By Jannie Vaught The National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas is a 100-acre wildlife center and native species botanical garden dedicated to the conservation and study of butterflies. Since many butterfly plants support bees also. Take a moment and go to their web site. www. nationalbutterflycenter.org. for all the latest and up to date information you can wish to find. They say the butterfly is … Continue reading Butterfly The Canary In The Coal Mine
By Jannie Vaught Yes, if you find your gardening duties are slow now it just got busy. The onion starts are in the feed stores. Here in central Texas, it is Short Day onions that do best (11 to 12 hour day lengths). Here are some that grow well here. Yellow: Chula Vista, Cougar, Jaguar, Legend, Linda Vista, Mercedes, Prowler, Safari, Sweet sunrise, TX 1015Y, … Continue reading It is Onion And Leek Time!
By Jannie Vaught Plan first, sort seeds and decide what you need to purchase. You can still plant some cold crop plants, Asian greens, lettuce, radish, and spinach. It is also bare root fruit tree season and cane berry time. Most nurseries will begin to have fruit trees and blackberry plants in or will have them in soon. If you purchase small blackberry plants it … Continue reading What To Do In The Garden In January?
By Jannie Vaught I am a seed catalog reader. As I grow more interesting varieties I am often lured away by the siren call of that very pretty plant in the catalog. And boy do I get hooked easily! So after all the reading and examining each page back and front, I get my garden journal out and take a look at what I grew … Continue reading Seed Catalogs Are Showing Up
By Jannie Vaught “The beauty of seed is rivaled only by their purpose.” Seed Savers Exchange. Definitions that will clear up the usage of these terms. Sustainable: able to maintain at a certain rate or level. Renewable: not depleted when used. These are just two of the many descriptive words now used when someone is describing their “Natural ” lifestyle choice. I find this overuse, … Continue reading The Beauty Of The Seed
By Jannie Vaught Which is a good time to brush up on seed saving, I am using the Book The Seed Garden The Art and Practice of Seed Saving from Seed Savers Exchange. If you are interested in going deeper into seed and plant identification this is a good book to have. Definition; Taxonomy and Nomenclature is the science that identifies and classifies plants according … Continue reading It Is The Quiet Time In The Garden
By Jannie Vaught Being born and raised in a farming and gardening family, now it is called “homesteading” my grandparents and parents always saved seeds and plant cuttings. This was as normal as cooking dinner. They walked the Trail of Tears, with seeds, and were relocated to central California after the dust bowl. My Uncle Coy Vaught farmed with a mule team and worked the … Continue reading Why I Save Seeds
Jannie Vaught The month of leaves, is this why it is called Fall? Anyway the bamboo leaf rake is out and the leaf re-distribution has begun. Don’t loose a single leaf! Break down thick layers of leaf accumulation in beds and lawn. Thick heavy matts can encourage mice, voles and pests. Break up the matted build up and take to your compost bin to be … Continue reading Welcome To The Month Of November
By Jannie Vaught Definition , the climate of a very small or restricted area, especially when this differs from the climate of the surrounding area. Conventional wisdom states that what a gardener can grow is limited to the USDA Hardiness Zones their gardening in, but i have found that this is not always right. We see one garden area thriving and another struggling to survive. … Continue reading Microclimate In Your Specific Garden
By Jannie Vaught Time to start planting and preparing for your fall and winter garden and flowers. Kale is a wonder green and will give your food and add to your flower beds through winter. Kale or leaf cabbage is one of certain cultivars grown for edible leaves, although some are used for ornamental purposes. The variety’s are many from curly leaf to … Continue reading It Is late October
By Jannie Vaught Gourds, Wiki definition, includes the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, also called Cucurbita, or the gourd family, the term refers to a number of species and subspecies with or without a hard shell. One of the earliest domesticated plants the bottle gourd. Gourds have been used for storage vessels, musical instruments, drinking cups, eating bowls, platters, dishes … Continue reading A Request Has Arrived Gourds, From Seed To Use
By Jannie Vaught And for this gardener, it has been a high priority for building and growing habitat for them. Here’s what we all can do to help our pollinators survive and thrive. As you plan your gardens make sure there are many flowering plants that are blooming well into the fall. Plant native plants and even grasses that sustain places … Continue reading Pollinators Are High On The List This Season
By Jannie Vaught, Planting in mid -season or shoulder season, generally there are 2 garden seasons, but if your are a gardener in a warmer climate with less frost or deep freezing the shoulder or mid-season are very productive. We have annual and perennial plants in our gardens. And many of the annuals are actually perennial, meaning they will grow year round for m zone … Continue reading The Mid-Shoulder Season
By Jannie Vaught, Lets have a closer look at when, why and what to plant. Definition: A cover crop is a crop of a specific plant that is grown primarily for the benefit of soil other than crop yield. Cover crops are primarily used to suppress weeds, manage soil erosion, help build soil fertility and quality, control disease and pests, and promote biodiversity. For growing … Continue reading Cover Crops
By Jannie Vaught Yes, it is July and a stormy one at that with high wind and cloudy skies that are turning our spring summer gardens into a mess! But after the downed limbs are removed and the tomatoes righted were are in a good place to prepare for the fall garden. The rotation of crops and recycling of space is known as “succession … Continue reading Starting On The Fall Season Garden
By Jannie Vaught All the ups and downs of the season have made for a very off the chart growing season. I do use growing guides for zone 8a and some of the days to ripen are either early or still hanging on for that bright sunshine to build their sugars and turn that lovely pink-red of the tomato. I am getting a few tomatoes … Continue reading Summer Is Fully Here
By Jannie Vaught With this season arrives all the issues of heat, bugs, and water. Let’s remember some basics, if possible cover tender plants with shade cloth or ahead of time plant where it has a little shade from larger plants or a tree, Water consistently and check soil by digging a little hole to see if there is moisture deeper in the root system … Continue reading Happy Summer
By Jannie Vaught After the devastating storms, the cleanup and restorative care have begun. We as gardeners lost gardens, trees and a full seasons work. But nature is resilient and through the cleanup, there were survivors. Plumbs that stayed on the trees, corn that was still good even though it was blown over and yes, tomatoes hiding inside the tristed branches! I am a Permaculture … Continue reading Another Great Day In The Garden
By Jannie Vaught So many gardens were severely frost bitten, or should I say froze to death, that my message box became full in one day! What do I do and will it survive? If any tender vegetables were out it probably will not be a good producer if it survives. Even my hardy winter worn mustard greens were bent over double. Most of my … Continue reading Trimming Back What The Frost Got
Jannie Vaught Most of the stone fruit trees are budding and many in flower. The Blue Bonnets are showing with their bright blue sparkles. I didn’t realize how color hungry I had become, then the first flowers and the Bonnets show and I think I’ve been living in black and white. I have 2 subjects to cover this time. Perennial, Annual and Biennial vegetables and … Continue reading This Is The Time Of Year We Look Forward To
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