Organic Gardening magazine has a good blog. Lots of useful info, particularly for vegetable gardeners. The top post today is about two gardeners’ approaches to tomato growing. One’s approach has the tomato plants exhausted by September; the other has the plants still going strong. Heres the link:
Bleeding Hearts are beautiful plants that you’ll see in garden centers. But I’ve never been able to grow one here. This article explains why, and mentions two native varieties that, while not as pretty as the standard Bleeding Hearts, WILL grow here. Here’s the link
Fall is a good time to divide many perennials. I’ve found there’s some trepidation about cutting into plants. I’ve killed some plants I’ve divided, but many more have survived.
Anyone have any tips for dividing perennials?
Anyway, here’s the link to the article in my hometown newspaper:
Your trees suffer damage from Ike? Here’s some tips from my hometown newspaper about what to do before the next storm:
The Texas A&M AgriLife Cooperative Extension Center has free classes on Saturdays. They last only an hour. I have met some of the teachers of the classes, and they are very knowledgeable. Here’s the rest of the schedule this year, subject to change:
September 20: Fall Garden Insects/(Dr. Mike Merchant, Extension Urban Entomologist)
October 18: Protecting your winter gardens/(Dr. Dotty Woodson, Extension Water Resource Program Specialist)
November 15: Holiday (Indoor) Plant Care
The programs are at 9 a.m. in the Whitehurst (Education) Building auditorium on the Texas A&M Research and Extension Center campus out on Coit Road in Far North Dallas. Open to the general public. For more information, contact Scherle Barth at 972-952-9210 or at ECG@dallas.tamu.edu
Here’s a primer on protecting your skin from the hot Texas sun (tho the article is written for Yankees, some of it applies here). By the way, I love Yankees! Here’s the link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/home/stories/DN-nh_garden_0722liv.ART.State.Edition1.4d7fd17.html
Here’s an old (May) article from The New York Times that shows some common garden problems, no matter where you live:“Do not let any gardener tell you he or she loves spring, because for gardeners, spring means anxiety, pressure, backaches, leg cramps, fears of needing hip replacements. It means cleaning up the winter detritus and planning ahead and wondering if it is the right time to plant the zinnia seeds.“For gardeners, spring is a race against time. Those who beat the relentless deadlines stand a chance of having a great garden. Those who don’t have a long wait until next year.”Read the rest:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/g
/gardens_and_gardening/index.html
I need help. No matter what time of year I look, I can never find any seeds on my Texas Betony. So, please enlighten me: Where do the seeds go? Do they drop to the ground and blow away? How do I collect the seeds of Texas Betony? Texas gardeners, please comment.
– Tex
My local newspaper has an interesting article about a gardener who set up a cheap and (sorta) easy drip irrigation system for his vegetable garden. Pretty clever. Here’s a taste: “In Japan, they call it kaizen. It’s the process of making continuous small improvements. Here it’s spoken by consultants streamlining manufacturing practices, but for Carl Rupprecht, kaizen describes the approach he takes with his backyard vegetable garden.
“For more than 30 years, he’s applied clever, self-built solutions to processes such as irrigation, composting and trellising that help him grow a better crop each year in his 10-by-50-foot plot. Formerly a technical writer and now semiretired, Mr. Rupprecht says his mechanical aptitude guides him.
” ‘I am always looking for a better way to do things,’ he says. “Seeking a better way to water, he built an automatic vegetable-garden irrigation system using inexpensive PVC pipe fittings, soaker hoses and metal clamps.” Here is the link to the full article:
Q. What’s the best way of preparing a garden bed?
1. For clay soil, such as that around Dallas, it’s not a bad idea to follow Texas Extension Service guidelines. First, till as deep as you can, at least 6 inches. Next, layer 3 inches of finished compost on top; till it in. Then, spread 3 inches of expanded shale (it’s a mineral that helps with air and water retention) on top; till it in. After planting, mulch. Then, once a year or so, throw on another inch of mulch, which replaces the mulch that has decomposed. Very easy. However, some organic gardeners don’t like to use expanded shale, which is man-made. If you are one of those gardeners, see method number 2.
2. Till or dig compost into the top 6 to 8 inches of soil. (Don’t bother tilling if the soil is easily worked.) Follow with a layer of greensand or lava sand, then manure. Mulch with 2 inches of shredded hardwood or pine needles.compost, followed by a layer of greensand or lava sand, then manure. Mulch with 2 inches of shredded hardwood or pine needles.
– Tex
