Squash picture

A close up of my summer squash, Early White Scallop. My most prolific (read:only) producer thus far. I've harvested 5 or 6. I don't know how they taste yet, because my wife thinks they make nice table decorations. If they prove to be edible too, I will officially classify them as repeat planting worthy.

Belated planting update

I've been out of town recently and lazy perpetually, so my daily blog is looking a bit monthly.

Since I last wrote I've planted many seeds - three different kinds of beets, cilantro (coriander), Parisian carrots and arugula. I am an unrepentant anglophile, so I've taken to calling arugula "Rocket". If I ever get over to France I'll start calling it Roquette, but my french accent will be so bad no one will notice a difference. I'll have to explain the change and everyone involved in the situation will not be amused.

I am sure everyone is dying to know, why so many varieties of beets? He has such a small garden, is he mad to allot such precious space to so many beets? Truth is, most of my beet eating has been the canned, pickled kind. They are awful. Even more awful if you spot them in the Thanksgiving buffet and think they are canned cranberry sauce. You put a pickled beet in your mouth expecting cranberries instead, and you do not want beets again for a very long time.

I planted so many beets because my Mom requested them. Apparently she loves them, I never knew that. So she asked and I planted. The same goes for all family and friends. Ask and I shall plant. Of course if your not my Mom, you probably will not get such a good response. One variety, maybe two, but not three.

More rain, questions

I didn't know it was supposed to, but it has rained again today. A nice, slow drizzle from 8 or so through early afternoon. Half an inch, I'd guess. I think that is good. Could it be too much rain? Is there any such thing?
I built trellises in the garden yesterday morning. I've backed off calling them tuteurs. They are not nearly beautiful or sturdy enough for that title. I should back off using the term built, as well. Threw together, seems more appropriate. The pictures are coming and we can have some fun placing bets on days to destruction.
My questions are : shouldn't my plants be bigger by now? why have the fennel and dill stopped growing at 4 cm high? what the hell is the matter with the tomato plant now? fertilize more? water less? the pumpkins seem happy, why not everybody else? will I get any production before the first frost? lettuce seeds or transplants?
The questions, as I read them, are less quizzical and more plaintive than I intended. I stand in the garden, then lean over and stare at the parsley and wonder: are they supposed to look this way? Are they too small? Is that even parsley or just weeds? I've no frame of reference, no experience. I look forward to a time when I can say, "Oh, the parsley is doing OK, no need to fertilize. Last year, they looked just like this and that was one parsley crop to see. We had so much the neighbors wouldn't speak to us for fear of receiving parsley."
I'm sure that time will come. And a lot of the wonder of gardening, or just doing something new will go before it comes. I should enjoy my ignorance.
But really, what is that tomato's damn problem?

Pumpkin Flower

More plantings; first off topic side note

I planted Swiss Chard seeds (big, spiky seeds), garlic cloves and shallots on Saturday morning in the light rain. It then poured down on Saturday night and today I already have Chard seedlings pushing through.
The garlic and shallots raised a couple of questions. 1) What is the difference between the ones I bought at King Feed and the ones I buy at the grocery? Since I paid more for the ones at the feed store, I've decided to not deliberately anger myself and will not answer this question until next fall before I plant more garlic and shallots. 2) I knew to break up the cloves before planting, but to plant with paper husk on or as naked cloves? I couldn't find much on this topic online or in my books. I am sure the answer is so obvious as to not even bare mentioning, but which one? I found a video of P. Allen Smith (a somewhat more masculine version of Martha Stewart, sans prison tats) planting some garlic and he doesn't mention one way or another, but a close up shot looked like husk on. So there I was.
Other news - I have some great new pictures of pumpkin blooms, those will go up soon. Also all my vining plants are large enough to require something to climb on and I plan to build some tuteurs over the next few days. I'll post photos of those to immortalize my architectural wonders (How do they remain standing?).

Non-gardening side note - check out this trailer for a new book out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYg9X_ZC9Gk
Lynn is a freind and I think the book will be good and I just know that this blog will provide the publicity her book needs to be a big hit. Right? Hello? Is this thing on?

Senna / Cassia Flowers

My Senna / Cassia in bloom. We call this our Good-Night Tree - the leaves fold close each evening at dusk. I received this tree as a small potted plant from an old friend and kept it alive and in pots through 3 moves before plunking it in the ground here.
There are a bunch of different kinds of Sennas out there and I can't seem to figure out just which species this is. It blooms for about two weeks late September / early October, is semi-evergreen, is somewhat deer-resistant and mildly drought hardy. Any thoughts or insight on this plant's true name / species would be appreciated.
Sexy picture, eh? My wife is getting pretty good at this.

