Fall Gardening in South Texas

Fall is one of THE best seasons to plant your garden in South Texas. The cooler weather allows plants to develop a good root system and become established before spring and the stress of summer heat sets in. Plus I myself and Daisy and Herbie are alot more friskier out in the garden at this time of year.

For anyone who has tried to grow cilantro and had trouble - Fall is the best time to plant cilantro. You'll get alot more harvests out of it in the fall than in the summertime. It won't bolt and go to seed so quickly like it does in the summertime due to the extreme heat.

Plant now in order to reap the rewards and tastes.
Harvest from some of last fall's garden planting.

I always say, "Gardening is like fishing, you do it whenever you have the chance." I've been in and out away from home these last couple of weeks. Every time I've come home I've been met with another suprise garden area, my husband has planted.

As I child I was a picky eater. I liked corn on the cob and mashed
or baked potatoes but little else in the way of vegetables.
It wasn't until I got married and had my first garden
that I fell in love with fresh vegetables.

Lettuce grows in the fall and packs so much flavor.

We now have several types of zuccini squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, sweet pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, okra, and green beans planted. Everything is growing like gangbusters. Basil, lavender, chives, sage, thyme, rosemary, anise hyssop, lemon balm and other fragrant and culinary herbs add to the edible landscape.

We not only have an edible landscape for us. I love the new blooming butterfly hummingbird garden beds. Some beds got spruced up and replanted while others, having been neglected, are now a bright blooming area - makes me smile getting out of my car to see the newly planted bed up front and to walk through the back yard and discover what my husband has planted today.

Cwaizy Wabbit Jumps the Fence

After a hectic week - I came home and found lots of fresh veggies planted in different garden areas, thanks to my sweet hubby. It's a fun adventure every time I go out to find what's gone in today.


Newly planted tomato, eggplant, and
peppers among existing basils - this is
only one side of this raised bed garden.

New tomato, eggplant and peppers have been added to our super duper raised bed garden. Another garden area is full of zucchini plants and yet another area has cucumber plants - I'm amazed at how quickly everything grows once it's in the ground. We'll have our beans, broccoli, cauliflower and romanesquo plants ready for garden planting this week.

Butterfly Garden

Well the Cwaizy Wabbit has jumped the fence. The plants always look greener on the other side so our cross-eyed wabbitt has found a new place to watch over.

The Cwaizy Wabbit (CW) moved to the newly planted and mulched
hummer/butterfly garden. Can you see CW under a bush?
Porterweed, lantana, blue mist flower,
Mexican honeysuckle, Pato de Chivo and more butterfly
hummingbird attracting plants are here. I'm still discovering
something new every time I go out to check it.



Hummer taking a break amongst Red Porterweed shrubs.

Due to some family emergencies, the hummingbird feeder didn't get refilled this week. The hummingbirds are still helping themselves to the porterweed blooms and other flowering shrubs though and seem quite content.

Location, Location, Location

You may have heard the most important thing in selectimg

a place for your business is Location, Location, Location.

The lavender and garlic chives thrive - a great example of
raised bed planting success - both Daisy and Herbie agree.

 Drainage, Drainage, Drainage

Well I learned quickly from Madalene Hill and Gwen Barclay

that the most important thing n selecting a place for your garden

is "Drainage, Drainage, Drainage."

Good Drainage is even more important than the

dirt herbs grow in as herbs don't have to have rich soil to grow and thrive.

  

A cat's eye view of the Mary's Garden at Round Top Texas, Festival Hill.



I remember Michael Bettler pointing out a picture of his and

Lucia's garden in author's Madelene and Gwen's Southern Herb Growing

book saying it was actually an example of how NOT to garden since he

had since learned the value of raised bed

gardening. I don't have a copy of that picture to

post but found quite a few different examples of some

other raised bed gardens. 

Concrete block surround raised beds planted in assorted pepper plants.
The blocks are high enough and wide enough to also double as a
seating areas at the Fort Worth botanical gardens

We have a lot of clay in our soils so that when it rains (not so much lately)

it doesn't always drain well, stressing plant roots depriving them

of oxygen. Raised bed gardening helps prevent that.

Raised garden bed with drip irrigation ready to be planted for an EarthKind Rose
trial at the Confederate Airforce Museum (CAF) in Ector Midland Counties.

Examples of raised garden beds that take advantage

of vertical gardening and support.

Planted raised bed garden at the Master Gardener
CAF Gardens adjacent to garden bed above.

My husband built this wooden box frame filled with
soil to include a fence panel trellis and two end posts for our
malaar spinach - a hot weather spinach that loves to climb. This
is actually a raised bed within a larger raised bed. Fairly simple to make,
at least for me since my husband made it.

BE CREATIVE

I love this example. Always creative in utilizing what nature provides,
Marylyn Ponder includes wooden branches  on top of existing soil with
more soil and compost on top to add drainage to her salad vegetable garden.



Raised beds made in preparation for butterfly
hummingbird plants at Sabal Palms Sanctuary.

