May Update No. 2

Last week we did some major work in the yard which included planting the sastuma and olive trees in the front yard. We're hoping the satsuma grows enough to take the sun off the front of the house, especially in the morning.

In the backyard, I mulched the garden and the blueberries in order to conserve water. Without the mulch I was soaking the garden every day in the morning and by the time I got home around 4 it was almost completely dry and some of the plants were suffering. A 2 cubic foot bag was perfect for the 5x5 square, which I now water every few days:

And the blueberries:

As a side effect the mulch is going to prevent the veggies that ripen on the ground from rotting. Also regarding water conservation, its been pretty hot here and we've been running the A/C almost all the time. I put a 5 gallon bucket under the drainage pipe and by the next day it was overflowing with condensate. I've been using it to water the trees and the blueberries (instead of the rainwater), and I don't think I'll even need a rain catch at this rate.

I also built two new 2x2 boxes and am starting pumpkins and lima beans:

On to the vegetables. The Porter's Dark Cherry is growing really well also and has set about 15 fruits:

Tonight we cut the first crop of green beans, but here they were beforehand. The yield was pretty disappointing though and I don't know if I will continue to grow the green beans in the future.


The Santa Fe Grand pepper is in the foreground and the Banana pepper is in the background, almost ready to pick.

The corn has put out a few ears also:

I dipped the silks in vegetable oil to suffocate the eggs of the corn earworm, but it remains to be seen if it works. And finally, while not a vegetable, the peach tree is loaded down with about 16 peaches, including this one which is starting to blush:

Do-Over

Back in January I sketched out a plan for what I wanted to plant in which square. Of course, you know what they say about best-laid plans. Because I had a good number of seedlings die off and because some of the early/late crops either didn't work out or I figured I could do them in the same square, I had to do some rearranging. This is the new grid, followed by a picture of the actual garden (everything is planted, except the yellow corn, which will be planted in a month or so).


And, how it looks as of today:


Ive trimmed down the spinach and the mesclun greens and pulled one head of buttercrunch lettuce. I'm trying to get the strawberries enough light, and I'm also concerned that the yellow bell pepper might not get enough light. Its bracketed by the onions, the potatoes, and the peas on three sides.

I've got two closeups from the box. First, the massive cherry tomato I've raised from seed:

Next are the four snow peas:


I put a bamboo rod in the center and tied twine from the corners of the square to the notches on the bamboo to train the peas to climb.

I also have a little natural experiment going down at the bottom of the yard. Throughout this whole process I've had excess plants, seedlings mostly. First, I had the peat pots which didn't sprout, or the leftover seedlings which didn't make it into the nursery pots or the garden, or which were not as promising as the others who came out of the same hole in the box. Instead of throwing them out, I've just stuck them in the ground down at the end of the fenceline. I've also been dumping soil and throwing out peat pots down there. Its been pretty interesting. Ive got about four pea plants, a bunch of seedlings and some pretty vigorous tomato plants (I have no idea which kind), and today I planted some excess pepper plants I had. I don't water these plants or anything. I essentially want to see what will happen just by the process of nature, versus being in a tended garden with special soil.


The peach tree has set fruit also. There are probably about 30 of these little guys all over the tree:


In addition to the peach tree, the pomegranate (which I thought was perhaps dead) and the Mexican plum are both blooming.

Finally, I added two links to the section at the right. The first is the show "Central Texas Gardening" and the second, "dissertation to dirt," is by a former PhD student who now interns or something at Johnson's backyard garden (our CSA).

Update

The last couple of weeks have been very hectic with school stuff and a few visitors to Austin, so I haven't had much time to blog or really do much work in the garden. Honestly, there isn't much to talk about right now, other than a few small things.

Monday (March 15) I planted the remaining seeds in the garden: 2 plants each regular and pickling cucumbers (two adjacent squares in the upper left corner), 2 lima bean plants (from here, via the Masons), and 9 garden beans (in the lower right hand square). In the back row you can also see the shoots of four corn that I planted a few weeks ago.


Soon after taking these pictures I had my first bit of food from the garden: I picked a red onion and chopped up the stem and base for garnishing on some jambalaya, and I also picked some of the mesclun greens for a salad before St. Patrick's day dinner.

I have some specific concerns:

1. The potatoes are growing so fast. I have started trimming the plants, mainly to let some other plants surrounding the potatoes get sunlight, but I don't know the wisdom of doing this for three or four more months (for new potatoes), or what effect this will ultimately have on the potatoes I do get. Also, I have no idea what is going on under the soil... I've been thinking about next year and perhaps I will do a type of potato bin and just let the potatoes grow.

2. The strawberries are really disappointing. If anything they seem to be dying back. I don't know if they will take off once the weather starts to get really warm, but I hope so. My other berries, the blueberries and the blackberries, are doing really well. The trees also:

peach

apricot

Also regarding the trees, one of the main branches of the pomegranate in the front yard has been snapped off. There are also giant logs of crap around the base of the tree. I have a good idea who is responsible. I don't think the injury will be fatal to the tree, but in fact the tree may already be dead...or its just dormant for a much longer time than the rest of the trees.

