By Jannie Vaught When it’s too cold to go outside to spend a solid amount of time for this gardener it is time to evaluate what is at hand, what needs to be made, brought in, or purchased. When the weather warms it will be time to seriously get that compost activated. One of the yearly needs is refilling the raised beds, orb starting new … Continue reading When It’s Too Cold
By Jannie Vaught Today with sunny warm skies and a looming heavy wind and a cold front coming into side swipe us I had to turn on my water taps and attempt to hydrate the dust. Mainly the trees with leaves. I went to the Texas A&M website to have a look at what may be coming our way for spring. December was the “Hottest” … Continue reading Sunny Warm Skies And Looming Cold Fronts
Jannie Vaught Who are the three sisters? For many Native American communities, three seeds-corn, beans, and squash represent the most important crops. They complement each other in the garden as well as nutritionally. How the three work together. Corn provides the tall stalks for the beans to climb, beans provide nitrogen to fertilize the spoil while stabilizing the tall corn during heavy winds, and large … Continue reading Growing The Three Sisters Garden
By Jannie Vaught Last year I purchased 4, 2-year-old Arkansas Thornless blackberry plants. I prepared the bed and placed them in a fence line to use as a trellis. They arrived within 4 days and were fresh and undamaged. I planted them and placed a low fence around them to keep the chickens out when they free range. They are possibly the best berries I … Continue reading The Best Berries I Have Ever Grown
By Jannie Vaught We had been unseasonably warm through November and December. We entered winter, but it felt like T-shirt weather. For this gardener, this puts me in a constant weather alert position. As I watched what was happening to the north of us it became very concerning that we may have another “Killer” freeze. We have been preparing all summer and repairing the old … Continue reading We Are Into Some Frosty Weather
By Jannie Vaught This week I carefully went through my seed collection and did a plan for what I want to grow this year along with the much-worn garden journal. We are focusing on the variety we know to grow well for us, Celebrity is one we really like, Italian paste and a cherry for salad and garden snacking. It is pea time and we … Continue reading Yes, It Is The Seed Starting Time for This Gardener
By Jannie Vaught A few of this and that, soil carbon indicators, minerals, and planting dates for zone 8A. We have had snow! Now that is a date to remember! With this comes questions about soil, planting times, and when to keep a weather eye out. Let’s look at soil organic matter in the soil. This is focusing on Garden location, not lawn or wild … Continue reading Snow And This And That
Jannie Vaught Seeds for this gardener have very personal meanings. As a seed grower and a seed saver, I am constantly looking close at many varieties of seeds. And I have a great fondness for seeds that are very tiny. It seems that these tiny bundles of potential hold a big productive plant, producing large tubers or leaves. As a small child, I was given … Continue reading The Faith of The Humble Mustard Seed
By Jannie Vaught The leaves are falling. Just the other day there was a warm breeze and with it, the leaves began to tumble to the earth. There is a scent to Autumn and for this gardener, it is the drying of the leaves and the sound of them as I walk across the yard under the trees. That’s the scent of Autumn. With that, … Continue reading The Scent Of Autumn
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 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 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 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 Here are a few. Pointsettia, the many varieties from white to red Amaryllis bulb that is forced and blooms its spectacular trumpet, heralding in the celebration. Paper Whites, narcissus with its erect stems with Sweet fragrant white star flowers. Rosemary that blooms the tiny blue flower, as a sweet nectar for the pollinators and Christmas cactus. These are just a few examples. … Continue reading When You Think Of This Time Of The Year Are There Plants You Strongly Remember?
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
By Jannie Vaught As this gardener walks the outside it sure feels like the arrival has been early. Yes, it is cold and as many of you already know the seed catalogs are arriving. So it begins. The planning and selection. First, we get that excited exhilaration of the new items and the great pictures. Then I let it all settle down and go back … Continue reading The First Day Of Winter Is Here
weather By: Jannie Vaught Can you say Burrr? I can and it has taken a large toll on the garden and the creatures that inhabit it. Even my artichokes are looking like they are surrendering to the frozen effect of winters domain. I have done chop and drop, a simple cut down and leave in place and have let the hens in to scratch and … Continue reading The Winter Chill
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