A Veggie Garden Update

Meantime, back to the vegetable garden.  Here are my 3 raised beds for vegetables.  First is the corn bed which seems to be doing great.  The larger stalks are showing the flower that starts the corn on the cob. I have a hill of zucchini in the middle of the corn that you may not can see. It has huge leaves and big yellow flowers. I have about 3 small zucchini growing larger. 

The second bed has peppers, squash and recently started cantaloupe, okra and watermelon sprouts. I have harvested one sweet bell pepper and one sweet banana pepper.  They really pepped up a salad! More are soon to be ready.  I recently added a few pole bean seeds to this bed which are just up.  It may be too late to start beans, but I decided late that I had a little more room. We'll see. 

The third bed is mostly tomatoes. They are all doing well.  I have harvested a handful of small tomatoes from a Sweet 100 bush. Many green tomatoes are growing on all bushes, and I have plenty more blooms too.  I planted a few carrots, garlic bulbs, onion sets and chives between the tomatoes. I have oregano in the corners too. All this spice helps deter pests.  They all appear to be doing fine.  

As the heat increases, the bugs and insects appear. If you have a veggie garden, check often for pests and damage.  Be sure to handle the intruders immediately so they don't get out of hand. You can look online to identify bugs that you do not recognize.  Then you can hopefully find a gentle remedy to send them on their way.  My worst offender so far was ants eating the okra.  This is a common problem. Ants like okra.  I didn't mess with them. They can take down everything if ignored. I sprayed Sevin, in a liquid spray form, carefully in that area only.  I didn't want to kill every bug around, especially the lady bugs on the corn.  Ladybugs eat aphids so not all bugs are bad ones.

Also as the heat increases, so should your watering. We are in the high 80's and low 90's now in June in East Texas.    For now, I water every other day.  I may go to every day as it gets in the high 90's.  You have to watch your garden.  Don't let anything wilt.  It will affect your produce.  

A Little Creative Gardening

I hope you are having as much fun playing in the dirt as I am! The weather has for the most part been very pleasant in East Texas the past 3 weeks.  I had a creative attack last weekend and decided to make a miniature garden scene in a wagon. My friend Diana helped. We had fun with this using old Blue Willow china pieces, a little angel saying Sh sh sh,  a rock that says Joy, and a collection of succulents and thyme.  I chose small plants that would stay small.  The wagon is parked outside my backdoor on my patio. My granddaughters love it, and want me to make them one too. I might. 

Treatment for Bacterial Leafspot on Peppers

I have news about what we should do about the spots on pepper plant leaves.  As I was asking around, I found out that many people in East Texas are having the same problem due to the very humid, rainy weather we are having. The spots make me think of black spot on roses. After several black spots appear, then the leaf turns yellow and falls off. 

I think I finally have the answer.  Even though the disease is bacterial in nature, the expert at Estes said to use a fungicide with chlorothanlanil as the main ingredient. I found it at WalMart, brand name Daconil.  There are probably other brands, but that is the one I found.  I am not saying this is organic. The only organic solution to this, as far as I know, is to remove the damaged leaves, and then fertilize your peppers with a good organic fertilizer.  Perhaps  warmer, less humid weather plus fertilizer will allow the pepper plants to recover.   If they are not too badly diseased, that might work. Worse case, pull your plants up, give them a good burial far away from your veggie garden,  and plant something else, not more peppers, in the same place. I hope this helps.  

Monday in May

Good Monday Morning to you all! I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. I did. I was with all my kids and grand kids, husband and mother. Couldn't ask for more!

It is damp and humid in East Texas today, threatening to rain. I hoped to get work done in my roses this week. All the dampness has brought on a bad round of black spot for roses in my area. Symptoms: At first, lower leaves of susceptible plants become covered with brownish-black spots; eventually the leaves yellow and drop off. A severe infestation can completely defoliate a plant over a period of weeks. Disease spores are spread by rain and watering. Black spot spreads quickly in wet or humid, warm weather. Solutions: Avoid wetting foliage. Prune plant to allow good air circulation among branches. At the first sign of disease, remove infected leaves and begin spraying a sulfur-based fungicide. Clean up any dead leaves from the base of plants (don’t compost dead or diseased leaves), especially in fall. A friend with beautiful roses told me to use Dormant on them. Anyone familiar? I hope to find it, try it, and let you know.

Back to the vegetable garden. All my "crops" are planted now. Just have to wait, water and weed! It is not too late to plant okra, watermelon and cantaloupe in East Texas, to name a few. I wouldn't hesitate to try squash seed either. It grows so fast in the Texas sun, it will catch up in no time. Anything as a transplant is probably okay too, such as tomatoes and peppers.

Peppers are so easy! They are like planting tomatoes, only easier. They don't get as leggy and big as tomatoes so they will look fine in a flower garden if you are so inclined. They need sun, but won't object to a little shade in the afternoon. Peppers come in so many varieties! My problem is deciding. I don't have room for all of them. My California Wonder bell pepper plant has tiny little green peppers now, and some of my tomato plants have tiny green tomatoes! I also planted sweet banana peppers, red bell peppers and one jalapeno pepper plant. It won't be long before we are picking and eating the fruits of our labors.

Have a great Monday and a wonderful week!