I have two other projects. At the plant sale I bought two container tomatoes. I've planted those in some pots and I keep those outside most of the day (unless it is really windy or cold). Generally, I've begun to "harden off" the tomatoes and peppers I have under the lights by leaving them outside a few hours each day. The transplants should be ready to go into the ground in about 3 weeks (after the last frost).


Finally, I decided to try and grow some ginger, in what seems a very simple process. I'm doing it in the container because I will have to bring it in when it gets too cold.

Fruit Part 1: Trees

This was initially one very long post, but I decided to break it up into trees and vines/bushes.

I'm not just going to limit my gardening to the 5' x 5' box, I'm also going to try and grow fruit. I could try to grow these from seeds, but that will probably fail, so for all the fruit trees and bushes I bought young varieties.

There are a few issues with regards to fruit that I had to figure out. Plant hardiness zones were the primary thing, but they were pretty easy to figure out (see here). I'm in zone 8b, the same, coincidentally, as my parents in Central Florida. This is a bigger issue for the fruit trees than the veggies, but if you look on the back of seed packets or tree tags they will say which zone the plants will thrive in.

A little more complicated were the "chill hours" for my area of Texas. What are chill hours? According to Texas A&M:

"hours of winter temperatures between 32° to 45° F to break dormancy and induce normal bloom and vegetative growth. If varieties are chosen that have a chilling requirement that is too low, there is a greater probability that they will bloom early and be more subject to frost. If the chilling requirement is too high, they may be very slow to break dormancy and abort fruit."

I found a map on the Texas A&M University Extension Service website which was really helpful (and not just for this part). The relevant image is here:

Travis County (where we live) is in the 700 hour zone, but I think that is a little misleading because that includes some of the Hill Country, which can get very very cold, as well as Austin proper, which will stay warmer than the surrounding areas just because it is a big city. Also, most of the posts about gardening in Austin I have read usually complain that they don't get enough chill hours to grow certain fruits. Bearing this in mind, I figure that we probably get around 500-600 actual chill hours on the eastside... Issue 1 "solved."

The second issue was the soil. It's nice because I don't have to go through the whole measuring and mixing process as for the square foot garden because the trees and bushes are going to go in the yard (except strawberries, which will go in the garden). However that limits me to whichever trees will thrive in Austin's alkaline soil. So, alkaline soil and around 500-600 chill hours.

Thirdly, the pollination issue. Some trees require a second to pollinate it. If there is no pollinator present, you'll tend to get blossoms but no fruit. Because I have limited space, I would rather have 2 self-pollinators rather than 2 of the same type who must pollinate each other. So, alkaline soil, 500-600 chill hours, and self-pollinating. One caveat...I spoke to my backyard neighbor who informed me that there are some fruit trees in adjacent lots. I'll pay attention this summer and perhaps I can get a tree that requires pollination in next winter.

So these were the criteria I was working with. I also found a really awesome page on the Extension Service website about growing fruit trees, which work well, which varieties are best, and so on here. With a few exceptions, I bought most of my trees from Willis Orchards and planted them.

For the first tree, I chose Apricot. Apricot grows very well in Texas provided, once again, you get the chilling hours right. I chose the "Royal" variety, which, according to the Extension Office, it is "one of the most consistent croppers in the Hill Country." It is also self-pollinating, and I put it between the pecan tree and the back fence. However, I will need to be watchful that Riley doesn't get into the fruit. She has been known to eat tomatoes off the vines...

Apricot tree, I dug out a large hole and backfilled with some of the leftover compost

For the second tree, I went with a peach, the "La Feliciana." This one I bought at Home Depot. Usually this is not a good idea because the big box stores tend to sell whatever the hell they can probably get the cheapest, regardless of whether or not its appropriate for the climate in that particular area. In this case, however, the La Feliciana is a good match with its chilling hours (about 550) for our yard. I planted it in the backyard, between our back boundary and the apricot tree. I dug out the ground and added one of my spare bags of compost, then planted the tree (right now it is about 5 feet tall):


Thirdly, I chose a pomegranate tree, the "Wonderful" variety. Like apricot and peach, pomegranate trees are exceptionally well suited to Austin. I've got a good spot for this one in the front yard. It grows up to 18 feet tall which, if mine actually survives, will pretty much dominate the front yard. It will be a nice problem to have...

now its just a little guy...

I also got a flyer from Austin tree folks, a local organization that gives away free trees, provided you plant them close to the street so they will help mitigate the urban "heat island" effect. They gave a choice of trees, but the only one that was fruit bearing was a "Mexican Plum." I'm supposed to get it dropped off in a few weeks, so when I do I'll post about it.

Just a note here: I really, really wanted to try to grow a cherry tree. I love cherries and remember having a cherry tree in my backyard in the 'burg growing up. I did a bit of research online and found that a "Brooks Cherry Tree" would fit pretty well in my chilling requirements. However there are other issues- Cherry Trees need well drained, mildly acidic soil and are sensitive to excessive sun. I could try to fortify the soil, and I did have a spot where the sun wouldn't be too intense, but trying to do all this twice (I'd need another cherry tree to pollinate) would probably make my margin of error too slim. Also, one of my guiding principles of the yard is minimum maintenance. I realize this is kind of an oxymoron with having a garden, but cherry trees just seem to add a lot of work with a slim chance of paying off.