Tip of the Week – Week 22 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Jay White

I am getting a lot of questions about what to do about all of this rain. I really don’t know. According to the weather man we are experiencing “historical rain events”. This means that nobody really knows how all of this water is going to affect our yards and gardens. I am certain that if all of this moisture doesn’t kill our plants out right, we are going to have problems with fungus and mold and bugs once the sun comes out. The only advice I have right now is pray that all of these “historical rain events” end soon!

Planting time is slipping away. However you can still plant southern peas like crowder and black eyes.

Vegetables

Pick cucumbers regularly. With this much rain it is not unreasonable to expect to harvest every day
Make pickles with all of those cucumbers
You can still plant basil. If you have basil ready to harvest pick often and pick early in the morning when flavors are strongest
We are nearing the end of planting season but you can still plant sweet potatoes, lima beans, okra and southern peas. However, your planting window is closing.

Prune your climbing roses after they finish blooming

Ornamentals

Prune running roses after blooms fade. Train new growth onto or around structures
Feed roses and other blooming shrubs. Add compost monthly and blended fertilizers every six weeks
All of this rain is going to make fungal diseases a problem. Inspect roses regularly for black spot or powdery mildew. Treat with a fungicides easily found at your garden center.
All of this rain will leach nutrients from your potted plants. Now is a great time to replant, or at a minimum, fertilize them. I like to use a slow release fertilize like Osmocote so they are feed all summer long

Lawns

If you can stand it, do not mow until things dry out a bit, especially if you use a riding mower. The ground is so wet you can damage your lawn and your equipment.

This cool, wet weather has extended the time we have to plant small trees and shrubs.

Trees

Take advantage of the unusually cool temperatures and large amounts of water to plant small trees and shrubs. This extended planting season for trees and woody perennials is the only bright spot I can think of right now.
If you grow fruit trees in containers be sure and fertilize them regularly. Right now they have fruit so they need water and nutrients. Feed weekly with a liquid organic solution like compost tea. One of my favorite liquid organic applications is John’s Recipe from Lady Bug.

Tip of the Week – Week 21 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Jay White

It finally finished raining long enough for Sally and I to harvest the rest of the potatoes. While we were out there we also pulled our first cucumbers and picked a small mess of green beans. We just finished an amazing dinner of cucumbers and onions, green beans and an okra/tomato/sausage/smoked poblano concoction. Everything but the sausage came straight from the garden or the freezer. And that my friends is why I garden!

On another note, I recently read an article that said internet readers want their information quick and easy. With that in mind I am going to structure my weekly tips in a different format for a while. If you like it, or even if you don’t, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Vegetables

Pick Green Beans
Harvest and cure onions
Control aphids, thrips and scale insects with a strong blast of water. If this is not working spray entire plant with neem oil or a water/dish soap mixture
Harvest Potatoes-It has rained so much lately that it has washed much of the soil away from my potato plants. I literally have potatoes on top of the ground. This will cause two problems. First, the harvest is going to be a muddy mess. No way around this. I will have to dig them and then go directly to the hose for a good wash. I do not normally recommend washing your potatoes. When potatoes come out of the ground their skins are soft and can be damaged by washing. Damaged skins let in fungus that will cause the potatoes to rot during storage. That is why we cure them before we store them. To cure potatoes we need to let them dry in the hot sun for a few hours. All of this rain is causing an unusual lack of sunshine. Because of this I will have to figure out a way to move the potatoes into the garage for curing. This is a big problem for me because my garage is already covered with the onions that I had to cure inside because of the rain.