Growing Tomatoes

May 6, 2009

Hello from Texas! Tomatoes are the #1 vegetable grown at home by American families. Surely you have tasted home grown tomatoes! What a treat! I can't wait! My tomato plants are blooming, so tomatoes can't be too far behind. If you have just a patch of sunshine, you can grow tomatoes, even if you don't have a garden plot or yard. Many tomato plants are happy in a pot or even a bucket. They just need sun, water and dirt. A bag of potting soil will be enough. You might consider getting a Patio tomato, a Red Cherry tomato or a Sweet 100 tomato, all small bite-size varieties. These are often grown in pots. Make sure your pot has a hole for drainage. Pull off the lowest branches of your tomato plant, and then plant it deeper than those branches were. More roots will grow where the branches were, making a stronger plant. Put your potted tomato on your porch or balcony with the most sunshine available. As your plant grows it will need some kind of support to keep it standing up on the job. You can use one of those wire cages if you want to, or you can tie it to a stick or balcony railing as it grows. If you plant a tomato in a pot, it will need water nearly every day when it gets hot outside. In a garden it is not quite so needy, although to produce good tomatoes, they need plenty of water. What could be more satisfying than a fresh hand picked tomato that you grew yourself?

If you are going to put tomatoes in a garden, may I offer a few more tips. When choosing the variety, I like to have several different ones. In Texas the large tomatoes don't perform too well in our heat. You will have a better crop if you choose medium and small varieties.

Some varieties that I planted are Super Fantastic, Porter Pride, and Early Girl (supposed to be faster tomatoes for the impatient like me). Those are all medium sized tomatoes. I also planted several bushes of Sweet 100 and Red Cherry tomatoes, bite size varieties. My little granddaughters like to eat them right off the bush. I have to keep them washed off when I water. Sometimes they will wash them in the swimming pool! Sometimes not. The picture above shows how the tomato plants looked when I first planted them. Be sure to ask around where you live. Different varieties do better in other areas.

Buying transplants at your fav garden store is the easiest way to start tomatoes. It is also possible to grow them from seed or cuttings, but I would recommend nursery plants. It is best to mix in a good amount of compost in either sand or clay soils. This gives the plants plenty of fresh nutrition, and gives the soil a looser texture. Plant the transplants like I explained for a pot, taking off the lower branches, and plant them deep. As the plants get larger you will see little yellow blooms. That is a sign that all is well. Little yellow blooms turn to little green balls that get bigger and turn to orange, then to red. And then you have tomatoes !

Fertilizing may be necessary later on in the season after the tomatoes start to grow in pots or your garden. You will learn when your plants are looking tired and hungry. And keep the water coming. Don't let the plants wilt from lack of water. The tomatoes will not be as big if you do. I would recommend planting marigolds, basil, onion, chive or garlic bulbs, and oregano near your tomatoes, just here and there as space permits. This will help stave off bug enemies and give you what you need to spice up your cooking. If you still have problems with bugs in your tomatoes, there are organic pesticides safe for vegetables at gardening stores that you can use.

I planted my tomatoes in a 4 x 8 raised bed that Jim built, and we filled it with sand and compost. I planted eleven tomato plants in my bed. I had a few plants left so I gave some away and planted 4 more in big pots that I had available. They all have tomato cages for support. I then planted three oregano plants in corners and left room for onions. I plan to add some sweet basil and marigolds that I am growing from seed also. They are almost big enough. Finally I planted carrot seed between the tomato plants. Tomatoes and carrots are happy partners in the vegetable garden. I planted this bed on April the 15th. So far most of the tomatoes are blooming, and the carrots have sprouted. (see below) We have had almost too much rain in East Texas, but the my tomato plants and their friends seem happy so far. Tomorrow, come back for pepper pointers!

Gardening with Herbs and Veggies

May 5, 2009

Wow! What a great time of year to start a gardening blog! My daughter Jennifer Moreman (the artist) has picked my brain for two weeks about the how to's of planting herbs. I finally agreed to write her blog on herbs this week. jennifermoreman.blogspot.com Well, one thing led to another, and she convinced me to start a blog about all things gardening. I agreed if she would help me get started.

My husband and I live on 5 acres in East Texas. After living in a Dallas area neighborhood most of my life, I absolutely love having so much gardening space! This past month we planted our veggie gardens and plenty of herbs too. I am a big fan of companion planting-- planting complementary plants together such as tomatoes and carrots, corn and squash, and okra and watermelon. I am also very interested in adding herbs to all beds to help in pest control. One thing about living in the country, there are plenty of bugs. Did you know that Basil and Rosemary repel flies and mosquitoes?

I am learning about square foot gardening too. I have raised vegetable beds, but I haven't added the grids yet. I might though. More about all that later.

Other gardening topics I love are growing roses, hydrangeas, berries and daylilies. Right now everyone is finishing up their vegetable gardens in Texas so we will go that direction first and pick up some of the other topics another week. Haven't started a vegetable garden yet? It isn't too late, but it almost is in Texas. In the more northern states, people are just putting out their broccoli. The nice thing about vegetable gardens in Texas is that in August you can start all over and make another one. We can get two full cycles of produce here if you want to. We start in February with the cool weather veggies like broccoli and spinach. The last frost is usually the middle of March. We go through the hot weather with tomatoes, corn, okra and squash, to name a few. Then in August we start over with tomatoes, and eventually go back to the cool weather veggies. Our first frost is usually not until after Thanksgiving so we have a very long growing season. Everyone needs to know their first and last frost dates so you can plan. You can find this info on weather.com. I really like this sight for gardening maps.

For your convenience I included the frost date maps as well as a planting map of the USA for May.

As you can see, even Texas is still planting tomatoes, my favorite. More about tomatoes tomorrow.

Ta Ta for now! Check back tomorrow, okay?