Prepare Now For Fall/Winter Vegetable Harvest by Keith C. Hansen

All of this heat reminds me of a line from an old country song – “It’s too hot to fish and too hot for golf”. Unfortunately for those of us that garden in Texas in the fall and winter, it is not too hot garden. I spent about eight very hot and sweaty hours in the garden this past weekend getting my garden ready for the fall and winter. If you have not already started your garden you are a little behind schedule. My friend Kieth Hansen recently retired from his role as Horticultural Extension Agent in the Tyler area. While doing some reading last week I came upon an article he wrote a while back that does as good a job as anything I have ever seen at helping you prepare now for your fall and winter harvests. I was so impressed with the article that I asked if I could rerun it here. Kieth is an outstanding horticulturist and an outstanding writer. Once you read this I am sure you will want to jump over to his website, East Texas Gardening blog, and check it out.

Keith Hansen, retired AgriLife Extension horticulturist for Smith County, examines one of the tree in the IDEA Garden at the Rose Complex on Monday in Tyler.

Prepare Now For Fall/Winter Vegetable Harvest by Keith C. Hansen

Mid-July means two things: the dog days of summer and fall vegetable gardens. Everyone can relate to dog days – it’s hot and humid, good only for dogs to find a cool spot to dig a hole.

But fall gardens? In July? That’s right! Mid-Summer is the time to begin preparing and planting the garden for a fall harvest.

The first key for a successful fall garden is to get the weeds out. And if Bermuda or bahia grass are among those weeds, you can’t just rototill everything under because once you start watering and fertilizing again, you’ll have the greenest lawn in town.

Solarization is one method to reduce weeds, and other pests, by using the sun’s energy to pasteurize the upper layer of soil. However, this takes time. Prepare the soil, removing garden debris and weeds, form your beds, and then thoroughly water the soil. Cover the prepared area with clear polyethylene, sealing the edges with soil, to trap the sun’s heat. This doesn’t sterilize the soil, but reduces populations of harmful nematodes, weeds and other pests. It’s critical that his is done during July and August, the hottest time of the year. Treat for at least 6 to 8 weeks. You won’t get to plant tomatoes or peppers, but the garden site will be ready in time to plant cool-season vegetables.

Another non-chemical method of killing weeds is to smother them under 6 to 8 layers of wet newspaper, and then cover this layer with pine needles, old hay or grass clippings. Whenever weeds like Bermuda grass shows up through the edges, place another layer of paper over it. By continually denying them light, they’ll eventually weaken and die. Transplant through the papers, or just use them in the pathways. The paper will be mostly decomposed by next spring.

using newspaper and mulch is a great way to smother weeds in your garden

Hand digging is another option for real small plots, but take care not to get heat stroke; work early in the morning before it gets too hot.

If the garden spot has perennial weeds, like Bermuda, you can spray the weeds in an empty garden site with a weed killer that contains glyphosate. Some brand names for glyphosate include: Roundup, Kleenup, and Weed Away. Check the ingredients on the label for the term glyphosate” and follow label instructions for application rate. Glyphosate will not stay in the soil; it is strictly a foliar weed killer, but it kills roots and all. It takes about 2 weeks to completely kill Bermuda, maybe slightly longer if the weeds are under drought stress. It works best if weeds are healthy, actively growing and not suffering from lack of water. Remember, the garden spot must be empty to use glyphosate! Read the label completely before using.

While not as effective as Round Up, concentrated acetic acid is a good, organic weed killer that will work on both grassy and broad leafed weeds

There are also organic herbicides formulated with oils and soaps that will kill many tender annual weeds, but will not eliminate Bermuda and other perennial weeds with one application.

For future weed control, once you have your garden prepared, always maintain some sort of mulch covering the surface of the soil to prevent weeds from taking over again.

Every time you prepare the soil to plant a new crop, always mix in as much compost as you can get your hands on. Add well-decomposed animal manure, fertilizer and lime if soil tests indicate a low fertility or pH, and work all ingredients into the soil.