Ornamentals

Pull weeds while the ground is soft. Throw them in the compost pile if they have not set seed
Dead head zinnias and marigolds
Plant zinnias (Benary’s Giant are my favorites) and marigolds from seed
Plant Sunflowers-There are about a million different varieties of sunflowers and I grow several of them (my favorite is a double called “Teddy Bear” that grows on three to four foot tall stalks and produces gorgeous flowers). For the next couple of months I will plant more seeds every other week. This “two week planting schedule” will ensure that Sally and I have an ample supply of fresh cuts for our home right up to the first frost.
Plant Gomphrena (Bachelor’s Buttons) – I have two places in my yard where I grow gomphrena (Bachelor’s Buttons). Gomphrena is a great plant for our area because it can really take the heat and it will keep flowers until the first frost. Even though it is an annual it is a great self-seeder and will come back on its own year after year. That is, it will come back year after year as long as you don’t have free ranging chickens that scratch up all of the seedlings in your beds. That is what has happened at my house. Thanks to my chickens I currently have no gomphrena. So this weekend I will be replanting. Many of our reseeders (like gomphrena, zinnia, poppies and marigolds) can be planted by running a rake over and area and then putting the seeds out in a broadcast manner. Once the seeds are down, run the rake across the soil to lightly cover the seeds. Finally, gently water the area. Keep the soil moist until the little plants develop their first set of real leaves.

Lawns

Do not fertilize until things dry out. Nitrogen, moisture and cool temps encourage brown spot

I share my posts on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. It has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 20 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Jay White

When it rains it pours! In addition to almost nonstop rain, bad luck has been falling down on me in waves! Last week my transmission went out, a snake ate my two baby chicks, my son’s dog passed away and two of our daughters barely dodged tornadoes! Things have to get better! Hopefully there is some sunshine right around the corner that will lift the clouds that seem to have settled over the gardens and gardeners of this part of Texas!

I am not normally a snake killer. however, this guy or gal ate my two baby barred rock chicks. I am afraid this is the beginning of a series of snake problems in the coop!

Vegetables

As Patty’s latest article reminds us (Stewart’s Zeebest Okra), now is a great time to plant okra. Zeebest is Patty’s favorite because it was developed by her friends and garden mentors. While not an “heirloom” yet it soon will be. When you are planning your garden this fall why not include some heirlooms in your seed picks. Many of these heirlooms taste better and produce better than the hybrids that are sold in the big boxes and garden centers. Each heirloom has a story. Someone bred it, or saved it and has grown it for years – each one has a story. One of my favorite heirlooms is a shallot called “Gumbo Onions”. A family from Louisiana has been growing these tasty and productive green onions for over 100 years. It makes me feel really good to know that I am doing my part to keep this plant, which is not available in the trade, going for future generations.

Here are the artichokes I mentioned in last week’s post. Very excited about our first harvest. Photo by Sally White.

Ornamentals

My yard is beautiful right now. Everything is blooming, the grass is green and there is fruit on the trees! With all of this rain, mowing and weeding will be the things that keep me outside once the rain stops. Before you weed I really suggest you go and pick up some mulch. Mulch will greatly reduce the number of weeds that sprout. Weeding is not my favorite garden chore so anything that reduces weeds is a no brainer for me.

All of this rain has my yard and vegetable garden looking good. Here you can see my heirloom elephant garlic in full bloom.

Yards

With all of this rain and low temperatures, brown patch is going to become a problem in your St. Augustine. Unless it is really bad it will correct itself once things dry out. Help it out a little by laying off the fertilizer for a while. Too much nitrogen acerbates the problems.

I have hundreds of daylilies on my property. This is a pretty one that was bred by a friend in the DFW area

Trees

Some of my peaches are beginning to show color. This is already bringing in the birds. If you have problems with birds getting you fruit, this weekend will be a good time to cover them in nets.

I share my posts on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. It has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 19 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Jay White

Yesterday I heard a meteorologist say that we have a two thirds greater chance of having a cooler and wetter summer than normal. While that is great news it is still Texas and it is still going to get HOT out there. I bring this up because even though May is the beginning of harvest time, it is also the first month where high temps begin to be a problem. Each year I pay hundreds of dollars to have pre-cancerous spots burned off and I always manage to dehydrate myself. Patty Leander has a great article full of tips that will help you stay cool and safe in the garden this year. Click here to read her tips.

