2011 Garden is Growing!

Our 2011 garden is planted and growing like crazy! We installed a new irrigation system that gives our plants regular and even watering. I've decided this is a make or break deal for a garden in Texas. There is no way to hand water a garden and ensure even watering every day. Fruiting plants (especially tomatoes) need regular, even watering to ensure good production. Here's a shot of the garden so far:



Matt built the trellises from cedar fence boards. He ripped them into different widths with the table saw and then stained them. They look pretty amazing, and match our snazzy fence he built last year. They also support the tomatoes pretty well. Form AND function!



This year we are growing LOTS of tomatoes. Even more than last year. Why I have no idea, other than the fact that there are so many varieties and it's really hard to stop buying them once you start. So, we have two 18' beds of tomatoes, one 12' bed of eggplants, and the other 12' bed we are trying out a thing called 'three sisters'. There are eight mounds, four on each side. Every other mound has squash seeds planted, and the opposite mounds have corn seeds planted in them. Once the corn gets 4-5" tall you then plant green bean seeds. The beans will sprout and start growing up the corn. Meanwhile the squash's broad leaves help keep the ground moist by providing shade cover low to the ground. Corn doesn't typically grow well in Austin, but we're giving it a shot. We've also ordered some traps to hopefully keep the evil squash vine borers at bay.

I've noticed that every year for about 2-3 weeks after we plant everything seems to be in stasis for a while. Matt's theory is that everything is taking root, which seems valid to me. But then, right before our eyes there is an explosion of growth and every morning when we walk out our front door it's unbelievable how much everything has grown. The last 2 weeks have been like that, and almost overnight we have seen fruit popping up everywhere.

Black Krim tomatoes (Large heirloom tomatoes that ripen to a reddish black color. Very flavorful.)


Ichiban Eggplant (Long, skinny Japanese eggplant, great in Asian dishes.)


Juliet tomatoes (Red grape type tomato...ours have historically gotten pretty big.)


Flamme tomatoes - our favorite (These are large cherries that ripen to an orange yellow color. AMAZING flavor.)


This year we learned to add a tomato food called Tomato-Tone (or a similar food) to the tomatoes when planting them to help ensure that the tomato blossoms actually set into fruit. And another good thing to note: peppers and eggplants are also in the tomato family, so you can use it on them as well (this also means you should not plant tomatoes, peppers and eggplants near each other to prevent competition for soil nutrients).

The biggest surprise of all is the mini forest of tomato and basil plants that have been sprouting up throughout the garden, remnants from last year's garden that went to seed. It's been really fun to see all the different varieties of basil popping up. We have no idea what the tomato plants are. We're letting most of them grow and will see how they do and what they hopefully produce.

2010 Garden Close Out

Uh, yeah. I never closed out the 2010 garden, mostly because the squash vine borers crushed my gardening soul. What is a squash vine borer, you ask? It's a little colorful moth that flies around and deposits it's eggs on the vines and leaves of squash plants. Those eggs then grow into these things:

As they grow they eat their way down the squash vine until the plant is dead and rotten. Like this:

Last year we performed surgery on several of our squash plants in an effort to save them. We managed to give some of them a few more weeks of life, but in the end the borers won the war. That combined with the fact that the ants and aphids seemed like they would ONCE AGAIN defeat my pepper plants and I just couldn't fight anymore. Until fall came. Whoa...fall came and the plants were like "ZOMG! It's not 140 degrees outside! And all the pests went away! Let's get busy!" And then we had so many tomatoes and peppers we didn't know what to do with them all. I tried making salsa and soup and salads, but it was literally impossible to eat them all. 

I'm glad our 2010 garden ended on a good note. It was a much needed victory during a very challenging time in 2010. This is why I garden. It's full of ups and downs, but every harvest no matter how big or small feels like a victory. It's the victories in life that help carry us through.

Nemesis

Texas gardners have their share of pests to deal with. Anyone who's tried to grow so much as a square foot of grass in this state is well aware of that fact. It seems that every new plant comes with its very own special pests to defeat. And BONUS! If your plants happen to survive the many many bugs that want to devour them at any stage of their pre-fruit bearing life cycle, you then get to wage war against the many squirrels and birds that would love to get their grubby little paws (or beaks) on your precious fruit.

Nothing infuriates me (or my husband) more than losing that almost ripe tomato to a squirrel only to find it slightly nibbled and tossed aside, because, I don't know, I guess it didn't taste good enough. Well no crap, IT'S NOT RIPE. Someone should really teach those squirrels about all the starving children in China.

