Busy week

Well, it has been a busy week so I haven't had a chance to post much. The Neem Oil seems to be working and I will spray again this evening. It did help get the current powdery mildew but now more is appearing and I don't want it to spread. It looks like I will need to spray the redbud tree as well. At least is it still small. I also have begun to see what I believe are wolly aphids. I have never encountered them before, sort of cool looking but not welcome. At least they are much easier to see that regular aphids.
I also went out to the garden yesterday around noon and there was a whole family of cardinals that flew out of the garden when I came to the backyard. I figured there would be alot of damage to the tomatoes, not a peck anywhere. So I figure they are eating the bugs. Since I have to take down spiderwebs every morning just to walk between the beds I figure the ecosystem is going well. (Just wish they would say away from the house.
Harvesting about 1 cup of cherry tomatoes each day, the roma's are starting to ripen as well as the yellow and pink tomatoes.

Trouble over the weekend

Well, I was out of town and sure enough, a new problem has emerged, spider mites. So off to the store for some Neem Oil to try that. It is a little hot but hopefully I can stave off a spreading infestation. The squash had them on friday now they are in the cucumbers and eggplant. Hopefully before anything else is effected I can stop this mess. Plus they have weakened the plants so powdery mildew is starting to pop up. Neem Oil supposedly works on that too. We will see.

Bamboo tepees

I was able to get some free bamboo (8-10 ft long) from a coworker and now I have 3 bamboo tepees in the garden to help with keeping the tomatoes under control that are not close to the trellises. They are currently the highest thing in the garden and hopefully after lashing 3 pieces of bamboo together and tying them off to the main trellis will help keep htem from going everywhere for a little while longer.

On another note, it looks like things are going to start getting interesting. Hot weather for the next week with no sight of rain. (Hot is actually warm for Texas, low 90's for the highs.)

We will see how the garden does. The rain barrels are full but they will be empty in a week with all the water needed. Plus I found what I believe was a baby cricket or grasshopper in the potatoes (the one's I have decided to give a chance.)

Well, hot or not I will be planting this afternoon (beans and radishes) we will see how they do.

Slow day at mid week Farmers Market

Since I couldn't be at the last Saturday farmers market due to the rain, or the next farmers market due to a schedule conflict I decieded to go to the mid week farmers market.
Well, it was fairly slow and I only sold one squash and some fresh herbs. But I did sell a pen and a bowl so it wasn't a total loss. I just have alot of squash leftover. So more zucchini bread and some zucchini pan fried in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, topped with a quick homemade pesto (from the left over fresh basil leaves).
With the rain and the warm temperatures the garden is going crazy. Hopefully time to tie up tomatoes (after getting some bamboo for stakes from a coworker at lunch) and set out the fertilzer stakes. The peppers seem to have exploded in width, looks like the dill is starting to finish up for the season and the Japanese eggplant is doing fairly well. Potatoes are still in danger of being pulled up for the season. At least the red skinned. Hopefully this afternoon.
While walking the garden I saw another zucchini that I had missed so I will need to pick that tonight.

More rain + high winds = not good for baby corn plants

Well, last night on the way home I noticed those ominous dark clouds to the south that could only mean one thing, severe weather was coming. Took a look at the radar on weather.com and realized that I would not be planting green beans that night. So I harvested the zucchini that I had planned on, and a handful of beans and a few cherry tomatoes for an order to be delivered tomorrow morning before the storm came and went inside to get some things done that I planned for later in the week.
Well, that thunderstorm cell actually went to the east of us, but another from the north hit us and lightening and some good wind. So I got another .6 in of rain in the rain gauge. (Really a shame since the rain barrels are full right now.)
The garden did pretty well. Shade cloth came off of the lettuce, which was probably a good thing, hopefully washed the aphids off. But the biggest problem is the most recent planting of corn. Instead of perpendicular to the ground they are almost all parallel to the ground. Only one has a broken stem so the afternoon project will be trying to get them upright again. Another project. Oh well, someday the green beans will get planted.

Sunday morning harvest

The harvest was so colorful this morning I just had to take a picture. Here is what we have:

2- italian Zucchini (there were more but I want to let them get a little more size before harvesting.)