New bed in the cottage garden

I built it with the soil and compost left over from vegetable garden construction. And rocks. No shortage of rocks at our house.
So far I like the size, shape and placement of the bed. I should hope I would, since I designed and built it. But I find sometimes after I do something I immediately wish I hadn't or had yet and done it different. This a feeling not limited to the garden.
Not to say my new bed isn't causing problems. During the past weeks rains I've learned this - the drive needs to drain somewhere when it rains. Preferably downhill. As in over my new bed placement. The rain pooled in the corner of the drive by the new bed and ran down my mulch path, taking all my new mulch with it. Gravity.
I am thinking I will make the path into a dry stream bed. That will re-establish drainage and make for some interest.

End of September

The garden is coming on. I fertilized everything with a liquid, organic (I am so good, I know) fertilizer on Monday morning. Then it rained Monday afternoon and again today. Things are going my way.

On the "things are not going my way" front - something is eating my pole beans and cucumbers. There are little holes in the new leaves. I decided not to treat with anything yet. Don't be confused, this is not part of any grand Integrated Pest Management plan. I am just lazy, busy with other things (it is college football season after all) and didn't have anything on hand to treat with. I don't even know what is eating them. Whatever it is doesn't hang around to be found - grasshopper, caterpillar, very small rabbit? No telling. The plants will either be strong enough to push through or, well, die.

Variety List

The long promised and unanticipated variety list is here. Boring stuff, I know, but this list along with the planting layout will help me rotate crops and make better informed decisions next season.

Broccoli - Early Green

Pumpkin - Jack be Little

Nasturtium - Tall Single Blend

Cucumber - Poinsett 76

Pole Bean - Kentucky Wonder

Carrot - Little Finger

Dill - Dukat Leafy

Fennel - Smokey Bronze

Southern Pea - California Blackeye #5

Summer Squash - Early White Bush Scallop

Lima Bean - Henderson Bush

Parsley - Italian "Gigante"

Tomato - Homestead #24

All of these seeds were purchased at local garden centers, so I was at their mercy as to my choices. This spring I am planning on doing more research and ordering seeds online.

Oxbloods

Rhodophiala bifida - thanks to last week's rains.

Lindheimer Senna

A Texas native, anchoring the garden in the early fall.

Pumpkin seedlings

with artistically placed watering can. Photo courtesy my lovely wife. Like all the other photos on this site. About time she contributed something to the garden. I think we all remember the time she withheld information that resulted in the destruction of 5 innocent tomato plants.

Lima Beans!

as of 9.05.
They are now huge, massive, monumental. I am going to thin them tomorrow or the next day. I wrote earlier how different the Lima's are with the bean coming out and then breaking open to reveal the leaves. You can see that here.
Now that some pole beans are up I'm realizing that method of germination is pretty common in the bean world. That doesn't make it uninteresting, just makes me ignorant.

Planting Diagram, seedling emergence update

As promised. Just left click on the diagram and it will become big enough to read.

I will sit down with my seed packets at some point so there is a list of varieties that I used. I've tried on two occasions, only to have my almost 2 year old daughter commandeer my lap and desk for coloring. A much better use of my time than chronicling seed varieties for posterity I think. Every color is pink or yellow to her. I've asked her if she is color blind. She says no.

The key -

1 Broccoli

2 Parsley

3 Carrots

4 Fennel

5 Nasturtium

6 Dill

7 Pole Beans

8 Black-Eyed Peas

9 Cucumber

10 Gourds

11 Lima Beans

12 Pumpkins

13 Tomato (singular)

14 Summer Squash

We've had rain the past two days, a shocking and exciting event, and more seedlings are up. In fact, I have at least one seedling of everything I've planted. I tried covering the soil with damp newspaper to keep the soil moist / prevent crusting and it seemed to help and get everything started. Then the rain came and all the plants have started sprouting in an aggressive fashion. I like the damp paper, but it looks like I converted my garden to a city park bench (sans bum), so I am going to go for damp burlap from now on.

On the death by neglect watch - one Nasturtium has fried in the sun, but my lone Tomato is hanging on.

Seedlings!

