Moving Right Along

Autumn is a busy time of year for Texas gardeners and we are no exception here at Charamon Garden.  It has been uncharacteristically wet this Autumn and here in Abilene we are just a half inch short of breaking the long drought.  The timing of the rain has kept me from getting everything out but we never complain about rain in these parts!

We have been able to get in 25 Broccoli and 21 Kale plants in addition to two long rows of Swiss Chard (Silverbeet).  Two varieties of lettuce are doing well.  I think we left the carrots too long (not germinating) but we’ll see.  We have three varieties of garlic in the ground and growing nicely (needs weeding already).  Still to do: 21 Collard plants–but we’ll have to wait for drier weather.

Next job is harvesting a small crop of sweet potatoes and clearing that bed and another one.  At the moment I’m thinking I’ll sow Hairy Vetch in those and put the tomatoes in them in the Spring.

Another job that inspires procrastination is clearing the long bed where the tomatoes grew this summer.  They are ridden with Bermuda grass…eech!  Lots of work ahead.

In the meantime, eat your veggies.  Nonnie and Pop said so!

Go Organic and Save $

One of my favorite gardening blogs is Veggie Gardening Tips by Kenneth E. Point. If you are interested in going organic (and you should) this is a great blog to follow.  He has featured two articles by Fern Marshall Bradley that really make sense.

It is now generally accepted that organically grown fruits and vegetables are more nutritious than those grown using inorganic chemicals.  More nutritious means more healthy.  The stuff you grow (or is grown near you) using organic methodology tastes so much better than that shipped to your supermarket from hundreds and thousands of miles away.

If you want produce that tastes marvelous and will keep you healthier, save money and grow it yourself.  If you can’t do that, buy from local producers.  In the meantime, eat your veggies.  Nonnie and Pop said so!

Fern Marshall Bradley, co-editor with Trevor Cole of The All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening: Now All Organic!, is a writer and editor whose favorite topics are gardening and sustainable living.

Update for September

I realize that I haven’t posted for a while but other voices have been calling to me. Right or wrong, the absolutely urgent always trumps the pleasure of writing.

But, you might like to know what has been happening in the Charamon Garden. It is also a record for me when I ask myself, “When did I plant those fava beans last year?” So…here is what has been happening in September.

We have begun reclaiming beds that have not been used or cared for appropriately. We have begun this process with the help of my son, Justin. He has his father’s love of gardening and has been a strong and energetic help to his old man who gets tired too easily. He has tirelessly weeded, chopped, dug, hoed and hauled until things are once again in pretty good shape. He has dug out the trash trees, raked and tilled and mulched.

We have prepared the bed that will be used for tomatoes in the spring by planting a cover-crop of hairy vetch and a few broad (fava) beans. These will grow all winter and then be cut and left where they lie. We will cover all this with more mulch and then set out the tomato plants. We had a tomato crop failure this year because we took some wrong-headed advice and planted the tomatoes in the same bed for three years. Don’t do that.

We (Justin mostly) cleaned our largest bed and sowed more hairy vetch in it. At this point I am not sure what will be planted there in the spring/summer garden.

Our sweet corn is tasseling and silking out and we hope to see some nice ears of corn in the next few weeks. We had an infestation of army cut worms which Justin took care of with a dusting of BT. It has a lot of aphids on it but the ladybird beetles have arrived and will hopefully make meals of them.

We have planted the most garlic ever and the harvest will keep us busy around the last of April 2009. We will dry it and braid it and use much more than the recipes call for.

We have planted more swiss chard and it is looking good. This needs thinning pretty soon. We covered the seeds with a mixture of compost and sand and all sorts of things are coming up with the new chard…mostly squash and tomatoes. Their seed have been residing in the compost waiting for their chance.

We have planted carrots and a row of lettuce and we’re waiting for them to germinate. We are hopefully optimistic.

We have set out kale, cauliflower, collards, broccoli and cabbage.

We are harvesting yellow squash, lovely purple eggplant, okra, swiss chard, green peppers (capsicums) and, if Justin had not eaten them right off the tree (he deserved them), quite a few figs.

The butternut squash is looking very good and we should have a good supply over the next few months.

In the meantime eat your veggies…Nonnie and Pop said so.

Challenges

Charamon Garden is suffering in the heat! We are having very high temperatures the last few weeks and the more tender vegetables are threatening to burn up. I have recently returned from 8 weeks absence (been Down Under where it is winter) and, in spite of my caretaker’s best efforts, most things were looking dreadful.

Nevertheless, we are harvesting very nice eggplant, figs, okra, some green beans, some squash, and absolutely delicious cucumbers. The heirloom tomatoes look to be on their last legs…pity! They may recover if the weather cools off some. In the meantime, we are purchasing Celebrity tomato plants as a backup. We have also planted another bed of sweet corn…the previous attempt failed for reasons unknown.

I put down some dry molasses around some of the vegetables and sprayed all of them with diluted molasses and followed that about four days later with a spraying of homemade Garret Juice. This consists of compost tea, molasses, liquid seaweed and a little vinegar mixed with water. This has been a good “tonic” for the vegetables in the past…so we’ll see if it works this time.

It’s about time to think about fall plantings. In the meantime, eat your veggies…Nonnie and Pop said so!