 

Wooden posts garden beds with drip irrigation,
ready for planting vegetables at the Cameron
County Master Gardener Arboretum in San Benito, TX.

You may not want to get too ambitious when you first begin -

Don't make it hard on yourself.

Gardening and being outdoors is

all about having fun.

Twelve Oaks B&B, Bulverde, TX mounded raised beds planted in
their front landscape with rosemary and lavender.

Start small and you can add. The soil in our first year raised

bed garden was pretty tough but now after several years of adding to it

and tilling it each year, it's really gotten so much easier to work.

This didn't happen overnight. It just gets better and better.



Community Garden example at the San Antonio Botanical Garden.
Two proud young gardeners show off their veggies harvest.
I liked this bed as it is very easy to reach from either side of the raised bed
and also includes drip irrigation.

 

Horticulturist and Gestalt Gardener, Felder Rushing proves that anyone
can garden anywhere, any time and any place. Check out his truck garden bed.

Remember to have fun! Anyone can garden, anywhere, anytime

any place. Good Gardening!

There's Always Room for Basil

It's a pond, it's a chair. It's another great place for basil.

This unique Basil Chair Planter quacks me up!

I like it.

Basil is never boring.

Welcome Friends

A garden is a welcome, all in itself - inviting, intriguing and interesting. Please come visit, stay a while - enjoy outdoor hugs, skip, jump, hide and seek, laze around, throw your arms up in the air, can you dig it? What can you discover, see, hear, feel, smell, taste, wonder? I wonder, wonder, wonder....

Welcome to my gardens.



Nothing beats a warm welcome like
BIENVENIDOS with a basket of HOT Chili Peppers - so says Dilly our cat!



A gardening welcome in Seattle.

Herbal Welcome in Round Top Texas Festival Hill's Herbal Forum.

Welcome entry steps in Rockport Master Gardener gardens.

Welcome to my backyard gardens.



Welcome to beautiful Historic Brownsville, Texas!

Thank you. You're welcome!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Comments 1 - via Email
from long-time friend and gardener extraordinaire:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These signs are the visual entrance to a multi-sensory journey into the garden...

#1) Gertrude JEKYLL (English garden writer) - "The main purpose of a garden is to give its owner the best and highest kind of earthly pleasure."

#2) Jim HOLLOMAN (American garden writer) - "People often turn to gardening to re-create a bit of paradise within an imperfect world."

These are two things I try to keep in mind when I am watering and weeding. ~Michael Bettler.

Thank you Michael
P.S. to Michael - I'm working to find out why the blog's comment section isn't working and try to make it easier to comment - Debbie

NOT FOR THE BIRDS

It's that time of year again - time to plant tomato plants - for family and my featherless friends. I am all for feeding the birds, only NOT my nice red ripe tomatoes!

Patio tomato plants - ready to go in pots or the garden.

I resorted to bird netting with my last tomato crop. I did learn picking tomatoes when they're pink rather than waiting till they were red helped save many from what I call "THE BIRDS" (from Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie) well, it's not that scary, I'll admit - more frustrating.

Are birds color blind? Well I'm no scientist but apparently they can see red as in tomato red, at least I think they are going by their sight when they fly in to peck the ripe tomatoes the minute before you go out to harvest.

Aluminum pie plates scare birds away for a short time.
Before you know it, they'll be admiring their reflection.

I had a couple caged tomato plants that had a tendency to grow their tomatoes in the inner part of the plant with green foliage covering the outside. This is ideal as the birds didn't seem to get to these when they were covered up by their leaves but went to the easier picking tomatoes.


Yummmmmy!

Planning Ahead
Vegetable Specialist Dr. Sam Cotner listed a couple of interesting tips to prevent birds pecking your tomatoes in "The Vegetable Book" you might want to try this year for an early Christmas present of red ripe tomatoes.

1)  Fruit Stockings - Cut panty hose in 15-20 inch lengths, tye off one end, slip them over a cluster of tomatoes and twist tye the other end. When ripe, just untye the closed end and take out your tomatoes. The panythose will stretch as the fruit does. The trick is doing this WAY before the tomatoes start turning red or it will be too late.

He didn't say but I expect it's best not to use sheer pantyhose but some opaque or solid color that would camouflage the red color.

2)  Christmas in the Fall - If you don't have any nice red Christmas tree ball ornaments - you can probably find some in the stores - after all it's almost Labor Day (he-he). Seven to 10 days before tomatoes start developing any color, hang some bright red Christmas tree ball ornamens in your tomatoe plants. The birds will get frustrated trying to peck these and give up so that when your tomatoes do turn red, the birds will remember the red balls didn't taste good.

Hmmm, my only concern on this one is if we have any visiting migrating birds coming through unexpectantly which brings us to the third tip.

3)  Think Pink - Dr. Cotner suggests picking your tomatoes when they are pink instead of when they are fully red. He explained that a tomato picked at this stage and ripened at room temperature will have the same taste and flavor as one ripened on the vine.

Well I'll agree it will have a lot better taste than the ones left red on the vine that "The Birds" might have got to first. This is one tip I did learn on my own.

Well worth it!