Compost helps sandy soils retain moisture and clay soils drain. It also supplies plant ready nutrients slowly and consistently.

Southern peas such as blackeye, purplehull, cream and crowders make a great, edible summer cover crop for building the soil and providing food. The pea vines can be mowed and rototilled under while still green for extra soil building benefits or allowed to produce peas and then tilled under.

Tomatoes and peppers need to be planted soon – by the first of August – if they are going to make a good crop before first frost. What if your garden spot is not yet ready? Buy your transplants now and grow them in a larger container to plant in the garden later.

*****Check out our planting guidelines in the sidebar to see when you need to put out your favorite vegetble seeds and transplants.

Get either 6-pack transplants or 4-inch transplants. Put them in a 1- or 3-gallon nursery container filled with potting soil. Do not use soil from your garden. Add slow release fertilizer (like Osmocote or other slow release formulation) to the soil mix. Set the pots in a sunny spot in the yard, not in the shade!

When watering seedlings uses a water soluble fertilizer or compost tea

Every time you water, use a water-soluble fertilizer solution instead of just plain water. Your transplants will continue to grow and be healthy, just as if you have transplanted them directly into the ground. Once your garden site is ready, you will have large, healthy tomato and pepper plants to set out. They will be easier to take care of and you will be assured of a bountiful harvest before the first freeze of winter.

Grow fast maturing tomato varieties for the fall harvest. Look for varieties with less than 75 days to maturity, such as ‘Merced’, ‘Bingo’, ‘Celebrity’, ‘Whirlaway’, and ‘Carnival’. ‘Surefire’ is a smaller, processing tomato variety (with thicker skin) which sets and matures all of its tomatoes very quickly, giving you a “surefire” harvest that beats the first freeze. Most cherry tomatoes will bear within 65 days of transplanting.

Timing is very important for a successful fall garden. Heat tolerant/cold sensitive crops need to be planted in time to mature before cold weather slows and stops growth, while cool season/heat sensitive crops are planted late enough to avoid the heat, but early enough to take the first frosts of winter.

Seeded vegetables can be tricky to get up in the heat of summer. Soil often forms a crust on the surface after tillage and watering. This “crust” can hinder tender seedlings from breaking through. Here are a couple of tips to help get seedlings up in the summer.

Open a furrow down the row as you normally would to sow the seeds. Before sowing, take your garden hose and thoroughly soak the bottom of the seed furrow with water. Next sow the seed. Finally, cover the seed to the proper depth with dry soil and firm. The seed should stay moist enough until germination, and if you avoid overhead watering, the soil will not form a crust to hinder seedling emergence.

Other folks will place a board or wet burlap over the seed row to provide constant dampness to encourage germination and emergence. You need to check every day for signs of emergence, and remove the covering when you see the first seedlings breaking through.

I share my posts on The Simple Homestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by and check out all the amazing things these gardeners and homesteaders are doing!

A Look Back at Spring by Patty G. Leander

Butterbeans on the trellis are slow growing now but will perk up when the weather cools slightly.

Texas has a long growing season. If you know what to plant and when to plant you can grow vegetables year-round, and many dedicated gardeners and farmers {thankfully} do just that. But the triple digit temperatures, lack of rain and water restrictions truly test the limits of both garden and gardener this time of year, leading us into a sort of heat-induced dormancy.

Long beans can take the heat and still produce a tasty harvest.

As the squash wilts, the cucumbers droop and the home-grown tomato harvest comes to an end, my attention and my water goes to the few die-hard vegetables that can stand up to this blistering, unforgiving heat and still yield a harvest. Currently producing are okra, long beans, Southern peas, Malabar spinach, sweet potatoes, eggplant, peppers and basil. Butterbeans, mint and sorrel are hanging on, and though their quality is temporarily compromised I know they will perk up when the temperatures “cool off” (you know, into the low 90s).