Vegetables

While there is still time to plant lima (butter) beans, southern peas, gourds, winter squash and sweet potatoes, May is really the beginning of harvest time.

I am excited to say that we will soon be harvesting artichokes for the first time. We will also start picking green beans soon. If you don’t already have green beans you will in the next week or so. Your green beans should produce until temps start to stay in the 90s. Harvest often for best yields. Summer squash should soon be on your plate as well. Again, pick it early and pick often.

In my opinion, the big harvests of the month are potatoes and onions. My potatoes still have a couple of weeks to go but my onion tops are beginning to fall over. My onions have been in the ground since December and I am ready to get them up. Not only do I need the space for my purple hulls, I truly love onions. If you have a large harvest, be sure to cure, or dry them before you store them. Patty and I both have articles on how to properly harvest and care for your bulbs. Check them both out.

Patty’s article – Harvesting and Curing Onions

My article: How to Harvest and Cure Onions

Ornamentals

Last week I wrote about how much joy I get from my daylilies. While that is true, they are not the only thing blooming right now. All of my salvias have started blooming. I also have datura, dianthus, crinums, yarrow and petunias that are in full bloom. All of these flowers are filling my yard with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Keep flowering plants well watered to extend bloom time. Also dead head often to encourage re-bloom.

If you grew poppies this spring, they should just about be ready for you to harvest the seeds. I collect my poppy seeds each year. Because of this I have been able to spread them all over my property. Read more about collecting your own poppy seeds by clicking this link: Remembering our Veterans with Poppies.

I share my posts on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. It has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 18 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Jay White

Last week I did a post about my favorite gardening tools. I did not realize I should have added rubber boots and a raincoat to the list! Can you believe all of this rain? I am thankful for the rain but it makes it very hard on us that can really only garden on the weekend. Don’t want to sound like I am complaining though. All of these spring rains gave us a great wildflower year and my yard has never been prettier. Plus I will soon start harvesting from a vegetable garden that has received absolutely zero supplemental water.

If you are not already making your sweet potato slips you are quickly running out of time.

Vegetables

By now most of our spring and summer veggies are in the ground. This makes the early part of May a time of fertilizing and weeding. I have been making compost tea and using it to fertilize my tomatoes. You can do that or continue adding finished compost to your beds once a month.

I have a long time reader named Donna that is currently growing her own sweet potato slips. If you want to grow sweet potatoes you need to get busy if you are going to grow your own slips. July 4^th is about as late as you can plant them and still get a respectable harvest in the fall. Last year I did an experiment with sweet potatoes. I wanted to see if there was a benefit to growing them from slips or if they would do fine if they were grown like Irish potatoes. Turns out both methods yielded about the same. However, in my opinion, growing them like Irish potatoes was a very easy, and sensible way to use up all of our sweet potatoes that were too small to cook or were sprouting in storage.

My Hyperion daylilies were passed to us by Sally’s grandmother. These tough and reliable plants provide me a solid month of blooms each May.

Ornamentals

My wife and I have hundreds of yellow Hyperion Daylilies scattered throughout most of the beds on our property. I absolutely love these plants for two reasons. First, they came from my wife’s grandmother. Nana grew them for years and then after she passed we found a clump on her ranch. We dug half of the clump up and brought it home. That was eight years ago. We have now turned that one clump into more than 150 feet of lovely borders that bloom none stop during the month of May. And there is the second reason I love them. Daylilies are beautiful, reliable and prolific! If you don’t have any, I really suggest you give them a try.

Lawns

Thanks to all of this rain most of our lawns are looking pretty good. If you have not already fertilized it is time. Regardless of whether you use chemical or organic fertilizers, put them out about every five to six weeks. Also, try setting your mower and little high and mow more frequently. This, combined with the fertilization, will create a thick, healthy lawn that chokes out weeds.