We had lots of good fresh home grown tomatoes though, even though we shared some with "The Birds" and I plan on having more again this year. Have to plan ahead but it's well worth the results.

Got a handy tip you want to share? Please let me know your experience.

Twelve Oaks Bed and Breakfast Bulverde, Texas

What a great place to relax and unwind. I've been wanting to check out my friend Sally Arroyo's B and B ever since she became an Inkeeper and heard all about her raising and naming her chickens, even subscribing to the "Chicken Keeping Secrets" newsletter since she started on her new adventure in Bulverde, Texas.

When my sister called to say let's get all the girls in the family and meet up for a weekend in San Antonio, I immediately contacted Sally to find out if she had any vacancies. Vacation to me was having some R n' R. R n' R to me was chilling and hanging out. I was concerned what my sisters would consider "vacation." Turns out we all were ready for some of the same R n' R.

We booked our first night at Twelve Oaks and got to enjoy the hospitality of Ana, Sally's sister. I should say "Chef" Ana. Chef Ana bakes wonderful wedding cakes for the wedding parties held at the Inn using their fresh gathered eggs. She fed us a wonderful breakfast that included their home made jellies. We got to look through her album of beautiful wedding cakes she has makes and photos of some of the grand to intimate weddings held at the Inn.


Chef Ana serving up our goodie breakfast with sister Michele!

Tasty Baked Pear and Raisins with a Secret Sauce, Crousant,
and Frittata with Asparagus and Avocado--yummmmy!

Time Flies
I had to ask Sally how long she's been in her enterprise. “Our first guest was October 3, 2009. This October we'll celebrate two (2) full years in the B and B business (http://www.hillcountrybb.com/). March 13th will be one year since the first wedding (http://www.hillcountryvenue.com/). Whew, it's been great and time has blasted by!!" I knew I had been wanting to check it out for some time but didn't realize how fast the time had flown by.

We had so much fun checking out the grounds that included a big garden in the back, complete with scarecrow, that was full of hot peppers and other veggies.

Fresh salsa makings - yumm!

We got to see deer grazing under the trees and all kinds of birds including ducks perched in the trees and in the tree trunks out front.

Early morning drinking our coffee outside, we were able to get up close to deer grazing.



Black Bellied Whistling Ducks



The Inn includes a wonderful gazebo, interesting wildlife,
outdoor amenities, flower beds full of rosemary and lavender.
I love all the wonderful rocks and these wagon wheels.

Tree hugging a centenarian!

Sally wrote "The General" is our oldest stately oak tree. "He" is supposed to be a centenarian—in fact closer to 140 years just based on the trunk diameter...... He is a Southern Live Oak. Also, we had a wedding right under "The General"--it was stunning.

Meet the "Girls"

Even though we weren't formally introduced, I knew the "girls" had names as Sally had told me all about them when she first started raising chickens. I asked her to give me a rundown of all their names and their breeds. I myself am just learning about chickens, so it's all new to me.

Henrietta turned out to be Henry. The "girls" are: Miss Hattie, Buttercup, Molly, Prissy, Honey Dew, Scarlet, Millie and Bluebonnet. The two Guinea's are Henny and Penny.  


This is Miss Hattie !! She is an Americauna and lays big delicious rich green eggs!!! Americauna's don't have much of a red comb on their head.  And, they have horizontal feathers projecting out, next to their ears.

Hattie and Bluebonnet are Americaunas; Buttercup and Honey Dew are Buff Opingtons; Prissy and Millie are Brahman's, Molly is an Australia; Scarlet is a New Hampshire Red; OH!! I forgot about Pepina--she is a Dominique (the little fat black and white checkered chicken).   


This is Henry--note the red 2nd-ary sex characteristics
on top of and around his face!!! And, he crows!!

Sally wrote "I have Texas Pioneers for eating squabs......now I have a pair of White Homer's (homing/racers) Bride and Groom release them at weddings after the ceremony and they fly back to the coop!!! They are great photo op's and everybody attending the wedding loves seeing them released."

Trees shade the chicken coop. The coop has alot of character
not to mention all the chicken characters inside.

Goldie and Loxie
Since we were there Sally sent me an update on their chicks - “I've bought two silkies (Goldie and Loxie) which are soft, fluffy and tame and also a blue "Show-Girl" named, Show-girl--she's also a silkie but has a long naked neck. There is also a new Polish Chicken--a real beauty: She's all black with a big black and white pom-pom on top of her head!! named Coco as in Coco Chanel--it fits her very well!! ;-) That's my flock......as of today!!!!” Sally - I personally want to go back and see Coco.

Taste Testers

These are just some of the interesting highlights we encountered at the Twelve Oaks Inn. I highly recommend it for a nice getaway vacation. It's real close to San Antonio but there are alot of neat shops, very close by, I wish we'd had time to explore. If you are looking for a place to get married, this place is fantastic. I don't think we could get away with wedding crashing here as Ana would put us to work in no time! Yep, I don't think you could put much over on Ana - we all volunteered to be wedding cake taste testers  - maybe on our next visit!