By Jannie Vaught Today’s topic of conversation is peas and growing squash, melons and pumpkin in pits. In Texas peas, Pisum sativum, English peas, sugar snap, and snow peas, not to be confused with Southern peas, black eye, and crowded peas. They should have already been planted. as they are a cool-weather crop. They go in the ground in the fall. They are either bush … Continue reading The Beauty Of A Humble Garden
By Jannie Vaught Our gardens are beginning to shape up! Our potatoes have been hilled for the first time, Compost and Phosphorus and Tomato Tone along with some Calcium Nitrate granules all measured and mixed into the compost, wheelbarrow going down the rows and placed at each plant and a handful between for the growing roots to find. All this done or still in process. … Continue reading The Whole Picture Of The Garden
Jannie Vaught, Suddenly growing a garden and raising a few hens for the eggs is not a Hobie but something very important. Seeds are now hard to find and laying hens are also. Chicks are available but those seem to all bought up and under the brooding lights till they get some growth. As this gardener has been steady at doing this using Permaculture methods … Continue reading Growing A Garden
By Jannie Vaught This sweet-faced flowering plant is one of the first to arrive from greenhouse growers as it is a cool weather plant, spring, and fall. They are swept up by eager gardeners and flower growers as we are weary with the winter blahs! And nature is true to us and gives us a bright colorful Pansy. Pansies are descendants of wild violet, Violets … Continue reading Pansy, The Flower With A Face
By Jannie Vaught Vernal Equinox has finally arrived and with it “The Days of Uncertainty.” As the world is placed on hold from a sweeping illness from day to day we never really know or understand the full effect. It has emptied our grocery stores, closed us in our homes and had us elbow bump instead of a handshake or hug. And now the elbow … Continue reading The Days of Uncertainty
By Jannie Vaught As with all season transitions, it is always tumultuous. That’s a nice word for Stormy! Just when we get the tiller and digging tools ready it comes to a storm, but as a generational farmer and now a gardener it just seems normal. Rush get ready, now wait. And in the waiting time get out all those seeds and your garden planner … Continue reading Count Down To Spring Has Begun In Earnest
By Jannie Vaught Preparation is simply improving fertility in our garden soil. There are tests you can have done, check the Ph. and look closely at the soil for how much clay, sand, and silt. Place a good deep amount of soil in a glass jar filled with water shake and let it settle. You will see the many layers and the carbon or plant … Continue reading Using What We Have At Hand For Our Gardens
By Jannie Vaught, It is that time of year when the cold fronts blow in then it warms up and all my garden plans are on hold till that pesky soil temperature reaches 60. My living room is full of Tomato and Pepper starts under lights, most of the soil and garden preparations are ready and wouldn’t you know the dang weeds are already showing … Continue reading It Is That time Of Year
Jannie Vaught As we plan and design our soon to be spring gardens why not think and plan for some new and varied plants to try. When we step into the average grocery store there are approximately 10 vegetables that are almost always available. For some larger grocery or specialty stores, you can purchase a wider variety and more leafy greens. Why not go beyond … Continue reading Beyond The 10
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 In this article, you will read about gardening, plants, seeds and such but today I would like to venture into another subject that is keeping me and many of us in small towns from “Blooming” and it is the closing of our much-needed recycling areas. Ours closed and now I am overwhelmed with cardboard, aluminum cans, plastic milk bottles and the many … Continue reading Blooming While Practicing Zero Waste
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 Here are a few of mine: 1. More compost and carbon in the soil. 2. Learn more about starting trees and plants from cuttings. 3. Plant thornless blackberries along fences lines for support. 4. Grow more peppers and okra! What’s on your garden list? Incorporating these as the new design unfolds. It is clear to see that my cover crop seeding has … Continue reading Happy 2020, Time For Garden Resolutions
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 Have you ever wondered about the USDA growing zones and what does it mean to you as a gardener or a farmer? Let us get a definition. The USDA Hardiness Zone map divides North America into 11 separate planting zones; each growing zone is 10*F warmer (or colder) in an average winter than the adjacent zone. Zone 8 Texas is one of … Continue reading What The USDA Growing Zones Mean
By Jannie Vaught Solstice is December 22. This is the final descent into darker shorter days with deeper cold at night. Then the light begins to return on the 22nd. and slowly we climb into lighter mornings and longer days. In some Old Northern customs, they consider this as Spring. Here in central Texas, we wait till the temperature warms and the first shoots begin … Continue reading Garden Tools And Approaching Winter
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
Dreamweaverarts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.