In between frequent okra harvests I like to review the spring season and make notes for next year. In southwest Travis County where I live and garden, spring came early, stayed long and brought generous rains, at least by Central Texas standards. The average date of our last freeze is March 8, but this year we did not even have a freeze in February. March and April brought warm days and mild nights, perfect weather for growing a vegetable garden and a pretty good season for tomato lovers.

It was a good season while it lasted but the 2017 spring tomato harvest has come to an end.

A few favorites we enjoyed this year included ‘Genuwine’, a cross between ‘Brandywine’ and ‘Costoluto Genovese’, ‘Porter’, a pretty, plum-shaped, deep pink Texas heirloom developed by Texas seedsman V. O. Porter, of Stephenville, and ‘Black Krim’ and ‘Japanese Black Trifle’, both reddish-black tomatoes with rich, bold flavor. ‘Juliet’, a productive, oblong cherry, is a perennial favorite and did great again this year, producing right up until the thermometer hit 103°.

Left to right: ‘Sweet Olive’, ‘Dr. Carolyn’, Black Cherry’, ‘Sunrise Bumble Bee’ and ‘Helsing Junction Blue’

Besides ‘Juliet’, I grew 4 colorful cherry varieties: ‘Sweet Olive’ (red), ‘Dr. Carolyn’ (yellow), ‘Sunrise Bumble Bee’ (yellow with pink striping) and ‘Black Cherry’ (dark mahogany red). All are good producers and add lively color and flavor to summer salads, sandwiches and wraps. I noticed a deep purple cherry tomato growing in various plots at a local community garden and had to inquire. It is called ‘Helsing Junction Blue’, named after an organic farm and CSA in Washington state. The tomato was bred by Tom Wagner, the same fellow that bred ‘Green Zebra’. It’s a pretty little tomato on large, indeterminate plants but the flavor of the ones I tasted was odd. Harvesting it at the right stage of ripeness seems to be key. Might try that one next year just out of curiosity; plus the blue tomatoes that have been introduced lately are bred to have higher levels of anthocyanins, which help decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease and may help with memory function.

My refrigerator was not big enough to hold the Zuchetta harvest – an Igloo cooler held the overflow.

Another recent discovery I’ve enjoyed growing the last few years is a squash called ‘Tromboncino’, also known as ‘Zuchetta Rampicante’. It is so vigorous that it seems to outgrow the squash vine borer and the result is a plethora of pale green, twisted squash. There are so many and they come so fast that I sometimes don’t have enough room for them in my refrigerator and must store them temporarily in a cooler. They were highly productive this year but just couldn’t stand up to the triple digit temps.

Leave a few ‘Shishito’ peppers to ripen on the plant then save the seed to plant next year.

‘Shishito’ peppers have been another welcome addition to the garden the last few years. The plants are fairly small but the more I pick the more peppers the plants pump out. The crisp, mild and flavorful peppers are popular in Japan and started showing up in restaurants and on food blogs in the US a few years ago. They are often blistered in a hot skillet and served as an appetizer or sliced into salads or stir-fry dishes.

Texas Rose’ garlic, purchased from a farm in Arizona, did great this year.

‘Last fall I planted a variety of garlic called ‘Texas Rose’, purchased from Forever Yong Farms in Arizona. With Texas in its name I figured it had to be worth a try. Upon further investigation, I learned this garlic has been grown for many years in South Texas and was originally known as Hallettsville garlic. Forever Yong farms says they obtained the garlic from a fellow in Seguin named Ray Reininger. It’s an early artichoke type; I planted my cloves in September and harvested most of it by early May. Forever Yong Farms sold out of their garlic last fall but they should have fresh stock later this year. Check their website (http://www.foreveryongfarms.com/products.html) for availability and ordering information.