Back to the whole "waging war" thing. Did you think I was exaggerating? I am not. At all. Not one little bit. Last year when our precious Cherokee Purples started producing we couldn't wait to enjoy our first juicy tomato. Then we came home from work one day to find a just ripening tomato, lightly nibbled, discarded near it's plant. And the battle was on. We tried bird netting, but the little bastards just figured out how to get under it. So, we took it to the next level with an electric fence, which worked pretty well. At least well enough for us to not be pissed off every day.

Well, this year the garden is WAY too big for an electric fence to be affordable, and the bird netting has been working as well as it did last year (read "not at all").

We decided our final step would be to set some humane traps and see if we couldn't bring an end to this insanity. On day two of having the traps up...Victory! I must confess we were a little excited. Abi was excited as well.

Although it turns out her vicious gaze (or more likely the heat) was to much for him.While it wasn't our intention, the little guy was gone before we got home.

None of our tomatoes have been touched since, so we may have been dealing with one pesky little squirrel who decided to make his home in our neighbor's pecan tree and use our garden as his grocery store. RIP nemesis.

My Inspiration

Last year's garden was a bit of a spontaneous decision, and most of our research efforts were focused on square foot gardening since we knew we would need to pack a lot of plants into a small space. We didn't spend too much time thinking about what plants to plant and where to locate them. We just bought what we liked and stuck it in the ground.

Most of our plants did fairly well, with the exception of our broccoli and pepper plants. I couldn't figure out what went wrong with them. This year I decided to do a lot more planning and research on what types of vegetables and herbs we wanted to grow, and in my search I found this book: Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces, by Gayla Trail, author of the garden blog You Grow Girl.

I LOVE this book! Love love love it. Have I mentioned how much I love it? This book is packed with useful tips on growing all kinds of vegetables, herbs, beneficial and edible flowers and what to do with all of your bounty. It also focuses all of this information on growing a great organic garden in small spaces. What I have found to be most useful about this book are her tips on what plants to grow together and what plants to keep away from each other in the garden. For example, grow tomatoes near basil and cilantro because the strong smell of these herbs will keep a lot of pests away, but don't grow pepper plants near your tomato plants because they are in the same family and require the same nutrients. Turns out this was my problem last year...the tomatoes were sucking up all the nutrients from the soil and my poor little pepper plants couldn't get any nutrition. This year we planted them in a separate bed from the tomatoes and they are doing much better.

She also talks a lot about using helpful flowers in your garden, which not only attract beneficial bugs and repel harmful pests but also beautify your garden. I used a lot of marigolds this year for a couple of reasons: 1) they are inexpensive and easy to come by ready to plant (I don't recommend growing them from seed as they are SLOW growers and not worth it), and 2) they have a strong odor and repel a lot of pests. The third benefit I wasn't expecting was how much prettier they made our garden look.

I highly recommend adding a dash of color to your garden with flowers, especially if you're planning a front yard garden. They really help transform it into a type of landscaping, instead of just a garden in your front yard (which, let's admit, some people think is weird).

Our Front Yard Garden

Last year my husband and I decided to grow a garden. Because, you know, remodeling a 60 year old house wasn't keeping us busy enough. Since we have ZERO sun in our backyard and live in a community that will pretty much let you put anything in your front yard, including a giant metal rooster, we planted our garden out front. We kept it simple last year with two 4x4 above ground garden boxes and stuck to the basics: basil, tomatoes, spinach, collard greens, etc. Everything grew pretty well and we were happy.

So happy, in fact, that we decided to expand...by about 400%. We cut down the much hated Mimosa Tree and tilled up pretty much the entire east side of our yard (we went in ground this time to save money). I was charged with research and garden layout. M was charged with the manual labor. And before you start thinking I got the easy part of the job, do you know how many rules there are about growing and not growing plants near each other? After a couple of weeks of planning and a couple of weekends of hard but satisfying work, we have our garden.

Voila!

 

Something has the munchies

Something has the munchies and they're going to town on several of my root plants. I've found radishes, beets, and now garlic bulbs chomped on from under the ground. What the heck eats garlic?! I mean, garlic is supposed to be the miracle plant that repels everything...even vampires!



The internet has been no help at all on the matter, as any search only leads me to endless articles and "How To" tips on using garlic to keep pests away from your other plants. Well, the garlic did a good job of keeping the slugs away from my lettuce, but apparently it has lost the will to defend itself. This is the only site I've been able to find with any helpful information. My inclination is this particular garlic plant contracted Fusarium (Basal or Bottom Rot), and then in its weakened state was devoured by one of the most loathsome garden pests of all, the pillbug. I planted the garlic late in the season anyway, but thought I'd give it a shot just for kicks. I still have 3 other plants hanging on, but worst case scenario I'll try replanting when the weather cools off.