The promised garden layout drawing has to wait - we have big news -
It took a some time and I was beginning to wonder what I was doing wrong (wrong soil, too much water, not enough water, bad living), but I have seedlings. 8 days after going in, the pumpkin seedlings were up. This was four days ago and now I have four pumpkin seedlings, two of which have put on a second set of leaves. I also have five lima beans (really unique seedlings - the bean gets shoved out of the ground and the leaves break out of the bean), three gourds, three cucumbers, one pole bean and two nasturtiums.
And for those hoping for failure - my no shows are broccoli, carrots, parsley, dill, fennel and black-eyed peas. I am going to try again on the broccoli through fennel, but I think it is too late on the black-eyed peas. So much for a happy new year. Also, I gave in to temptation and planted tomato transplants on August 25th. Only 2 months late, but they were on sale and I've never had what one would call self control. Four of six burnt up in 24 hours. I think I doomed them because I planted them in one bed and then moved them to another after watering them. We are now down to one and he/she is looking pretty stressed as well. My wife read in the Dripping Springs news letter to give tomato transplants some afternoon shade, so I've taken to leaving a five gallon bucket on the west side of the survivor. Where were you on the 25th, love?
But failures aside, I am basking in the success of planting seeds and then coming out to find seedlings. I am also enjoying wondering what to do with my seedlings. When to thin, when to mulch, how much thinning and mulching, when to decrease watering intervals and when to fertilize. I've found that gardening texts are fairly casual, non-specific and - when they do go into specifics - contradictory with some of these recommendations, leaving me to make decisions I am not well equipped to make. I am having great fun with all of it.

Some pictures of the front cottage garden

Thought some pictures of a garden that doesn't look like a newly constructed prison might be nice.

Logistics

I thought some detail on my garden set-up might be interesting.


We have a thriving deer population that shows above average aptitude for eating my plants, so I built a fence. Well, my friend Brian built a fence. I dug the holes, though. I am awaiting confirmation from the state, but I believe the 4 hours spent busting rock to dig those post-holes will count as time already served for any upcoming convictions I might have.


The fenced in area is 20 by 17 feet. I used three 8 foot treated-lumber post and two 12ish feet cedar post. The fence is six feet high and made from four inch square cattle panel. Brian thought I needed two 12 foot t-post half way along the 20 foot stretches for stability and I think he was right. They are pretty ugly, but I have plans to rectify that. Brian also built the gate out of cattle panel and pipe. He squared up the gate post and hung the gate as well. He's been a pretty good fellow to help me out. He even brought beer. The garden runs north to south along the 20 foot section, with the gate at the northeast corner. I think it is important to note that I could have built the fence on my own without Brian's help - maybe even had it done in time for next spring's planting.

Inside the fence are two raised beds. On top of the pure rock that is my property I have almost, but not quite, one inch of actual top soil. Therefore raised beds were a must. The beds are made from old railroad ties and are 13 feet long, three feet wide and just under two feet deep. I dug up some top soil from another site and trailered it over. It is not great soil, it is black clay and it came up in big clods that I had to break up with a shovel. I used this soil to fill half the beds, the other half I filled with compost. I had purchased three yards of finished compost (two yards of dairy cow manure and one yard of turkey manure) in June to amend my cottage garden beds, and I had about one and half yards left over. My plan is the compost and clay will mix to make a decent garden soil. I ran out of time for the fall, but I'm thinking in the spring I should send off a soil sample and make sure I'm not missing a bunch of minerals or something vital. Right now, as I await all my seeds sprouting, it is that something vital that has me worried.

There is four feet from bed to fence on the north, west and south side of the garden; three feet between the two beds and two feet from bed to fence on the east side of the garden. I would have liked for the beds to be centered in a bigger enclosure, but I dug one post hole before I placed the railroad ties and then was kind of casual in my measurements prior to building the first bed and then when I realized I was off a bit, there was no way that I was re-digging that hole or moving those 13 foot railroad ties so that was it. The ground around the beds is currently a very nice dead grass / compacted caliche that gives the garden that 1930's dust bowl feel that I would like to avoid. When time allows I think I'll spread mulch or pea gravel for paths.

That is the vegetable garden as it stands. I am going to make a drawing of the beds showing where I've planted what so I can rotate crops. I'll post that soon.

By way of introduction

This blog will chronicle my first serious foray into vegetable gardening, with some perennial cottage gardening thrown in as seems fit. I live in Dripping Springs, Texas which is on the eastern edge of the Texas Hill Country, a bit southwest of Austin. It is an arid, hot country and overrun with limestone. But beautiful in it's own right. We are putting the finishing touches on the hottest summer in history, so what better time to start a vegetable garden.

There should be some failure, for the egregious malcontents out there that like to watch other people fail. I know I always enjoy at least some of that. There also might be some success. I hope. It will at least be fun for me.