French Mother’s Cucumber Salad made with ‘Vertina’ cucumbers

My favorite cucumber this year was a pickler called ‘Vertina’. The dark green, crunchy fruit was very productive, great for pickling and eating fresh. My friend Carolyn shared a favorite recipe that came from her niece who spent a semester living with a family in France. The family ate daily from their garden and the French mother made a cucumber-tomato salad that Carolyn and her sister still enjoying making every summer. It’s quick and delicious and can be made “to taste”. They call it French Mother’s Cucumber Salad:

1 large or 2 small cucumbers, peeled and sliced

Equal amount of cherry tomatoes

Mozzarella balls

Basil to taste

Mix together 1 part balsamic vinegar to 2 parts olive oil, salt & pepper then add

to cucumber mixture. Chill slightly before serving.

As you can see from the photo I don’t peel my cucumbers and I added purple onion. But that’s the beauty of this salad – you can’t go wrong plus it’s easy and yummy. Thanks, Carolyn!

I share my posts on The Simple Homestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by and check out all the amazing things these gardeners and homesteaders are doing!

A Garden Visit with John Boswell

John Boswell is an organic gardener from Waxahachie. He has been growing vegetables for just about all of his 92 years

A few weeks ago I headed out to Waxachie to interview John Boswell. John is an outstanding vegetable gardener that has been growing food for over 80 years. That is not a typo. John is 92 years young and each spring he plants and grows a garden that is bigger than most men half his age would attempt to grow. John is an organic grower that uses barnyard waste and other organic fertilizers to improve the fertility of his soil and also help his black clay drain.

John gardens in black clay that he continually improves with the addition of compost.

Years gardening: 80+. John grew up in Missouri during the depression. Gardening was not a hobby, it was how his family survived. In addition to feeding them, John’s dad was able to make a few dollars selling produce. He literally does not remember a time in his young life that the garden was not a part of his daily routine. When he got old enough he joined the Navy. He served in the Pacific as a medic during World War II. John wound up in San Antonio and retired from the hotel industry. Except for a few years, he has kept a garden his entire life.

This is only half of John’s amazing garden!

Years in this plot: 5 years

Favorite crop: John loves pickled beets so he grows lots of them. He also loves to grow zucchini, red potatoes, 1015 onions, tomatoes (Celebrity and Porter), cabbage, Blue Lake bush beans and an unnamed heirloom melon.

John loves growing beets but zucchini is a close second

Best tips: Set up and use a low water system. John uses drip tape and emitters to apply just the right amount of moisture to the base of most of his plants. For his beans, John set up three sprinkler heads and uses them to water a 5’ to 6’ wide row of Blue Lake green beans.

John built his own irrigation system for the garden PVC and off the shelve sprikler heads

John built his own irrigation system for the garden PVC and off the shelf sprinkler heads

Pest control: While John doesn’t have too many bug problems he tells an interesting story about controlling potato bugs back on the farm in Missouri. His family used to keep a bucket full of horse manure and water. They would use a tin can with holes punched in it to water their potatoes. According to John, this manure tea grew great potatoes and they never ever had a problem with potato bugs.

Weed control: John does not believe in spraying herbicides to control weeds. Instead, he has set up his garden in a way that allows him to keep the weeds under control early in the season with just his hoe. As the weeds get more aggressive in the summer he slowly lets most of them go. He believes the weeds provide shade and cooling that his late season vegetables seem to enjoy.

John's favorite tomatoes are Celebrity and Foster

John’s favorite tomatoes are Celebrity and Porter

Biggest challenge: Rabbits. His garden draws in rabbits and other four legged pests. John has done everything he can to keep furry critters out of his beds. Unfortunately, no matter how much wire or screen he puts up the animals still manage to get in.

Favorite amendment: Compost and “Barnyard” soil.

Do you preserve: Yes. He loves pickled beets so He grows and cans a bunch each year. He shared a jar with me and I can tell you, he really knows how to pickle a beet!

Favorite advice: John recommends that you constantly work to improve your soil. Even though his garden plot was once a chicken yard, he brought in an entire trailer load of “barnyard” waste and tilled it into his garden. Each year he adds more compost to his garden in late fall.

One of the more unusual things that John grows is comfrey.

