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Vegetable Planting Guide: Getting Ready To Plant
If you have been following along with the series about starting your own garden, we now come the the step of actually planting your garden crops. Up to this point it has been all about getting your space ready, getting your soil amended and ready to support the growing season, and deciding on what you want to plant. If you have done your homework, know what you want to plant and the space requirements for those plants. As you have read when planting a garden different vegetables require different amount of room to grow. To avoid any confusion, the best thing you can do is to follow the recommendations found…
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Garden Soil Preparation
Soil preparation is the foundation of your garden and needs to be fertile, well-drained, and have the right combination of soil ingredients. Great soil does not just happen and it does not happen overnight. You need to plan, test, and make changes to existing soil if needed. There are a few types of soil which gardeners have to work with. There is very sandy, sticky clay (what I have), and others are rocky and shallow. Sandy soils do not hold enough water and in the wind, blowing sand can injure delicate vegetables. Clay soils hold too much water and do not allow enough air to enter the soil. Both clay…
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Garden Planning
Just because your spring garden is coming to end does not mean the work stops. There are plenty things to add to your to-do list for August and September. Start planning now and start prepping your calendar for the tasks below. I love using this garden calendar for all my gardening to-dos. I stay organized so I don’t fall behind on any of my garden upkeep. Protect Squash Ripening fall pumpkins & winter squash need to be protected. Slip something beneath them to prevent rot at the bottom. I use a piece of cardboard. Gather Fruit Any fruit fallen from the trees needs to be gathered. Remove Self Sowing Seed…
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June In The Garden
This month in the garden should be a time of fast growth of garden plants. The cool weather crops should be done and the summer crops should be taking off. May is typically a rainy month and this year rain it was in Texas. The temperatures begin to heat up which allows for fast growth of plants, blooms appearing, and hopefully bees buzzing. . With heat comes the need to water whether it is from rain or your method of watering. Vegetable gardens need one inch of water each week. Soaker hoses do the best job as they water the base of the plants and keeps the foliage dry. This…
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May In The Garden
This month had me thinking of Cinco de Mayo which is a regional celebration in Mexico. The holiday commemorates an initial victory of Mexican forces over French forces in the Battle of Puebla in May, 1862. The date is observed in United States and other areas around the world as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. There are foods associated the these celebrations and many are found in the garden. Jalapeno peppers, green chiles, salsas made with fresh tomatoes and even calabacitas made with fresh squash and zucchini. We also think about the weather in May. This is the season for heavy rain, hail, and winds which we’ve had…
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Row Tunnels For Winter Vegetables
As fall has moved into winter, temperatures will continue to go well below freezing. Although most winter vegetables can tolerate temperatures slightly below freezing, tunnels offer a way to extend those cool weather vegetables when the temps dive low. We have had our 1st significant freeze and temperatures that plunged into the low twenties. In anticipation of the colder temperatures, I got some row tunnels to protect my winter garden during the really cold days. Here is what I bought on Amazon to make my garden row tunnels: The polytunnel is also known as a hoop tunnel, hoop greenhouse, row covers, or hoop house. They are typically made of steel…
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Grow and Cook Pumpkins
When the pumpkins start turning orange, we know fall is not far off and that means football. We are football fans. My husband played football and my son did as well. My daughters were on the sideline cheering on their brother and Friday night football was a fun family time. Of course not everyone loves football but pumpkin harvesting also means changing of seasons, cool weather, and fall feastivities. There is a lot of good food wasted when untold numbers of nutritious pumpkins get turned into jack-o-lanterns. Pumpkins make a very good custard and put into a pie shell you have pumpkin pie. During the early years the pumpkin menu…
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Growing Cucumbers
I love growing cucumbers. The best memory I have is taking a big bite out of an extremely bitter cucumber. That was early in my gardening journey and I had planted a cucumber meant for pickling, not eating raw. Who would have thought there was a difference? I sure didn’t. So, when picking seeds to plant make sure you read the seed package carefully. Decide What To Grow Cucumbers have a refreshing taste mostly because they are high in water. They are divided into 2 categories: those used for pickling and those used for slicing. Pickling cucumbers tend to be bitter and are not good when eaten raw. They are…
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Types of Squash: Summer and Winter
Is squash a vegetable? Well, that’s a good question as there are various opinions. Technically it is categorized as a fruit because it develops from a flower and it has seeds. Summer squash is a big production in large amounts. It is a summer staple for our family. Squash is divided into summer squash and winter squash. Summer Squash Summer squash includes zucchini and yellow squash. I grow both types. They are picked while they are still somewhat immature, small and tender. The outer skin is delicate and easy to eat. The plants need to be checked daily for new produce, and when removing the squash, cutting versus breaking…
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Baking With Zucchini
We learned a lesson from zucchini over the years. We always grew 3-4 plants each year and you probably can guess the rest of the story. We ate zucchini. We cooked with zucchini. We froze zucchini. We gave away zucchini. We now grow 2 plants and that seems to plenty to fit our needs and we do not feel as if we are being wasteful. We like baked goods with zucchini the most. Zucchini bread and other baked items are very easy to make. Grating the zucchini is a snap if you have a food processor with a grating feature. (It really saves the knuckles.) A hand grater works fine…
Home Grown is Best
