For This gardener It Is A Hurry Up And Wait Month

Jannie Vaught With really wanting to get all my garden plots tilled, fed and ready to go. Onions are in and now potatoes are in the ready. The table and grow lights are going up this week, the soil is sterilized and the trays are cleaned. Get out the seeds and the garden planner and let the seeding begin. For this gardener, it’s a task … Continue reading For This gardener It Is A Hurry Up And Wait Month

Garden And Crop Rotation For Soil Health And Restoration

By Jannie Vaught Let’s have a look at a few simple ways to rotate our garden plants to keep soil fertility up and loss of nutrients for maximum growth low, by simply moving the plants around every year. Get your garden journal out, and start doing some drawings of last years garden. Write the date and location and growing zone. In this drawing write what … Continue reading Garden And Crop Rotation For Soil Health And Restoration

Butterflies Need More Than Flowers And Nectar

  By Jannie Vaught Let’s dive a little deeper on this subject. Habitat, his can be a wooded country site or an urban car park. This is determined by the food plant of the caterpillar and the nectar source of the butterfly. Some butterflies are happy with several food sources habitat and breeding areas while some are fussier and require very specific places and plants. … Continue reading Butterflies Need More Than Flowers And Nectar

Everything About Nature And the Outdoors Has Always Been My “Thing”

By Jannie Vaught Being born and raised in the 50’s we spent every minute outside. We rode our bikes or walked to school and spent long summer days and every after-school time out with our neighborhood friends doing things that sound out of style now. Like looking at bugs, picking fruit from lost trees, telling stories and in general playing. Till supper rolled around and … Continue reading Everything About Nature And the Outdoors Has Always Been My “Thing”

From Severe Drought To Record Making Flooding

By Jannie Vaught My question is how is this going to affect the trees which took such a complete assault. So I went to” Texas A&M Forest Service, flood and trees what to do”. You can see this on the internet. Flooding is a catastrophic event and can take years for trees to return to normal. How does flooding kill trees? Roots need oxygen to … Continue reading From Severe Drought To Record Making Flooding

Two Very Different Plants

By Jannie Vaught Cowpen Daisy and These are two of the many items on my list of learning more about. Went to Texas A&M Uvalde extension online. Cowpen Daisy, aka, Golden crown-beard, Family: Asteraceae. Annual, Origin: Native. Season: Warm. Cowpen Daisy can be found in various disturbed soils of the Edwards Plateau And the South Texas Plains. Upright to sprawling annual that reaches a height … Continue reading Two Very Different Plants

Roots, My Favorite Vegetable To Grow

  By Jannie Vaught Yams, beets, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, carrot, yucca, kohlrabi, onion. garlic, celery root (celeriac), horseradish, daikon, turmeric, jicama, Jerusalem artichoke, radish, ginger are all considered roots. Because root vegetables grow underground they absorb a great number of nutrients. Botany distinguishes true roots such as (tap root and tuberous roots) from non- food roots (such as corms, bulbs rhizomes, and tubers). The term” … Continue reading Roots, My Favorite Vegetable To Grow

A Blessed Fall From The Drought Ridden Summer

By Jannie Vaught This season of fall is turning out to a blessed relief from the drought-ridden summer, and the fall garden is possible the best time to grow in growing zone 8a. As we now have had substantial rain and humidity to revive our native grasses and flower bulbs my fall garden is now ready for some delightful garden salads and greens. Just had … Continue reading A Blessed Fall From The Drought Ridden Summer

What To Do In The Garden In The Deep Of Summer Heat And Drought?

By Jannie Vaught, Keep the perennials somewhat alive and prune, prune, prune!! Today was somewhere shy of 109 with no rain and water restrictions. What’s a gardener that is deeply invested in the growing of all things green to do? Take a breath and make hard decisions. Cut back or remove the spring items that were so happy and productive a few weeks back. Tomatoes … Continue reading What To Do In The Garden In The Deep Of Summer Heat And Drought?

Care For Trees In Times Of Drought

By Jannie Vaught As we are struggling with No Rain, drought conditions and the serious state of our water sources it is time to look at this important issue. Trees are resilient and long-lived, but like all living plants, they need moisture, either rain or water coming from us. Trees that are under areas that get water are less likely to get in serious condition. … Continue reading Care For Trees In Times Of Drought

The Uninspired Garden

By Jannie Vaught Just when your garden is struggling and your enthusiasm is at an all-time low, something or someone steps into your path and shares with you something that sets that spark a light. This happened this Saturday at our LLano farmers market. Elizabeth Mcmahon “Beth” horticulture county extension agent for Gilespie county, regularly comes to Llano farmers market and has her lovely produce … Continue reading The Uninspired Garden

This Is A Time For Family Gatherings, Cookouts, watermelon, Cantaloupe And Sliced Tomatoes

By Jannie Vaught And here in central Texas, we are under severe heat warnings! Do all the above before the peak noontime or as the sun goes down! Heat exhaustion is a serious complication and can come on suddenly, especially for children. Drink water at least one cup per hour and stay inside. That said as we journey into this drought we are conscious of … Continue reading This Is A Time For Family Gatherings, Cookouts, watermelon, Cantaloupe And Sliced Tomatoes

A Gardens Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

By Jannie Vaught There is a saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and never is it truer than in natures garden. Some like ordered rows and clear lines of plants and some prefer natures tumble of flowers native grasses and low growing ground cover. And some of us like a little of both. Summer has stepped its hot dry foot right in … Continue reading A Gardens Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

Have You Noticed The Crape Myrtles Are Blooming?

By Jannie Vaught Lagerstroemia! Commonly known as crape myrtle or crepe myrtle. Is a genus of around 50 species of deciduous and evergreen shrubs and trees. From the Indian subcontinent. And they grow excellent here in the South. Known for their beautiful summer flowers and mottled peeling bark. All species are woody in nature, they can range in heights. Very dwarf from 1 to 3 … Continue reading Have You Noticed The Crape Myrtles Are Blooming?

Lettuce Talk About The Multitasking Plant, Lettuce

  By: Jannie Vaught It is an annual plant in the Daisy family Asteraceae. Grown for its leaves and sometimes seeds and stems. According to the USDA, Americans eat about 33 pounds each per year. For many years iceberg was the favorite at the dinner table, but has declined in favor of Romain and Green leaf and now Mixed greens. And what are mixed greens … Continue reading Lettuce Talk About The Multitasking Plant, Lettuce