I share my posts on The Simple Homestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by and check out all the amazing things these gardeners and homesteaders are doing!

Saving Lettuce Seed by Patty G. Leander

A feathery tuft of lettuce seed.

Gardeners love to save stuff. We save vegetable scraps for the compost, dried leaves for mulching, buckets for toting, rocks for edging, small containers for seed-starting and rainwater for irrigation. And we save seed.

Seed saving is a natural extension of vegetable gardening. It allows you to replenish your seed supply and share seed with other gardeners. In addition, seeds saved year after year from plants grown in a particular region or microclimate gradually acclimate to that location; each time you plant your saved seed the plants that develop produce seeds that are better adapted to your soil, climate and cultural conditions. Win-win!

’Crawford’ lettuce is a tasty romaine type with a striking appearance.

Several years ago, a gardener friend gave me a few seeds of ‘Crawford’ lettuce, a reseeding romaine variety that has been grown and shared in the San Antonio area since the 1980s. I love vegetable seed that has a person’s name attached to it because it also comes with a mix of horticultural knowledge, persistence, pride, faith and history. You don’t get to attach your name to a plant or a seed until you have a worthy specimen that has proved its merits again and again. And if you can trace it back far enough you can even discover a little bit about where it originated. ‘Crawford’ lettuce got its name from Marshall Crawford, a Life Member of the San Antonio Men’s Garden Club. Marshall got the seed from his father-in-law, John Wesley Van Houtan, a long-time gardener in Tulsa, OK. John was born in 1900 and his daughter, Irene (Marshall’s wife), remembers her dad always planting this lettuce in their backyard garden, saving seed from the best plants year after year. And today, thanks to Irene and Marshall Crawford, we can grow that same seed, enjoy the same lettuce and appreciate its history. And we can save the seed and pass it on.

As the days grow longer and warmer lettuce sends up a flower stalk.

Lettuce seed is easy to save because it is a self-pollinating annual, meaning the flowers that are produced at the end of the season have both male and female parts and pollinate themselves – no need to worry about isolating plants to prevent cross-pollination by wind or insects. However, seed-saving guidelines do recommend a distance of 10-12 feet between different varieties of lettuce to avoid chance crosses and maintain the true genetic traits of each distinct variety.

Yellow flowers give way to fluffy tufts of seeds.

Lettuce is a cool-season vegetable and as mild days of spring give way to summer heat, plants signal the end of their life cycle by sending up a flower stalk. The leaves become progressively smaller as they spiral up the stalk, and soon the top of the plant explodes in tiny, yellow flowers that give way to feathery tufts of seed. Like dandelions, these billowy tufts allow the seed to disperse by floating through the air. To collect the seeds before they all fly away, cut or tap the seed heads into a bag or other container and allow them to dry for a couple of weeks. Then shake the seed heads and/or rub them between your hands to loosen all the seeds (there will be many seeds!). To separate the seed from the chaff, press it through a screen or colander a few times. You can also use the wind or a small fan to blow the dried chaff into the air. Be careful because it doesn’t take much to blow the seed into the air as well. Once the seed is clean store it in a glass jar or paper envelope with a label and the date.

Cut the feathery seed heads from the plant and place them in a bucket, bag or bin to dry.

My lettuce plants held on longer than normal this summer so I have been collecting seed for various projects and for fall planting. If you would like to try ‘Crawford’ lettuce in your own garden seed can be purchased from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (www.southernexposure.com).

Shake or rub the seed heads with your hands; a screen or fan will help separate the chaff from the seed.

Saving seed from your own vegetable plants has many advantages: it is a frugal way to increase your seed stock, it contributes to the diversity of our seed supply and each generation of collected seed will be more acclimated to your unique growing environment. Plus observing and participating in the rhythm of nature is enlightening and downright satisfying!

’Crawford’ has its own bed in the Children’s Vegetable Garden at the San Antonio Botanical Garden.

I share my posts on The Simple Homestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by and check out all the amazing things these gardeners and homesteaders are doing!