2- zephyr squash

1- Japanese Eggplant

5-cherry tomatoes

1-handful of green/yellow beans

3- small/medium carrots

I didn't need to pick the carrots yet but I still have plenty and I really didn't thin them well so this is my thinning. Not too bad for a Sunday morning.

(I wanted to pick dewberries but it is too wet and I can get to the dewberry patch due to a small lake behind my fence!)

Rain!

Finally after weeks we got some rain, and did we get rain. About 2.55 in less than 24 hrs according to my rain gauge. The timing wasn't very good since the morning rain prevented me from harvesting so I really didn't have enough to go to Farmers' Market since I can't put my wood items out in the rain. So now that it has stopped I have an abundance of squash/zucchini. So I am making zucchini bread (actually it is a combo of the regular zucchini and the zephyr squash.) I discovered a new feature on my kitchen aid mixer in the process and that is the slicer/grater attachment. It was great! It was sort of fun looking at the directions since this mixer might be older than I am. My mom doesn't bake much anymore and they brought it as one of many 'house warming' gifts.

I did sell some of the green beans to a co-worker and now I have another 1 lb which I might try to cook and freeze for later. (I have the zucchini for a vegetable right now.)

Well, considering the small lake behind the fence I think it can stop raining for a little bit and let that dry up. (Since they fixed the sewer manhole it doesn't have that to drain into anymore.

Another view

Here is another view of the garden, this time looking at the house. Now the tree in the background is not my tree and does shade the garden some, but actually it protects it more from the afternoon heat which is a good thing. I wouldn't mind a little more sun, esp. for the beds closest to the house, but the house is a rent house so there is not much I can do about it. (I already had to cut up a tree from their front yard that fell in my yard over the Christmas break. (The tree had been dead for years and at least it didn't hit my house.) I could have tried to contact the landlord (out of state) but I have a chainsaw and I needed some firewood.
The first batch of bush beans is finishing up, just as a new patch is starting to produce. (I did good on the timing of this one.) Everything else is fairly quiet. Won't have too much for farmers (more herbs than anything) this week. But I will have a couple of ornamental pepper plants with me as well. I will try to take a picture of them tonight.

Bed # 7

Bed #7 is in transition, I have finished up the spring lettuce and am trying some summer varieties just to see if I can get any to grow in this Texas heat. There are a few carrots in the foreground (I didn't count them.) They are a little behind since the lettuce had crowed them a bit. And then there is the bush beans. They didn't come up as well as I would have liked. There is probably around 7 sq ft, which should be 63 plants but not all the seeds came up, I am guessing around 40-ish plants. Enought that I am starting to get a handful of beans twice a day.
If you are wondering about the shade cloth, that is mainly to shade where the lettuce seed was planted to keep the ground from drying out while they germinate. We will see if it works.
No real tally for this bed, just a random assortment of veggies.

Squash

This is the type of yellow squash that I am growing this year and the type that I accidentally planted 12 plants vs 6 plants. 'Zephyr' squash is a straightneck summer squash, it is interesting since it is 2/3's yellow and a 1/3 green. Sometimes you get a green/yellow/green pattern as well.
It is producing fairly well, as long as the bees can get to the flowers from between all the leaves. (One of the disadvantages of close plantings.) As you can see it has quite a few blossoms getting ready even with a few fruit almost ready to pick. It is something a little different which I like to try. I did notice what I think was powdery mildew on a couple of the leaves of one of them. I am not 100% sure since it is a little early and it has been to dry really for that too develop. Very early in the season for that as well. Hopefully it is just my imagination.

Finally, the tomatoes are turing color!

Finally, after what seems like forever I finally found some red cherry tomatoes. Now this picture was taken in the evening and I went out this morning and don't remember seeing that many red ones. My fight with the squirels and birds may have already begun. Hmmm...... Hopefully there will be enough for both them and me.

Bed #6

Well, here is the last wooden raised bed, bed # 6. It is also the tallest raised bed with two extra 2x4 boards, giving a total height of about 18" possible. I have been having trouble with the potatoes this year, I think the soil might be a bit heavy and wet so I am not sure if I will do well with the potatoes or not. People here are telling me that the fall potatoes are better anyway. So I have redskin potatoes and blue potatoes. I have planted some Nasturium for flowers at the one end with the trellis and some leaf lettuce in between (the hope is to be able to harvest the lettuce and the potatoes about the same time.) The lettuce transplants didn't handle the unusual heat that we have had so it isn't as pretty as I would like it. Really to much bare dirt on this bed for my personal preference. I have lost a couple of potatoes so I have put some bush cucumbers in their place as well as some cilantro, just to see if I can grow it in the summer.