Last year a late freeze “thinned” our peaches. The resulting fruits were the biggest and sweetest we ever harvested.

Trees

When putting out the fertilizer don’t forget your trees. They are putting on new growth right now and they will thank you for a good feeding. Apply fertilizer under the entire canopy with the heaviest application at the drip-line. The tree’s most active and “absorbtive” roots grow at the drip line.

My peach and plum trees are currently covered in fruit. If you want bigger, sweeter fruit remove about ¼ to 1/3 of the immature fruit from the trees. Last year a late freeze did this for me. We had the biggest and sweetest peaches ever because of this accidental thinning.

I share my posts on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. It has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 17 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Jay White

Happy Earth Day! 45 years ago Senator Gaylord Nelson decided to raise consciousness about the environment after witnessing a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. His efforts started the modern environmental movement and led to a worldwide celebration and network dedicated to raising consciousness about a wide array of problems and issues facing our planet.

As a gardener, you know that April is the perfect time to celebrate the earth. Everything is blooming and growing. Unfortunately everything doesn’t just mean flowers and fruits. No, in April, everything is growing – including weeds and bugs! Because of this I thought I would take this opportunity to do something a little different with the weekly tip. Since we will all be spending a whole lot of time and effort battling pests over the next couple of months I thought I would tell you about my two favorite pest control tools. Before I start I would like to say that I get nothing for promoting these products. After much trial and error I have found these two tools to be invaluable and I just want to share them with you.

CobraHead

My most used and most loved garden tool is the CobraHead Weeder & Cultivator. This curved piece of steel with a little football shaped head goes with me every time I go into the garden. After trying many, many different tools throughout the years, I have found this inexpensive tool works best for me.

As the name says, this little tool does it all. I use it to weed and I use it to plant. Its sleek shape gives me enough leverage to pry up crab grass or scrape out Bermuda runners. It also allows me to quickly dig holes for transplants or dig a furrow for planting seeds in my black clay soil. I get all of this functionality out of a tool that only costs $25. What a deal!

MITEYFINE Mister

While the CobraHead helps keep my weeds at bay, the MITEYFINE Mister helps me wash my bug problems away. The MITEYFINE Mister is an ingeniously simple tool that does a great job keeping aphids, spider mites and even some caterpillars at bay.

Co-blogger Patty Leander introduced me to the MITEYFINE. Her brother is an engineer and he is the inventor of this organic pest control tool. The MITEYFINE is a wand that attaches to your hose. The tip at the end is specifically designed for pest control. It applies just enough pressure to knock off the bugs without damaging the plant. Plus, it uses no chemicals, which is really important to me.

The MITEY fine comes in two lengths – 36” and 48”. The extra ergonomic handle assembly adds 10” to the overall length but makes the wand much easier to handle. Patty likes the short one and I have the longer one. This tool has an all metal construction so it will help you kill scale insects for a very long time.

I share my posts on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. It has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 16 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Jay White

Spring is definitely in the air! Many of my roses are in full bloom and one of my chickens just hatched three new baby chicks! This is going to be a great weekend to be outside. The sun is out, temperatures are mild and all of this rain should make those beds a joy to work in.

Vegetables

The middle of April is a great time to plant our heat loving vegetables from seed. Patty Leander just did a great post on growing Butterbeans (Lima Beans). In addition to Butterbeans and Southern peas (black eyes and crowder), this weekend is a great time to plant vining crops like cantaloupe, water melons and gourds. It is also a great time to get your okra in the ground.

Quick note on vining crops. They are water hogs! If you give them as much water as they need by watering overhead you are setting yourself up for the best crop of uncontrollable weeds you have ever seen. Save water and reduce your weed problems by setting up some type of drip system for your watermelons, cantaloupes and gourds.

