A Garden Visit With Harry Cabluck

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Jay White

I love this sign that Harry has hanging in the back of his garden

Over the next twelve months we will be visiting with 12 gardeners from all over Texas. They will be sharing some of the knowledge that allows them to garden successfully in our beloved, but climatically challenging state. I have a masters degree in horticulture and I have gardened for years. However, most of my gardening knowledge came from visits with other gardeners. I hope these monthly visits will provide you, and me, with a few tips and tricks that will help us all become better gardeners.

Patty and I visited harry Cabluck and his incredibly well done garden earlier this month. We were blown away by how well down it was. Always humble, Harry gives much of the credit for his garden infrastructure to his good friend Tom Lupton.

Patty and I visited Harry Cabluck and his incredibly well done garden earlier this month. We were blown away by how well done it was. Always humble, Harry gives much of the credit for his garden infrastructure to his good friend Tom Lupton.

Our first gardener is Harry Cabluck. Harry gardens in the back yard of his central Austin home. While his garden is not the biggest I have ever seen, it is one of the neatest and most well managed gardens that I have ever been in. Harry was gardening organically long before it was “cool”. He collects rainwater for irrigation, makes tons of compost, has the nicest cold frame I have ever seen and grows tomatoes from seeds (click here to read how Harry grows his tomato transplants) and then grafts them onto other tomatoes that he has grown from seed.

Garbage bags over tomato plants Thursday, March 19, 2015, in Austin, Texas. ( Photo/Harry Cabluck)

Harry uses a piece of string and a rubber band to quickly and effectively secure his garbage covers to his tomato cages

Harry gives his beloved tomatoes a head start by growing them in an ingenious cage method that he developed. As early in March as he can, Harry plants the tomatoes he started in January in his neatly bordered beds that are extremely well worked with compost. He then takes a 55 gallon trash can liner, splits the end and bunches it around the tomato plant. Then he uses his heavy duty cages to anchor the the trash bag in place. To keep his trash bag liner secured to his cage he uses an ingenious string and rubber band fastener that is incredibly effective and easy to use. With bags in place he is able to easily pull the bags up over his frame at the earliest sign of cold weather, high winds or heavy rain. I was so impressed with this cage method that I seriously considered changing the way I grow tomatoes! Now let’s hear more from Harry:

Cabluck garden on Tuesday, May 13, 2014, in Austin, Texas. ( Photo/Harry Cabluck)

Name: Harry Cabluck

Location: Central Austin. **City garden of three 100-sq. ft. raised beds. We rotate a plot holding 12-15 tomato plants a year.

(Photo/Harry Cabluck)

Years gardening: 43+. First gardened as a child in late 1940’s. My mother had a green thumb and a source for manure, as her father was a dairy farmer. As an adult we have had small plots in Dallas and larger plots in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Columbus, Ohio. We made good use of our Troy-Bilt 6 hp rototiller. Often improved the soil in these gardens by importing soil, manure and/or spoiled hay.

Years in this plot: 20. **Our backyard was once the corral area for a nearby home. When we moved in it was black gumbo clay that would hold ankle-deep water for a few days after each rain. De-ionized the soil with gypsum. Built multiple compost piles 20-feet long before starting to plant in 1995.

Tomatoes under lights Sunday, March 2, 2014, in Austin, Texas. ( Photo/Harry Cabluck)

Favorite crop: Tomatoes. Usually start 60 seeds in trays under lights in the garage in January. This is the first year to use LED’s instead of T-5 or fluorescent lights. Hope to yield 36 heirloom/hybrids along with 18 rootstock for grafting. After starts in trays become root bound, transplant to four-inch pots. Some 12-15 pots stay under lights, the remaining pots are moved to the cold frame. Sometimes need to run an extension cord and heating pad to cold frame. Usually give away the tomato plants that are not planted in our garden. Crop rotation includes basil, green beans, arugula, spinach, marigolds. January crops include greens, carrots, elephant garlic, shallots, gumbo onions. Would like to attempt parsnips. Have never had good luck with sweet peas.

Best tips: Make good garden dirt.

Compost!!! This year’s compost pile of ground leaves, mixed with kitchen scraps, cottonseed meal, bat guano and molasses, seems to be the best ever. In previous years used cooked barley malt (byproduct of brewery) mixed with coffee chaff (byproduct of air roasting). That stuff needed to be turned at least once daily, as it would putrefy.

Harry composts directly in his beds

Although not necessary, we get great results using our cold frame and 800-gallon rainwater catchment. A two-inch rain on our 20X20-foot garage roof will fill the tank. It is usually empty around July 4.

Make use of store-bought soil for seed-starting and transplanting. Happy Frog brand seems best. Don’t waste time and money on cheap tomato cages. Read Bill Adams’, “Texas Tomato Lover’s Handbook.”

Cold frame in Cabluck back yard garden Saturday, March 7, 2015, in Austin, Texas. ( Photo/Harry Cabluck)

Pest control: Havahart traps for varmints. For bugs, mix a one-gallon cocktail containing 50-squirts Tabasco, one ounce of liquid seaweed, one ounce molasses, one ounce fish emulsion, dash of dishwashing liquid…when necessary add BT. I love my Hudson sprayer.

Weed control: We control weeds by cultivating and mulching regularly. **Best stuff seems to be wood chips. Long-tined rake, six-inches wide, four tines.

