Some Lessons Learned

Not every plant will survive a string of 100º plus days. Go ahead and cut your losses. It's less painful that way.

Now then, having said that, the #1 lesson we've learned this spring/summer with our garden is that you MUST install a drip irrigation system OR use soaker hoses to water your plants. Watering by hand just doesn't cut it and watering from overhead can create havoc on your plants. They can develop diseases, suffer from burns on the leaves if the water stays on them, and a host of other things.

Lesson #2: Erect your trellis or support system prior to or at the time of planting. Do not think that you have all the time in the world to do that before the plants really need it. It just doesn't work that way. I have tomato plants with branches falling all over the place because my DH wanted to build his own tomato cages. I'm still waiting for them to be built.

Lesson #3: You can't have enough mulch. Mulch is absolutely essential in Texas. Not only does it help retain moisture and cut down on weeds, it helps cool the soil. If the soil gets too hot, the plants' roots will burn up, thus killing the plant. You can use native pine bark mulch, grass clippings from the yard, or hay. Whatever you use, use it generously. Your plants will love you for it.

Lesson #4: Have a plan. Don't do like we did this year and plant willy-nilly. Make sure you give those zucchini plenty of room to sprawl.

Lesson #5: Keep good records. Not only should you keep a list of what you planted and where, you should also know when you planted it so you know when to start looking for fruit to set and then appropriate harvest time. We were very clueless about this and kept no records this year. We had no idea when stuff should be getting ready to set fruit, much less know how long to wait for a good harvest!

Lesson #6: Be prepared for bugs and disease. Plant it and the bugs will come. Aphids, ants, squash vine borers, tomato hornworms, and a host of other problems. Know if you want to be all organic or if you want to use chemicals and have items on hand to combat the beasts.

Lesson #7: Celebrate the little things, like peppers setting fruit in the hot July temps and tomatoes setting fruit when it's warmer than 92º during the day.

The Heat is Taking a Toll

It's been over 100º for the past week and the garden is really feeling the heat. Prior to that, the temps were in the upper 90s...a big cool down! Not!! We've had to up our watering just to keep the plants alive. I'm not too sure it's helping the zucchini, though! My poor zucchini plant has been suffering from incomplete pollination as well as getting very, very droopy in the middle of the day. We've been watering it daily. Everything else gets watered every other day. I don't know if the zuke will make it. I told my husband this morning I was just about ready to pull it up.

The watermelons have three almost ripe melons on them, but it looks like some kind of disease has attacked part of the vines. Not sure what has gotten them, but they've stopped producing flowers and the leaves are dying. Once we harvest the three melons, we're going to yank the vines.




The cantaloupes are doing well, but they wilt in the hot afternoon heat as well. There are currently 5 melons on the vines. I thought there were only 4, but I found another one this morning when I was perusing the garden.




The tomatoes have pretty much been wiped out by some disease or something. It could also be the heat. I'm babying my 50 cent heirlooms we got in May and hoping they produce in the fall. The others are still producing, but dying a slow death. I did see one cherry tomato plant that had new babies on it today. One of them was above the bird netting!!







Now remember, the beds are 18" high, the cage/frame on the bed for the tomatoes is approximately 3.5' high with bird netting draped over the top. The baby tomato in the last picture above is about 4" to 6" over the netting. I didn't think maters set fruit when it got to be this hot, but I guess this little (!) plant doesn't know this!

The okra is handling the heat very well. It's continuing to produce a harvest daily. The bell peppers are also doing well, but the fruit is suffering from sunscald on the yellow peppers. They still taste good, but look ugly. The bell peppers are even starting to produce flowers and more baby peppers!

The Harvest Basket

Shortly after the garden started to take off, we figured out we needed something to put our harvest in. I found this basket, which I've had for eons, and decided it was the perfect basket to hold our "haul". It's had many uses in its life, so I knew it was up to the task. It's a hand-made wooden basket. I watched the basketmaker weave baskets similar to this one and I love it! It's easy to wash when it gets dirty. I just hang it in the shower and let the water run over it. When the water runs clear from the bottom of the basket, it's clean. Then I just leave it hanging in the shower to dry. We have another basket that is just a tad bit bigger that we sometimes use if we have lots to harvest. So far, the only thing this basket hasn't been able to hold is our watermelon! Here's today's harvest:


Just the cherry tomatoes:

Sunday Morning in the Garden

Due to a flare up of my back problem, I've not been able to get out in the garden the past several days. DH's been doing a bang-up job tending the crops, harvesting, and watering when needed. He has managed to break the moisture meter, overlook the inception of two (yes TWO) muskmelons, declare the Straight Eight cucumber plant "retarded", and left several pods of okra on the plant for too long, though. Nothing's died (yet) under his care, so all is well and I haven't killed him yet.