Ornamentals

Most of my roses are truly beautiful right now. There really is not much in this world that is prettier than a rose bush in full bloom. If you have a rose (or other woody shrub) that you would like to make more of, now is the time to do it. I have found that people are somewhat intimidated by the thought of propagation. Don’t be. Most plants are very tough and adaptable. Making a new one from a cutting is pretty easy once you know a few tips.

If you would like to try your hand at propagation, read my article “Propogating Antique Roses”. It has all the tips you need to save a few bucks by creating your own plants from cuttings.

Lawns

Right now the conditions are perfect for the formation of brown patch in St. Augustine. Brown patch is a fungal disease that forms when rainfall is high and temps or low. It is also more come in lawns that are over fertilized. Brown patch is not fatal. Generally, you can control it by cutting back on watering and fertilization. If it spreads to an area larger than a trash can lid you may want to apply one of several granular fungicides that are designed for control.

If your brown patch does not go away as the temperatures rise you may have Take All Patch. This is another fungal disease that is becoming more common. Unlike brown patch, take all patch is fatal. While there are fungicides for control, this disease is hard to beat once it is established. If you get Take All, you may want to consider replacing your water hungry St Augustine with Bermuda or zoysia. Both require less water and are bothered by fewer pests.

I share my posts on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. It has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 15 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Jay White

I hope you have your garden in shape because, according to the weather forecast, this weekend is going to be a wash-out. They are predicting at least 2” of rain at my house from Friday through Sunday. There is also a 90% chance of rain on Monday. Oh well, we really do need the rain, especially my friends in Austin. Speaking of Austin, if you are in the area why not come out to Mayfield Park this Saturday? I will be discussing great native and low water adapted plants to bring in pollinators to your garden at the annual Trowel and Error Gardening Symposium. It starts at 9:00. They have three speakers, a plant sale and door prizes. Plus, it really is a beautiful place with lots of peacocks!

Vegetables

This past week I finally got my green beans in. I am way late this year. If you have not planted your beans, squash and cucumbers you are running out of time. Temperatures in the 90s cause pollen grains to burst. Because of this, vegetables planted from seed may still have time to grow and produce some. However your production will be limited to fruit that was pollinated (or set) before the high heat arrived.

It is not too late for transplants. You still have time to put in squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and pepper transplants. If you plant large transplants and give them adequate moisture and nutrition you should still get respectable harvests in June and early July.

If you have sweet potato slips start planting them this week. If you don’t have slips, cut up some sweet potatoes and plant them just like Irish potatoes. Production will be slightly delayed but they will grow and continue to produce all the way through the fall. It is also time to plant southern peas from seed. Both black eyed and crowder peas do well in our hot summers.

You are quickly running out of time to plant beans, squash and cucumbers from seed

Ornamentals

I have an article about caladiums coming out in Texas Gardener next month. I love caladiums and I plant lots of them. Now is the time to get them in the ground. There are two types of caladiums. Fancy Leafed varieties produce large, heart shaped leaves and do best in shade. Strap Leafed varieties produce slightly smaller leaves. However, they take sun better and work well in containers. Plant your bulbs with about an inch of soil over them in well-draining soil.

Weeds are beginning to be a problem in our beds. Pull and add more mulch to control them. The mulch will also regulate the soils temperatures in your bed which will lead to prolonged blooms for your annual flowers.

Caladiums are great plants for the shadier parts of your yard. Photo used with permission from Classic Caladiums

Lawns

Last week I talked about applying commercial fertilizer to your lawns. This week I want to remind you that you can add compost to your lawn at all time. You really cannot over do it with organic products. If you regularly add compost, and leave your grass clippings in place after mowing, you can grow grass that is just as healthy and pretty as the lawns grown with chemical fertilizers. You can also apply Corn Glutten Meal to the yard now. This natural pre-emergent herbicide will stop broad leafs like dandelion and thistle. We are getting to the end of the time where CGM will be effective. However, even if it doesn’t kill any weeds it adds a nice shot of natural nitrogen to the soil.

