They look so pretty in the pot!

I also pulled out another pound of raspberries. I'm having trouble keeping up with those and will probably have to start making jam soon.