Week 50 Tips for the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on December 19, 2015 by Jay White

This will be my last post of the year. Thank you all for following me this year as we did our weekly tips. I am going to take some downtime to spend with my family. If you are Catholic you know we are in the liturgical season of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation and waiting for the birth of our lord. I hope you receive many blessings during this joyous season. Sally and I are also celebrating our own personal Advent. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new grandson. Please keep all of us in your prayers!

If you get a break from all of the season’s activities, this week will be a great time to be in the garden. The weather is supposed to remain outstanding until the 28^th.

Grandson number 1 came for a visit last week. Can’t wait to meet grandson number 2 this month! Sorry for all of the maroon but one of his granddads went to the other place so we take every opportunity to makes sure he makes the right decision 16 years from now!!!

VEGETABLES/FRUITS

Plant Herbs – December is a great time to plant perennial herbs like rosemary, lavender, oregano and thyme. You can also plant from seed or transplant cilantro, parsley and dill
Plant peas – My grandmother swore you should plant English peas on the last day of the year. This will ensure a nice fresh harvest for Easter
Fruit Trees – Plant bare root fruit trees now and into January
Spray Fruit trees – I have a real problem with scale insects. Spray fruit trees with dormant oil now to reduce your Spring infestations

Continue to harvest and replant lettuce

ORNAMENTALS

Plant salvias – I love salvias and I grow several varieties. If you don’t have any get some and plant them now. This plants are beautiful and long blooming and they are just about pest free.
Plant iris – Plant iris corms now for an early Spring bloom
Flowers – Plant calendula, or pot marigolds from transplant. You can also plant old fashioned “pinks” (dianthus) at this time.
Move shrubs and trees – Most of our shrubs and trees are now dormant. This is the perfect time to move any that are not thriving or have over grown their space.

You can still plant all radishes in Zone 9. Try something different this season like diakon, rat tail or icicle radishes

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!

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!

Planting the 2012 Spring Potager

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Jay White

March 15 is the ultimate go date in the Zone 9 garden. At this point there is an almost 0% chance of a freeze. Because of this you can now plant just about everything. I have to admit, I am a little behind the curve this year. The rain, while much needed and much appreciated, has seemed to come at times that have interfered with my time off. Who would believe that after last’s year’s drought, I would be delayed in my planting by rain?

A "found" Cherokee rose that I propogated from cuttings now spills over the fence of my potager

As soon as it dries up a little, I am going to plant the potager. I love selecting and designing with the plants that are going to go into the potager. Each year I replant it gets a little easier. I learn which plants do well and I also figure out their size and scale when mature.

A lot of my outside beds are now filled with perennials. I have lots of salvia, roses and dianthus. I also have lots of herbs like rosemary and Mexican Mint Marigold (Tagetes lucida). There are also Egyptian Walking Onions, larkspur and hollyhocks. The only thing that will need to be pulled this spring is the garlic. In the open spaces in these outside beds I am going to plant several herbs. On a recent visit to Texas Specialty Cut Flowers, my wife bought several varieties of peppers. I have also grown some pimento peppers and Napoleon Sweet Bell peppers from seed. These will go toward the back of the beds with a few varieties of basil that we have saved from seed. Along the front, we will be planting parsley, oregano, lavender and thyme.

Salvia and daiseys in last years potager

The center beds are going to be all for vegetables. The look of the triangular beds will not change dramatically. As a “spiller”, I will replace the spinach and lettuce with Contender Bush beans. Beans are a pretty quick crop so when they fade around June 1, I will pull them up and replant with purple hulled black-eyed peas. For my “filler” I will divide the shallots that are there now and leave a few behind the beans so they can divide for replanting in the fall. Finally, I will plant Black From Tula heirloom tomatoes that I have grown from seed as my “thriller” on the trellises in the center of the beds.

The last bed in the potager is the center diamond shaped bed. Right now it is full of byzantine gladiolus. Once these bloom and fade I will plant a lovely red okra. The okra needs to be planted in June anyway so this work out well for me. I selected okra for this bed because it grows a pretty, nice, tall and structural plant. Okra is in the hibiscus family. Because of this, it produces very large and lovely flowers that look just like hibiscus.

The hibiscus like flowers of okra

Right now is a great time to be outside. The martins have returned, the bluebonnets are in full bloom and the fruit trees are in bud. Why not get outside this week and plant your garden? Below is a list of some of the veggies that you can plant now.