I share my posts on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. It has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 14 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Jay White

This Sunday my two favorite things cross – the Liturgical Calendar and the Planting Calendar. Over the next few days the traditions of my church will remind me of the truly important things in life – sacrifice, forgiveness and the power of resurrective love.

While I most intensely feel the presence of God during this time of year, I most often EXPERIENCE him outside the walls of the church. If you are not aware of the mystery and wonder of your creator right now then you are not trying. Where I live he has once again filled me with awe and wonder by painting our yards, fields and roadways blue. Bluebonnet season is now fully underway in Washington County. This weekend, after you finish your ham and pea salad, why not take a drive in the country and experience the majesty of His creation.

My gumbo onions are truly beautiful when they flower.

Vegetables

As I write this every muscle in my body aches. However, I actually enjoy this feeling because it reminds me (every time I move) that I finally got my spring garden planted!!!! Spring rains made my clay soil too wet to work the previous two weekends. This past weekend was perfect. My wife and I cleaned out our left over brassicas and all of our spring weeds and planted five varieties of tomatoes (from the best transplants I have ever grown). This year I am growing Big Boy, which is my favorite large slicing tomato but does have some problems with cracking. Celebrity is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE hybrid. Medium sized with great flavor and not too much pulp. My wife loves to make tomato sauce and paste. Because of this we always grow heirloom “La Roma”. I am trying a new heirloom variety this year called “Stupice”. Supposedly this small, flavorful tomato originated in the Czech Republic. I am growing it because my wife is Czech and because it is supposed to be a very productive and great tasting small tomato. Finally, I planted “Black From Tula”. This is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE heirloom tomato. I love it’s rich, complex and somehow smokey flavor. While it is an heirloom that makes a HUGE bush, it produces fairly well for me.

To control blossom end rot, heavily mulch your tomatoes and water regularly. Blossom end rot is caused by uneven moisture affecting the plants ability to take up and use calcium. I don’t care what Facebook says, adding your wife’s calcium tablets to your planting holes will not stop end rot. The calcium in those pills is not available to the plant. Even if it was available, uneven watering would still prevent the plant from taking it up. Learn to water properly.

I love irises and I several that are blooming around around my yard.

Ornamentals

While I love growing ornamental plants in my landscape, my favorite thing is cutting their blooms and foliage to make arrangements for the inside of the house. Things are finally beginning to bloom well enough to make fresh cuts. This week I will be bringing in iris, roses, rosemary (for filler), dianthus, coral honeysuckle and onion blooms. To keep your flowers producing fertilize with finished compost every couple of weeks. If using blended fertilizer use those with good Phosphorous and Potassium. These two nutrients encourage blooming and flower set.

Our front yard is truly beautiful right now.

Lawns

OK yardeners, it now time for you. The general rule about fertilizer is “apply three weeks after the grass greens”. For my Zone 9 yard this is now. As a general rule use a 3-1-2 (15-5-10 or 21-7-14, etc.) fertilizer at the rate of one pound per thousand square feet about every eight weeks. Set mowers to 3” for sunny yards and 3 ½” to 4” for shady yards. The lower the setting the more frequently you will need to mow. Water your lawns only when they show stress. A good indicator is footprints. If you walk through and the grass pops back up, don’t water. If the foot prints remain then water the lawn to a depth of six inches. Even in the hottest part of summer you can get by watering every five or six days.

Now back to those bluebonnets. If you have them in your yard (and you want them next year) do not mow them until their foliage dies. Also do not fertilize the area they are in. Bluebonnets, and many other wildflowers, actually prefer marginal soil. If you improve your soil too much the wildflowers will move someplace else.

I share my posts on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. It has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 13 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Jay White

Finally!!!! Great gardening weather is predicted for this weekend. If you have been able to plant you should have things sprouting. If you haven’t you really need to get those squash, cucumbers, beans and tomatoes in the ground.