The tally on this bed is a little different as I didn't count the potatoes. So there is a row of red skin potatoes on the right, row of blue potatoes on the left and 7 lettuce plants, 3-4 cucumber plants and 2 cilantro plants.

Bed # 5

So, here is Bed #5. It is very similar to Bed #2 in the fact that there are Roma, Cherry, Razzleberry and Golden Rave tomatoes. There is also Japanese and round eggplants but also some ornamental eggplant known as 'pumpkin on a stick.' Very thorny and I don't think I would grow them again, but they are in the ground now, so why not. Also some bush beans and a few marigolds to help with the bugs.

So here is the tally:
6- Cherry Tomato
6-Roma Tomato
4-Golden Rave Tomato
2-Razzleberry Tomato
2-Japanese Eggplant
2-Round Eggplant
8-'Pumpkin on a stick' ornamental eggplant
2 sq ft of bush beans (about 12-18 plants).

New harvest

Well, I have harvested squash, onions, herbs, radishes and lettuce so far in the garden this year. Now, I am started to get fresh green beans. I mainly planted bush beans since I didn't have any more trellises for pole beans. I am thinking of a new spot for those next spring.
The potatoes are still trying to make it through the unusually warm temperatures. I just hope they are doing something underground before they finally die off. Only one has flowered so far. Time to put the shade cloth over them this evening for tomorrow. I think I am actually going to switch shade cloths around and give them the darker one and hopefully the lettuce seedlings in the other bed won't mind too much.

Farmers Market

A successful day at the farmers' market. I didn't have too much produce. Three different kinds of squash/zuchinni, some onions and fresh herbs. I did sell all the squash, onions and basil. Still had some parsley, oregano and dill left. Now I get to dry those, chop them up and make spice packets for a herb dip.
A also sold some of my woodturnings and my first pen at the market. I used some of the profits to buy a new table (one of those 6 ft tables that fold in half.) So now I can spread out a little more. Hopefully in the next month I might be able to afford one of those 10x10 tents. I will have to get some concrete blocks as well, since the heavy winds can pick them up fairly easily.
Overall a good day, I met a lot of people as well as got a mild sunburn on my arms. Guess I need to put on more sunscreen.

Bed # 4

So we are still going with the squash theme and more zuchinni and spagetti squash (a personal favorite.) More bush beans because I didn't know what else to plant and a recently added bush cucumber.
There was supposed to be 10 spagetti squash but I guess when I was planting the seeds I grabbed the zephyr squash instead because I have another flat of that instead. Oh well, more for farmers.
Again another trellis this one created using a pair of sawhorse brackets and 6 ft high 2X4's. It is a large sawhorse with the metal mesh used in concrete pouring. They are very ridgid 4x7 panels and there are two zip tied to the frame. The watermelon, spagetti squash (reg type) and zuchinni will all be trained to the trellis. (Next year it will probably become a tomato trellis for crop rotation. I also have tomato cages for the 'Hasta la pasta.'

6 - Romansco (Italian type) Zuchinni
6 - Zephyr squash
3 - spaghetti squash
2 - yellow seedless watermelon
4 - Hasta la pasta (a smaller orange spaghetti squash)
7 sq ft of bush beans
2- bush cucumber
1 - purple basil plant
1- Strawberry Lettuce (this is what my chart says but I think that one didn't make the transplanting.)

Bed # 3

Ok, we have had herbs and tomatoes, now Squash. I have four varieties of zuchinni and two of them in this bed. Though zuchinni doesn't really lend itself to being trellised there is still a 4 ft high trellis allong the long width (8ft) of the bed. I am tying up the zephyr squash (mainly to keep them off the beans and the other zuchinni (not sure of the variety, bought it at a nursery) I am trying to get to spill over the side of the raised bed. I few bush beans just for fun and hopefully will get some more space for the peppers when they are finished. Along with some 'razzleberry tomatoes.' They are pink instead of red when ripe and the seeds came free with my seed order so I thought why not.