This morning, I really needed to be out in the garden, though. It's been hard for me to stay inside away from all that's going on. It brings me such pleasure to be out among the growing things, watching their development. There's also something so very peaceful about being outside in the morning or late evening. The smell of the air and the dirt, feeling the warm (hot) sunshine on my face, and hearing all the sounds of the outside world invigorate me and lower my stress level. We went out well before 9 o'clock this morning, and it was already oppressive out. The thermometer read 86 degrees with absolutely NO breeze or hint of a breeze. It was very icky-sticky out there. Perfect for a swim in the pool, if we had one!

The cantaloupes I planted are really muskmelons, but we call them cantaloupes because that's what they're called here in the states. I planted 2 varieties, Hale's Best which has a normal orangey/salmony flesh of cantaloupes, and Israeli cantaloupe which has a pale green flesh. It'll be interesting to taste that Israeli melon! Here are the vines taking over the space between the back of their bed and the storage shed.
We discovered two new muskmelon babies this morning during our stroll, one of each variety. This one's a Hale's Best, poking out on the backside of the bed, resting on the frame of the bed.This one is another Israeli melon, hiding in plain sight on the top of the bed near the front. I don't know how either of us missed it!
The bush beans that didn't get taken out when the pole bean trellis fell on them during the last rain & wind storm we had are finally producing like they should. These beans are really quite tasty.
The pole beans that survived the fungal infection, overwatering by me, and the sunburn from being watered at the wrong time of day are looking quite lush and really taking off on the trellis DH engineered for them.These two okra plants have finally taken off! They were plagued incessantly by aphids during the spring; I thought they were going to bite the dust! Even after taking this pic, I had to spray some soap water on the okra to kill the aphids. Sheesh!! Anyway, there's two more pods of okra on these two plants that are ready for harvest. All of my okra's doing great during this heat.
I can see these red peppers from my bedroom window and it's been fun to watch them start to ripen. They are really putting on their red color and will be ready to harvest soon. The plant on the far right in this pic was the one tormented by the hornworm, so the peppers are sunburned on the other side. I'm happy to report that the plants are putting on new leaves and I even saw some baby buds on them, too!

We also set out the plants for the new flower bed DH dug for me. These poor plants have been waiting for 2 months to go in the ground! Under my direction, DH placed all the plants in their soon-to-be permanent homes. Maybe early in the morning (like at 5- or 6 o'clock), he can get out there and actually plant them without suffering from heat stroke. Of course, they'll definitely need to be babied until they're established, but thankfully this spot gets the early morning to early afternoon sun and then they're totally shaded by the late afternoon sun.

I was almost to the point where I needed to go back inside and sit down, but I had to see the flowers in the front bed. I so enjoy the blooms from these plants and seeing them grow and flower. I wasn't disappointed as the bed was alive with little butterflies and bees! I love the honey bees that come to feast on the pollen of my plants. Here's a bee on the Monarda (aka Horsemint, Lemon Mint, Bee Balm).
A Zexmenia bloom tangled in the Cigar Plant (Cuphea ignea).The delightful and cheerful California Poppies, white Sweet Alyssum, and the pink Scabiosa Daisy are doing well in the heat. I winter sowed a package of a low-growing mix and was delighted to discover the California poppies made the cut. I thought this Katie's Blue Ruellia had been destroyed by the slugs earlier this spring, so I'm so excited to finally see some blooms. These are the same color as the Tall Mexican Ruellia that bloom along side the garage. Lastly, the Blanket Flower (gaillardia aristata) has really taken off and bloomed like crazy over the past couple of weeks. I'm so happy with this plant!

It's Hot!

We've had temps in the low 100s for the past 4 days. Today's high was 105º and now at almost 10pm, it's "only" 93º. The garden is suffering and our water bill is getting higher. We've had to water just about every other day or so.

The jalapenos are loving it, though! Go figure! LOL However, DH did some work in the bed near the jalapeno plant and I think that he must've gotten too close to the roots. The plant hasn't died by far, but it wilts very, very quickly and comes back to life when the hot sun cools off. Still producing, though, so I think it'll eventually be okay. We're trying to devise some kind of shade cover for it. The bell peppers also need some kind of shade. On a good note, the bell peppers are starting to ripen. That's been fun to watch!

