Central Texas Veggie Garden Update: November

I almost have harvestable broccoli! Holy cow, how cool is that? I planted my first round of broccoli transplants in early September and they're showing signs of crowns. I fertilized with a nitrogen fertilizer when they were about 9 inches tall, and then the other day with Flower Power to promote the development of their crowns. That's how i do most of my veggies - nitrogen once they've put on some height and need greening power, and Flower Power (high middle number) when showing signs of flowering and setting fruit. For long season plants like tomatoes and cukes i will redo the Flower Power fertilizing every month or so, plus seaweed in their water  or compost side dressing for a little extra vigor at any time i please.

I planted some more transplants and seeds last weekend:

• Radish
• Carrot
• Broccoli Raab
• Chamomile (seeds and transplant)
• Kale (seeds and transplant)
• Broccoli (transplant)
• Chard (transplant)
• Lettuce
• Pansies and Calendula for some edible/medicinal pretty 

Baby radishes peeking out

 I must admit: the past few years i have diligently laid out my gardens on graph paper, taken detailed notes of every seed and transplant planted and when, watering schedules, fertilization, all a gardener's work entails. This season I'm beign more indiscriminate in my record keeping. I try and water germinating beds every morning and the large gardens twice a week. I'm tucking seeds and seedlings into bare patches as they come available. I harvest what's ripe and carefully watch the weather to see if a freeze may be imminent. Peppers and tomatoes are still filling lots of space so i've been cramming my brassicas into tight spots and tucking seeds in the crannies as i see fit. My companion planting methods have gone out the window for hte most part and it's fun to see so much green slammed into so small a space. We'll see if my 'tuck it where there's space' method works out for me... at the very least i'll have plenty of green matter to choose from, whether it does well or not. ha.

When does one harvest kohlrabi? I dunno, this is my first year.

Meyer Lemons starting to turn yellow. It's the time of year to watch for below 40 degree weather. I'll have to figure out some way to get this now massive potted plant into the house for winter.

The cucumbers continue to give me big old fruit, my tomatoes are heavily laden with green globes of optimism that i have to hunt for amongst their bushy limbs, and all my pepper plants are busting at the stem: many batches of hot sauce are being simmered and preparing to age, get strained, bottled and processed. I'm putting peppers into everything right now and will freeze what i don't turn into hot sauce, muffins, or jam. I'm preparing to save the seeds of my favorite tomato plant and will be mulching the garlic areas as soon as i see a few more little garlic sprouts peeking up. They aren't as happy this year as they've been in past years which may be due to my skipping a layer of turkey compost on top of the seeded beds. Live and learn.

Early Wonder beets, desperately needing to be thinned. I'm waiting for the greens to get a little bigger to use in a sautee or pickle crock

Happy cayennes ready to be sauced or dried

Who's that hiding in the grass?

Three lovely Homestead tomatoes!

 This is a fun time of year - harvest of the fall/winter crops is imminent, some summer bounty is holding on til the last second, and the garden is teeming with new and old life in a more controlled manner than the crazy tomato forests of mid summer. Plus it's nice outside! Get out there and enjoy your garden, it doesn't get much better than this in Austin gardening.

Happy Halloween: A Quick Garden Reminder

I thoroughly enjoyed passing out high fructose corn syrup, pre-packaged cavity blobs to the neighborhood kids last night. Hey, if it were pc i'd make corn balls or pass out hard boiled eggs, but i'm sure they'd just be tossed out and considered 'poison' by the parents, so i join the rat race and purchase candy. Pocket enjoyed her chicken costume, though i couldn't keep the 'comb' hat on for most of the night.  There was much woofing of 'people at the door' warning, but it was good practice for her to see that she does not need to leap out the front door every time someone comes a calling.

Pocket and Belina, two birds of a feather

In the garden, things are a bit spooky too: no recent rain makes for difficult times in the germinating department. I have to water by hose (nasty, broken, too rigorous of spray hose) almost daily to keep the soil moist, my rain barrel is empty and clogged, and the tomatoes are covered with green fruit preventing me from tearing them out to make room for other veggies i want to put in. So, i stuff transplants around every nook and cranny i can to get them in on time:

• Kohlrabi
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Herbs

And keep stuffing seeds in the rest of the cracks hoping that they'll decide to germinate and get happy before it's too late:

• Kale
• Beets
• Carrots
• Broccoli Raab
• Lettuces and Spinach

I recently sold my plumeria plant, but if you have a potted plumeria in your yard, you may notice it dropping some leaves with the cooler temps at night. The rule (for Austin, at least) is "In at Halloween, out at Easter." Plumerias need to come inside to be dormant for Winter in our area - so bring that sucker inside now. You can leave it potted, or pull it out and store it bare root. I usually stuck mine in the bedroom closet. It's now far too big, thus my selling it before the dormant season. I miss those beautifully smelling flowers, but it's absence made room for healing calendula plants.