Harvesting Wildflowers

While many fields and roadsides are still covered in cheerful, yellow Brown Eyed Susan’s, Mexican Hats and warm orange blanket flowers, the 2017 wildflower season is beginning to come to an end. The bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes have been gone for about a month now and most of the spring flowers are literally going to seed. I really hate to see the fading of these flowers because I know that as soon as they are gone our long hot summer begins.

Bluebonnets may get all the press, but they are definitely not the only beautiful wildflowers that we have in Texas!

If you love wildflowers, and you would like to have more of them at your house, now is a great time to get out and harvest their seeds. Seed harvesting is very easy and requires only three things-a sharp pair of garden shears, a paper bag and patience. While it is easy to clip seed heads or seed pods and drop them in your paper bag, they will not germinate if you cut them at the wrong time. The absolute key to success in gathering wildflower seeds is having the patience to wait until the seed heads, or seed pods, are completely dried out.

Bluebonnets are definitely the most loved wildflower in the state. Luckily, their seeds are about the easiest to harvest. Since bluebonnet seeds form in little pods, all you have to do is find pods that have not yet split open. Clip the pods with your shears and drop them into a paper sack. Nature will eventually force the pods to burst open (or “shatter”) releasing your seeds into the bag.

You are not really a gardener until you have more plants than you can care for or until you start stopping on the side of the highway to gather wildflower seeds!!!

Mexican Hat, Brown Eyed Susan, Blanket Flowers and Echinacea are all what we generically call “cone flowers”. Cone flowers layer their seeds in flat rows around a central conically shaped structure at the top of the stem. This creates a semi-circular mass of seeds. Cone flowers are ready to pick when all flower petals and pollen are gone and the seeds and top part of the stem are dry and brittle. When the seed head is in this condition simply stick your thumb nail into the seeds and make a “split”. Then use your thumb or fingers to separate the seeds from the cone.

Antelope Horn Milkweed are beautiful and a host for Monarch butterflies.

One of my favorite wildflowers is Antelope Horn Milkweed. This plant is a part of the genus Asclepias. Asclepias are milkweeds and milkweeds host Monarch butterflies. Like the bees, Monarch butterfly number are declining. Since I like Monarchs and I love milkweed flowers I have two reasons to collect the downy seeds of this plant. Asclepias seeds are stored in pods. When the pod breaks open long, downy wings that are attached to the seed catch a breeze and spread the seeds far and wide. If you want to gather the seed, watch closely and pick the dried pods (which look like antelope horns) right before, or just as soon as the pod opens.

The Brown Eyed Susan seed head on the left is not quite ready for harvest

After gathering your wildflower seeds, place them in a cool place in the house and wait until fall. Texas wild flower seeds should be put out in early October. You can put them out as late as early November but the plants really benefit if planted early. Many people recommend simply scattering wild flower seeds on top of the soil and then watering them in. This will work, but not very well. Most wild flowers have fairly low germination rates. In addition, flower seeds on top of the soil are eaten by many birds and mammals and rain washes away a bunch of them. Due to all of these factors, the best way to ensure that you get the most flowers for your money is to lightly till the area in which you are going to scatter the seed. Then scatter the seed and rake soil or mowed vegetation over the seeds. In my experience, lightly covered seed germinate at a much higher rate that those that were scattered on top of the ground.

This shot from Bruce Leander shows bluebonnet pods that are mature enough for harvest

Texas has incredibly beautiful wildflowers that bloom over a long season and require no maintenance. That’s why I collect their seeds and replant them on my property. In addition to making our little “native pasture” beautiful from March through June, the wild flower seeds that we collect and grow attract a wide variety of birds, butterflies, pollinators and mammals that we love to watch. If you want to get some wildflowers started on your place, now is harvest time. Keep your clippers and some bags in the car so you will be ready when you find some fading flowers on the side of the road.

I share my posts on The Simple Homestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by and check out all the amazing things these gardeners and homesteaders are doing!