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.