I didn't plant pumpkins this year, i simply haven't the space. But now would be the time to harvest if you'd planted them in June/July. Did you plant pumpkins? Have any winners on your hands?

Winter Garden Approacheth

Yep. It's currently Sunday, 3 pm, i am soaked. In sweat.
Actually, i DID take a shower - but you get the picture: i still choose silly times to do my gardening. Front bed is all cleared out: purple hulled peas clipped and tilled in with some kelp meal added and toad holes (with large toads clearly present) successfully avoided. I'l add some more compost and start putting in kale and broccoli transplants and seeds in the next few weeks. The fall peppers i planted on July 23rd are happy and putting on fruits. The fall tomatoes i planted are barely larger than they were to start with, but at least one of them is flowering and the layered tomato branch turned new bush is also flowering happily. Hot peppers are in full swing and the little eggplant i put in along with the fall peppers has one cute little fruit on it. It's about time to make pesto number 4, the days MIGHT be showing signs of cooling off, and it's once again time for action out in teh veggie gardens.

See the little toad face?

On deck for Fall/Winter 2010/11:

Calendula
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Kale
Lettuce/spinach
Beets
Swiss Chard
Fava Beans for cover crop in back
Garlic

But i could really stand to wait a few hours, or get started a little earlier ;)

Time for the Fall Garden!

Ha, i think my mom will think THIS post is insane, as it only just warmed up at her home in southern Oregon - and is still dropping in the 40s at night. Oh how i wish for cool nights - but then i wouldn't have eggplants! The weather is really heating up here in Austin. My thai pepper is finally blooming. All the hot peppers are being pretty productive. The pests are out in force, and the cukes are much smaller and less productive. I have to water pretty often, but have lots of cover crop (purple hulled peas) stuffed in between my veggies, so the roots are pretty well shaded and most the plants are still happy despite the heat. It may be hot now, but Autumn is just around the corner - and that means putting in the fall garden. Instead of planting new tomatoes, my plants are healthy enough this year to be cut back and encouraged to produce for a second time. I cut back my heirloom plant a week or so ago (after the birds stole almost all the beautiful fruits) and it's currently showing little shoots here and there of new growth. Today i hacked my Porter Improved by about 50%. It is in a very sunny part of the yard, so i didn't want to cut it back the full 75% so that the roots remained somewhat shaded. That Porter is just covered in Leaf Footed bugs, but they're drowsy in the morning and easy to plop into a cup of water or cut in half with my pruning shears, mwa ha ha ha.

Before - big and bushy

After - thinned out significantly. 

Green tomatoes harvested and placed in a paper bag in the window with an apple to ripen.

Pests and diseases are often a big problem in the heat of the Summer. The plants are already stressed, so it's a great time to pounce for a garden predator. Give your veggie plants some TLC with seaweed/fish emulsion sprays and a little extra fertilizer and compost. You can dilute compost tea and foliar feed (water the leaves and blooms) - and remember to only foliar feed early in the morning or late at night as the heat of the sun combined with the goodies in the liquid fertilizer can burn the plants' leaves.

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Porter Improved tomatoes, little Matt's Wild tomatoes, and some ripe serranos

Squash vine borers devastated all my winter squash - i ended up with two tiny butternuts. So sad. So i pulled out what was left of them to go into the compost and will replace them with new hot pepper transplants. Again i will attempt to plant a cayenne - can i escape the curse!? I sure hope so, as my cupboards are bare of homegrown/ dried peppers. I happily have plenty of ripening jalapenos, serranos, whatever the not-cayennes are, and a few habaneros (more on the way, i hope). I use these fresh in salads and stir fries, and also freeze many for storage: you don't have to blanch or cook hot peppers before freezing - just pop them right into a freezer bag. They won't be crispy when you thaw them out, but they'll taste the same and be perfectly fine for cooking with (and easy to cut when still frozen).

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Serrano, Mucho Nacho Jalapeno, Habanero, 'not cayenne' mystery pepper hiding at the right.

harvest of cucumbers, purple hulled peas, red ripe serranos, and tomatoes

Are you planting a Fall garden this year? Here in Texas it's often our best season. Those plants that have made it through the brutal Summer will bounce back with joy for a respit from the heat and produce like crazy. I hope i have a good season. I didn't plant any bell peppers, and do miss them from last year - especially the Giant Marconi and Golden Bells. Maybe i'll stick on in along with the cayennes in my main bed. There's a bit of room since i along with the failed squash i've also pulled out the Mexican Sour Gerkins i planted and hated. They did nothing but vine and look pretty. The tiny fruits they produced were too insignificant to warrant keeping them around. 

The Natural Gardener has some helpful info on what to plant when - here's what they say about July here in the Austin area. Texas A & M also have a really helpful planting schedule that is usually right on mark.

Good luck bearing the heat, sun, and mosquitos that Summer brings, and happy gardening!