Here is the tally.
6- zuchinni (regular green type)
6- zephyr squash
4- sweet basil plants
4 - razzleberry tomatoes
30 - bush bean plants (I planted 36 seeds, not 100% sure how many came up but they take up 4 sq ft and they are supposed to be 9/sq ft.)
4- Gypsy Hybrid pepper
4-Tango Hybrid pepper

I haven't decided what to do when the bush beans finish yet, it will depend on what is available for transplants at the nursery or if I can get organized in the next month what I want to start with seeds in the garage.

Bed # 2

Now we get into the vegetable beds. It is going to seem like alot in one 4X8 ft bed but with trellising and cages it works fairly well. I will definately be changing some things next year but for year 1 it is a good start. There are 2 6 ft trellis that span the 4 ft width of the bed for the cherry and roma tomatoes and cages for the Golden Rave tomatoes. I have found the peppers to be getting a little crowded so I will have to figure out how to rearrange for next year.

So here we go.

6 - roma tomatoes
6 - cherry tomatoes
8 - Golden Rave tomatoes
4 - regular small eggplant (can't remember the variety but they are more round)
4 - Japanese type eggplant
4 - Gypsy Hybrid Tomatoes
4 - marigolds

I already have alot of green tomatoes but they seem to be stalling on growing past a certain stage. I think I have given them a little too much nitrogen so I am pulling back and using an actual tomato fertilizer to get them a boost plus prune back some of the leaves of the tomatoes.

Bed #1

Well, I thought I would do an introduction of each bed and what is in it right now. As crops finish up and change this will change as well. Hopefully this weekend I can add pictures.
Bed #1 will eventually be all herbs but since this is the first year it is about 1/2 herbs and 1/2 peppers.
So here is the current breakdown:
3 chives
1 oregano
1 cilantro (soon to be lavender)
2 mammoth dill
1 sage
1 parsely (curly)
1 lemon verbena
10 basil (sweet)
1 German Thyme
2 Strawberry Lettuce
8 - Tango Hybrid peppers
4 - Gypsy Hybrid peppers
6 - marigolds

Eventually after the peppers are done I want to add more parsley and other perennial herbs while leaving room for the seasonal herbs such as 'dill', 'basil', etc... There are some herbs in other beds to fill in empty spaces but these are all annual herbs.

Welcome to the jungle

Welcome to my blog. I have decided to try to blog about my first time gardening in Texas as far as having a vegetable garden. I have grown vegetables in California and Boston and this is my first time in Texas. I hope to have pictures soon but here is the breakdown of the growing areas.

Back Yard
6 - 4'X8' raised beds
2- 3.5' X 7'raised beds
1 - 6' X 15' semi raised section for corn
2- large pots
and various other items as I have time.

Front Yard
1 - peach tree (probably about 8-9 yrs old)
1- Jujubee tree (only 1 year old)
2 - medium pots of rosemary
3 - bareroot lavender plants (will probably take a year or two until I can harvest from them.)

The beds were built in Feb so I got a little bit of a late start this year for growing in Texas but it is all an experiement this year. Plus some of the plants are young so it will take a little bit of nurturing to get them going.

Everything is based on the square foot gardening method, which I found found to be the best for small spaces.

A few other items in the garden is 4-55 gal rain barrels. The city water here is terrible for the plants so if it rains at least 1/4"-1/2" I should have 210-220 gal of water before I have to go to city water. The key word is if it rains.

Another reason this blog is called 'welcome to the jungle' is I have plenty of critters around. Granted I don't have deer or rabbits (at least I have not seen any yet) but I have oppossums, snakes, armadillos, birds, and alot of squirrels.

Alot of people are going 'organic' with their growning. Honestly, if I get an infestation of bugs I will spray, but it will be a last resort. There is nothing wrong with a few aphids if it keeps a few ladybugs around. I have yellow sticky traps to monitor how my little 'ecosystem' is doing. If you can keep a good 'ecosystem' of beneficial insects around and keep the plants healthy and happy then their shouldn't be a need to spray.

Hopefully the birds will help take care of some of the bugs and snails. I haven't figured out what good the squirrels will do. (Last year the neighbors told me they ate all the peaches off the peach tree.)

Well, that is all for now. I will do some posts later to introduce each raised bed and what is growing in each.