Biggest challenge: Thwarting the squirrels and leaf-footed bugs. **Would like to have a moveable pergola, because a hoop house is always a challenge to erect and doesn’t look good.

Favorite amendment: Cottonseed meal AND anything with trace elements…especially glauconite, WHICH seems to help blossoms set fruit in heat and cold.

Do we preserve: No. **Not large enough garden, small yields.

Favorite advice: Have a good friend who has great ideas. ***Thanks to Tom Lupton.

What would you like to do better? Would like to learn more about tomato biology. How to ensure more tomato blossoming and fruit set and how to improve brix.

Gardening in a Galaxy Far, Far Away by Patty G. Leander

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Jay White

We began the New Year with three exciting events in our family – our oldest daughter completed her firefighter training, our Red Raider niece married a handsome red-headed Aggie and we took my awesome in-laws (ages 86 and 90) to see ‘Star Wars: A Force Awakens’.

Proud of our courageous firefighter (and valedictorian)!

Bruce practicing his photo bomb technique on our niece’s beautiful wedding cake.

Grammy and Grampy Leander (he’ll be 91 next month) learning to take a selfie at the wedding reception – how cool is that?

During the movie, both my husband and my daughter looked over and nudged me. I get nudged a lot in reference to the vegetables I grow in my garden and I hope I won’t be giving much away if I tell you that cauliflower makes an appearance in the Star Wars Galaxy!

Galactic Gardening – apparently this Romanesco cauliflower grows in other galaxies

You can grow Romanesco cauliflower in your earth-bound garden and January is a good time to set out transplants – if you can find them. You can also grow your own transplants but you’d have to start right away because this galactic brassica does not like the heat. It takes 5-6 weeks to grow a good sized transplant, then another 6-8 weeks to reach a harvestable size. That puts us well into April. If you live in North Texas or beyond you may be able to get away with this, but gardeners in Central and South Texas are better off waiting until next fall to give this one a go. If planted too late in spring the warm weather may cause it to bolt before it has a chance to reach maturity.

A striking Romanesco cauliflower ready for harvest

Put this unique but easy-to-grow cauliflower on your list for fall 2016. Open-pollinated, heirloom seeds are available from Baker Creek (www.rareseeds.com), Sustainable Seed Company (www.sutainableseedco.com) and Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org). Or you can opt for a slightly earlier hybrid called ‘Veronica’, available from Johnny’s Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com) or High Mowing Seeds (www.highmowingseeds.com). And if you or your kids are really into Star Wars, give ‘Skywalker’ cauliflower a try. A hybrid variety noted for bright white, dense heads and cold tolerance; it is well-suited for fall cultivation. Seeds are available from Johnny’s and High Mowing.

Bolting Romanesco – not a pretty sight but still edible

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by. The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Garden Resolutions

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Jay White

Happy Belated New Year ! I hope your holidays were joyous and relaxing. While not exactly relaxing, our holidays were most definitely joyful! Sally and I spent a whole week on Orcas Island in Washington State. We were there to meet the newest member of our family. Our youngest daughter gave birth to our second grandson. What a joy to visit with her and welcome Bernard to our ever expanding family.

Did you make any gardening resolutions? Personally, I gave up on resolutions several years ago. However, I still set goals. I guess this is kind of like making resolutions. However, thanks to some weird part of my brain, I seem to have less guilt when I fail to complete a goal than when I fail to accomplish my resolutions.

I have set lots of goals for 2016. First, I want to figure out how to spend more time in my garden. I will need to do this since I am doubling the size of my vegetable garden and adding a large butterfly/cut flower garden. I also planted two 35’ foot rows of blackberries back in the summer and those will need tending.

If your daughter is going to live far, far away, pray that she lives in a beautiful place. This view of My. Baker is just steps from daughter's house.

If your daughter is going to live far, far away, pray that she lives in a beautiful place. This view of Mt. Baker is just steps from daughter’s house.

My next goal is to finish several unfinished landscaping projects. I have decided that 2016 will be the year that I finally finish the granite walk paths that pass through the three rose arbors and connect all of my gardens together. The walk paths were on hold so I could run water and electricity out to my vegetable garden. I am proud to say this project was completed back in November. While I am looking forward to finishing the walk paths, I am more excited about the six water spigots that I have added that will allow me to install and use drip irrigation in my ever expanding vegetable garden.

My final goal is to do a better job documenting all of these changes on the blog. In addition, Patty and I are going to introduce a new feature. Each month we are going to visit with gardeners around the state and see what works, and what doesn’t, in their gardens. Each time I visit with a gardener I pick up something that I can apply in my own garden. I hope you will enjoy our visits and I hope you get some tips that will make you a better gardener too.

I was impressed with the number of vegetable gardens we saw on the island. Seems like everyone had one. This one was truly beautiful

Last year was a great year for the blog (click here if you would like to see the “Year in Review” presentation from WordPress). The “Weekly Tips” were incredibly well received. While I am not going to continue this, I will continue to post a weekly tip on my Facebook page. If you don’t already follow us on Facebook please check it out and give us a like.

Thank you all so much for continuing to follow us. We are so humbled that you choose to get some of your gardening tips from our little website. We work hard to provide information that is relevant, useful and (hopefully) entertaining. If there is anything that you would like to have featured or discussed on the blog do not hesitate to send us an e-mail or leave us a comment. Happy New Year!