Right now aphids and other pests are beginning to hatch. While I despise them, I have a bigger, and much cuter pest problem to deal with

Vegetables

If you were lucky enough to get your seeds and plants in the ground you are already ahead of the game. Once your little plants are past the cotyledon size you can begin to fertilize. You can side dress with finished compost on a bi-weekly basis. I love using compost in its dry form. However, I believe in the early part of the growing season compost is most effective when used as a drench (compost tea). There are a million different ways to make compost tea. To me, the easiest way is add a shovel full of finished compost to a five gallon bucket and fill with water. Also add a cup of molasses (to feed the microbes) and stir daily (or add an aerator to it) for a week to ten days. Strain the finished mixture into your sprayer. To apply, spray your plants weekly until the mixture begins to drip off of their leaves.

Aphids are beginning to hatch and they will attack just about every plant in your garden. Some research shows that plants treated with compost tea actually repel these pests.

Now is the time to get serious about feeding your onions. As the temperatures rise their growth will increase rapidly. If you are growing your onions organically, top dress your rows with a high quality, high nitrogen compost (like manures) every month. If you are fertilizing your onions top dress the soil with ½ cup of fertilizer (ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) for alkaline soils and calcium nitrate (15.5-0-0) for acidic soils ) for every ten feet of row. Apply every month until you see the soil beginning to be pushed back by the bulb.

If you are like me you have a tendency to over plant. Through the years I have learned this is a bad idea. Plants that are too close together produce less and they produce later. Plus, plants that are too close together are a magnet for all sorts of pests. So, if you have already planted, get out there and thin your plantings. If you are going to plant this weekend try and follow the recommended spacing listed on the seed packets.

Control aphids with a strong blast of water or horticultural oils like neem and orange.

Now let’s talk about pests. If you have plants that are up, then you probably have aphids that are hatching just in time to feast on them. I got a question about aphids on my Facebook page from Melinda Stanton. Melinda asked if aphid eggs over winter in the soil. Well, the answer is YES!!! Aphid eggs over winter in the litter around your plants. They are horrible little pests. If you can start spraying them now with a good blast of the hose it will help prevent them from getting out of control. I use a tool called the Mitey Fine mister to spray mine. If this doesn’t work I suggest trying Neem oil. Neem is an organic horticultural oil that coats them in oil and basically suffocates them. It is more expensive than water but seems to work very well. I use it on all of my plants that have an aphid or scale problem, even my crepe myrtles. Also, my buddy Bart Brechter (curator of gardens at Bayou Bend) swears by orange oil. Exact same concept as the neem but it smells a lot better!

Herbs

My wife loves fresh herbs. She loves cooking with them and she uses them to make incredible teas. I like eating her cooking and drinking her teas but that is not why I love growing herbs. Herbs are easy to grow and most are very ornamental. I absolutely love walking through my garden and crushing a mint leaf or brushing up against my rosemary. Right now is the perfect time to plant herbs. Some of my favorites are spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm, rosemary, chives, basil, thyme and oregano. My ABSOLUTE fave is Mexican Mint Marigold. This plant is almost bullet proof. It takes heat and drought and resists pests. Plus it makes a lovely little 18” tall rounded mound that gets covered in little yellow flowers in the fall. It also has a great anise smell and taste. I use this in many of my flower beds and I truly love it.

Ornamentals

COLOR is the word for the week. Plant tons of marigolds now. It is still not too late for seed but you will get faster blooms from transplants. I also love petunias and the garden centers are full of them. Those in the garden centers are all fine but they are all hybrids. Why not try and get a start of the good old fashioned petunia. It is a purple-y magenta and the blooms are smaller. However, it is a good reseeder. If you can find this variety and get it going you will have it forever.

Poppies are my favorite spring flower. Here are some of my red singles in the potager.

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