Latest Dirt

Recent activities in the Charamon Garden:

• Planting onion sets
• Planting hard squash seeds (Blue Hubbard and Butternut)
• Mulching potatoes and tomatoes
• Replacing the filtering mechanism on the water well
• Placing drip irrigation lines and replacing broken emitters
• Installing weedblock in Bermuda grass infested beds

Trickle, trickle, splash, splash

Here in the semi-desert of West Texas, we have to depend on irrigation.  The Charamon Garden is watered by infrequent rain and water from my well.  As I have mentioned in previous blogs, the water is not all that great.  It is full of minerals (gypsum mostly) and, at times, sand and clay.  The plants seem to thrive on it.  The major problem is not the water but the system used to deliver it: drip irrigation.

I never hook up my supply to the irrigation lines without having to clean one or more emitters.  This involves flushing the line by opening the end and then pulling the blue “flag” out of each clogged emitter, using the water that sprays out of the top to clean the emitter and replacing the flag.  A real pain in the…well, you know.   I plan to get my humongous filtration system up soon but, in the meantime, I am depending on the small filters at the head of each distribution manifold.  They filter out the sand easily enough, but the clay is finer than talcum powder and eventually clogs the emitters.

Today, I pulled the screens out of six filters, took them to the kitchen sink, plopped them in a bowl of warm water and detergent and rinsed them and scrubbed them with a brush resembling a test-tube brush.  It’s one of those chores that will be repeated over and over again during the dry season.  You might say it is one of those chores that screens out those who are not serious!

Filter screens and caps

Drip lines for eggplant sets.

In the meantime…eat your veggies!  Nonnie and Pop said so.

Slowly but Surely

I finally got all our potatoes in the ground yesterday. With so much going on in my work, I have had to steal time to do it. We have four varieties planted not only for the fun of it, but to see which ones we like best and grow the best.

We also got the tomato seedlings planted and caged. You could hardly call them seedlings…they were long and lanky and nearing two feet tall! We have nine set out and another back up group of eight in pots in case we get a late freeze.

Wow! There is so much more to be done! Bermuda grass infestation (you’ve heard of the Bermuda Triangle, have you not?) is slowing everything down. We are dealing with that monstrous weed as we go. Since we are not even trying for organic certification, we use one chemical, glysophate, to control the Bermuda. All the rest of our practices are strictly organic. I have nothing but sympathy for those who must control this introduced monster by hand in order to remain strictly and purely organic.

We still have many beds to prepare which involves cutting down the winter grass, amending the soil (cottonseed meal and Texas Greensand) and getting the seeds and sets in the ground. Vegetables and herbs yet to be planted are, squash (soft and hard), southern peas, okra, onions, leeks, corn, green beans, eggplant, basil, thyme, cilantro (coriander in Australia) and cucumbers. The broccoli, collards, kale and mustard greens are finished. The garlic is nearing harvest. The swiss chard (silverbeet in Australia) is going crazy. We are cutting increasing amounts of asparagus shoots as Spring progresses.

Fortunately, my son and daughter-in-law are able to help occasionally. Can we “git ‘er done?” Stay tuned.

In the meantime, eat your veggies…Nonnie and Pop said so!

We are thinking about selling our overflow veggies…especially winter ones. If you are in the Abilene, Texas area and would like to get on our mailing list so we can notify you about availability, send your name and email address to: dwight.whitsett@gmail.com

Hairy Vetch and Other Stuff

My usual exercise (when I’m home) consists of getting out in the Charamon Garden and hoeing, lifting, digging, grinding, sifting compost, pulling weeds, etc. Yesterday it was preparing the tomato bed for planting in the next few weeks.

All winter the bed has been growing a cover crop consisting of hairy vetch and assorted winter grasses and a few other weeds. The vetch was the only intentional crop but the winter grass and weeds are inevitable. They grow together in happy confusion/profusion completely unaware that their days are numbered.

I cut them off at ground level (plus an inch or two to get the roots of the winter grass)

Tomato Seedlings

It is February and, if you live in my zone, you need to start your tomatoes immediately. Last year I was overseas and had to settle for store-bought seedlings. They produced well, but we’ve been spoiled by our soft-skinned, wonderfully-flavored third-generation heirlooms. As you can see, the seedlings are looking very good indeed.

In a couple of weeks, I will transplant these into larger containers where they will grow until I set them in the tomato bed. That bed is, at this moment, filled with a cover crop consisting of a mixture of weeds and Hairy Vetch (a legume which enhances the soil’s nitrogen content). When I get ready to set my tomato plants in, I will cut the cover crop off at ground level, leave the tops on the bed and plant my seedlings through them. Then I will cover every thing but the seedlings with a couple of inches of mulch

One secret to healthy tomato seedlings such as these is mycorrhizae which you can read more about here. Mycorrhizal preparations can be purchased from any good organic supplier. It usually comes in the form of granules which can be sprinkled on the roots of transplants. They work in a symbiotic relationship with most plants except the brassica and eucalyptus families.

This year I filled my trays about two-thirds full and then sprinkled the mycorrhizae over the surface of the soil. Then I topped them up and put the seeds in. As the seeds germinate and the roots grow down they will be colonized by the mycorrhizae.

I’ll get back to basic garden preparation in the next post. In the meantime, eat your veggies! Nonnie and Pop said so.