The melons and cantaloupes are absolutely loving the heat! The cantaloupe vines are taking over the yard near their bed and really producing lots of little boy and girl flowers. We have at least 2 cantaloupes that I've found. One is a Hale's Best Jumbo and one's an Israeli cantaloupe. Never had an Israeli cantaloupe, so it'll be interesting to taste it.

Hale's Best Jumbo baby (Isn't it cute?)

Israeli Cantaloupe

The Sugar Baby watermelons are also loving this weather. I've learned that watermelons are a desert plant, so they don't really need a lot of water. A couple of weeks prior to harvest, withhold watering them excessively to sweeten them up. We've not been watering them very often, so they should be pretty sweet! LOL Here's the latest pic of the "Three Muskateers" as I've been calling them. They're about the size of bowling balls.


Our first pole bean, finally.

Some Things I've Learned So Far

Since this is the first year we've had a vegetable garden, I knew that there were going to be lessons learned along the way. I was totally clueless when we decided to start this venture, but I had high hopes that we'd be overrun with vegetables to share with friends, neighbors, and co-workers. However, that hasn't happened, but I have learned a thing or two.

1. Start with good soil. This is absolutely crucial. We have horrible soil here, so we have added lots of good finished compost from our compost pile, mushroom compost, cotton burr compost, a little bit of horticultural cornmeal, a little bit of dried molasses, some lava sand, and some composted soil mix from a local company. We've found that the veggies from the beds with just the composted soil mix don't taste as good as the veggies that are grown in the beds with some native soil.

2. Mulch is absolutely necessary for your plants to survive and thrive in the HOT Texas weather. Not only does mulch keep the weed population down and help with water retention in the soil, it helps cool the soil and protect the roots of your plants from getting scorched. There are a variety of mulch alternatives, but my three favorites are shredded native cedar, grass clippings which can be turned into the soil at the end of the season, and straw.

3. Do NOT overwater and water at the appropriate time of day! This was a hard one for me to learn and came only after losing more than half of my pole beans to disease because I'd overwatered them. Most veggies don't require a lot of water. It's better to water deeply about once a week than to water daily at a shallow level. I marked my moisture meter at 2" from the tip of the probe. When it's on the moist side of the dry line, I water to a depth of about 1" or 1.5". This means I'm only watering about once a week.

I like to water late in the evening, just before dusk. (I figure if God can make it rain at night and my plants survive, then I can do it, too.) If you water during the day, any water left on the leaves is subject to burning the leaves. I also try not to get water on the leaves as this can cause burning and disease.

4. If you want enough to share with neighbors, friends, and family then plant accordingly. We never harvest enough of anything at one time for a complete serving. That's very frustrating for me. I now understand why people plant 5-10 squash plants, 40 tomato plants, 10-15 okra plants, and etc! It's the only way you can harvest enough at any one time to actually use for dinner that night!

5. Pay attention to optimal planting dates and varieties for your area. Here in Texas, we are fortunate to have an excellent agricultural program through Texas A&M University. Almost every county in Texas has some kind of AgriLife program carried out by Master Gardeners and the local county extension agency. There's tons of online resources that list appropriate planting dates and best varieties for the various areas of Texas.

6. Start thinking about the next season's crop now. I've already purchased seeds for my fall garden and am waiting for the appropriate time to plant various crops starting next month. I've even started thinking about where I want to plant various veggies once all the current veggies are harvested.

7. Be prepared to battle pests. It's inevitable and they will show up.

8. Even ants have a purpose in the garden. They're great pollinators!!

9. Some shade is good for some plants. Many plants can withstand the harsh blistering heat of the afternoon, but some shade is okay for them and for the fruit they produce. If peppers don't have proper leaf protection, they get sunburned, which starts rotting the fruit. Some plants wilt in the hot afternoon sun, but will perk back up in the evening and be fine.

10. Have fun and don't be too disappointed when you lose a few plants for whatever reason. Sometimes it's a disease or bug problem, but sometimes it's because the plants weren't planted at the appropriate time. Sometimes the variety planted isn't truly suited to the area in which you live. For example, we can't grow lettuce in the summer here. It's strictly a late fall and early spring crop. Long day type onions won't grow in Texas. We need the short day varieties like the 1015 (super, super sweet and HUGE), Yellow Granax, and Vidalia.

Wordless Wednesday