The Fall and Winter Potager

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Jay White

Lately, several people have been visiting my site from Pininterest.com and “pinning” shots of my garden on their pinboards. I am very flattered when this happens. If you are not yet familiar with Pintrest you should check it out. It is a collaborative site where you create “pin boards” of your favorite topics and then post images that you find on the web in them. Then, everyone on the internet can come to your site and see the things that you have found. It is really cool and you can quickly burn several hours if you are not careful.

Right now, my little garden has never been prettier. The folks from the Central Texas Gardener television program came to film it back in December. It was pretty then, but it is a lot prettier now. The veggies are doing great, but the flowers have really matured and look beautiful. Eventhough the potager is mostly about the vegetables, it is the flowers that make it interesting. So, for all of you Pinterest users that are fans of small, raised bed kitchen gardens, and my regular readers, here are a few pics of what is currently blooming in my little potager.

Panseys are always a great choice for Texans in the fall. I planted these around the first of Decemeber. If you look closely you will notice carrot foliage in the back. I do companion plantings in all of my beds. I have a mix of pink and purple panseys that share the center bed with a mix of carrots and vilolas (Johnny Jump Ups). They are all thriving and look very good mixed together.

My purple panseys.

Violas are one of my favorite winter flowers. The work great in pots where their pretty little flowers grow rapidly and spill over the side.

Calendula is often called pot marigolds. Not only is it pretty and a prolific bloomer, the petals are edible.

I love dianthus. They bloom well into the summer. Their common name is “pinks”. People think this is because they are mostly pink, but it is really because their petals look like they were cut with pinking shears. They come in all colors and all sizes now but I still prefer this old fashioned variety.

This year’s winner in the vegetable department is Comet Broccoli. This variety is incredible at putting on side shoots. I have two dozen of these scattered throughout the potager. Last Sunday, my wife and I harvested 8 produce bags full of side shoots.

Here is a picture of me with a lettuce harvest. Our lettuce has been outstanding this year.

One of my favorite things in the potager is not a plant at all. It is our bottle tree. While not technically in the potager (it is in the outside border), I still think of it as one of the main things that adds interest and charm to my little garden.

In addition to the flowers pictured above, I have byzantine gladiolous, crinums, daylilies, two varities of roses, lots of salvia, red poppies, holley hocks, crysanthimums, zinnias and larkspur. This ever changing pallette of colors and textures is what keeps me excited and watchful throughout the year.

The Fall Potager

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Jay White

Even though it is the middle of December, my little potager has never looked better. This is one of the reasons I love living in Texas. Because of the mild winters, I can literally garden year round. Everyone loves to complain about our hot summers. However, in my opinion, our winters more than make up for it. I heard last night that Houston averages 16 days per year below freezing. We are about 90 miles north of Houston but I am willing to bet we only have 20 to 24 days that are that cold. Due to this, with proper crop selection, some rotational planting and the willingness to occasionally cover things up, your fall garden can last right up to the spring planting. Below are several pics of the things that are currently growing in my potager:

I have three different varieties of broccoli growing in my garden.

I have 12 cauliflower growing. I planted the cauliflower in blocks of three two weeks apart. This way I don’t have to worry about eating 12 cauliflower in one week!

My wife and I love spinach. Because of this, two of our triangular beds are lined with it. In classic gardening form, one bed had a bout a 100% germination rate. In the other bed, the germination was very spotty. These little set backs are the things that keep me interested. I will spend hours trying to figure out why one bed performed perfectly and the other, identical bed, was somewhat of a disappointment.

I always grow lettuce in the fall. We eat a ton of it and it is so easy. I only grow leaf lettuce. Nothing against head lettuce, but once you harvest a head you have to replant and wait. With leaf lettuce you can continuously clip the leaves through out the season.

I love shallots. Their form is lovely in many applications in the potager. I grow these things year round. I never harvest them all. Many people call them dividing onions and there is a good reason. I recently left a clump in the ground for a year and there were almost 50 off shots on it. I have about a dozen heads of cabbage scattered around the potager. We are going to try our hand at homemade sauerkraut when the harvest comes in.

I don’t just have veggies growing in the potager. I have tons of flowers. These are baby larkspur. I also have lots of Victoria Salvia, poppies, calendula, mums, two different roses and hollyhocks. There are also a few byzantine glads and dianthus scattered around as well.