Tag Archives: Gardening

Linnaeus Teaching Garden

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A statue of Carl Linneaus, the father of botany and the namesake of the Linneaus Teaching Garden

The Linneaus Teaching Garden in Tulsa is an incredibly beautiful place that was a gift to the citizens of Tulsa by the citizens of Tulsa.  The garden is the vision of a true Master of Horticulture named Barry Fugatt.   Mr. Fugatt is the resident horticulturist at the Tulsa Garden Center.  In 2005 he approached the director with a plan to create a garden that would educate the people of Tulsa on the horticultural possibilities for their own yards and gardens. 

A lovely bed as you approach the teaching center

Over the rest of 2005 and 2006, 3000 people contributed the $800,000 needed to get this project off the ground.  With funding secured, the city authorized the use of 1.5 acres in Woodward Park to be used as the home of what was to become the Linneaus Teaching Garden.  Industry sponsors donated the material and labor to build the structures and hardscapes.  This trend of giving has continued and the garden has now thrived for five years without the need to take any public money.

Summer phlox and a bumble bee

The center is staffed by a cadre of trained volunteers.  To work here, you must complete a 12 week course that covers everything from plant taxonomy to landscape design.  Once the course is complete, the volunteers agree to provide at least 40 hours of their time to the garden each calendar year.

In the yupneck’s humble opinion, this type of garden is needed in every city in America.  The gardens are beautiful and they are filled with plants that grow well in Tulsa.  There is no sales pitch.  If you want to beautify your yard or start a vegetable garden, then all you have to do is stroll around this 1.5 acre oasis.  Every planting is clearly marked and selected soley because it does well in the Tulsa area.  If you want to know more about the plants or the methods that have caught your eye, then you can ask any of the very friendly and well trained staff for the additional info.

Lovely water feature

The Linneas is not just about ornamentals.  The vegetable garden was just as lovely as the beds.  I loved the extensive use of containers.  As more and more urban dwellers catch the gardening bug, container gardening is going to become a much more common way of growing veggies.  Containers are easy to get started and easy to maintain.  In fact, a container filled with the appropriate media (soil) will generally have fewer weeds, require no chemical fertilization and use much less water than a traditional, in the ground, row garden.  One complaint I have often heard people make about container gardens is that they cannot grow big vegetables like corn.  The Linneaus has obviously disproved this urban legend.

I have never seen corn grown in a container. Very interesting. I also liked seeing the whiskey barrels reused as very attractive container gardens.

With the feel of a public garden and a mission of education, this garden is an incredibly rare and valuable resource for the gardeners of Tulsa.  The fact that it is completely funded by private donations and staffed by people that are as passionate about horticulture as I am makes me love it even more.  I wish I had something like this in my neck of the woods.

Pansies in the middle of June! I don't think were in Zone 9 any more!

The Gardens of the Philbrook

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Mrs. Yupneck entering Villa Philbrook. If you think the front is impressive, wait until you see the backyard!

This past weekend, the yupneck and his lovely wife took a much-needed break.   We headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma for a little R&R.  If you have never been to Tulsa, you should make a goal to go.  I have been several times now and each time I discover something more amazing than I did the time before.  This city is truly a gem.  With a population of approximately 250K, it is the perfect size to provide you with all of the big city amenities while maintaining the feel of a small town.

Tulsa used to be the oil/energy capital of America long before Houston took the title from them.  Because of this, there is still a very large oil and gas presence (and money) in the area.  All of that oil money has blessed Tulsa with an incredible collection of Art Deco buildings and a thriving arts culture.  However, I did not come to see buildings or art.  I came to see plants.  And boy am I glad I did.  Horticulturally, Tulsa is a beautiful city.  It is dotted with lovely parks, beautiful public gardens and absolutely fabulous neighborhoods.  Those folks in Tulsa evidently love their plants as much as the yupneck.  I saw so much beautiful stuff that I cannot include it all in a single post.  So, here is the first installment of the Great Tulsa Escape Weekend.

The "backyard" of Villa Philbrook

Our first stop was the Philbrook Museum of Art.  This Italian Renaissance Mansion was a gift to the city of Tulsa from Waite Phillips.  The mansion is spectacular and the art amazing.  However, it was the 23 landscaped acres surrounding the property that really got me going. 

After passing through the central gallery, you quickly come to the center of the museum.  It is from here that you get your first view of “the backyard”.  To say it is impressive is a huge understatement.  The Italianate Garden was designed and installed with the house in the 1920s. 

One thing I have begun to notice as I have toured gardens and landscapes this summer is how simple the plantings are.  Mass and repetition are two of the founding concepts of landscape design; and they have been used exquisitively in this garden.  Above, notice that the majority of the picture is made up of just three plants: boxwood, grass, and jasmine.  These three elements are strikingly combined in the parterre.

A mass planting of hardy hibiscus makes a lovely hedge at the Philbrook

As you walk down the hill, you leave a formal parterre and enter the water garden.  While water is a constant theme of the entire garden, the pond in the lower garden is the focus.  Here plantings were selected to give a more “wild” or natural appearance.

Lovely combination of variegated miscanthus and barberry

 The lower garden is flanked by a very lovely structure called “The Lover’s Chapel”

The Lover's Chapel

I was amazed by all of the plants that they can grow in Tulsa that i just have had very little to no luck with.  Lots of hydrangea.  Here is a very beautiful mas of oak leaf hydrangea

Oak Leaf Hydrangea and Bears Britches

There were a few things growing at Philbrook that I have in my garden.  Below is a picture of a couple of things that are very common in our part of the world.

Castor bean and purple heart

 I really want a pond in my own garden.  The Philbrook’s ponds only made me want one more.

Koi and water lilies at the Philbrook

And finally, I will leave you with a view of Villa Philbrook looking up from the lower garden.

The Potato Box Experiment Is A Complete Failure

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This is what failure looks like. Out of two large potato boxes, this is all I got.

Well, all of the foliage of the potatoes in my potato box died so I decided to take the boxes apart and harvest my 200 lbs of potatoes.   Imagine my shock when I took the sides down from the box growing the red La Soda’s and found — NOTHING!!!  That is right, nothing.  Not a single little potato.  So, much discouraged, I proceeded to take apart the box containing the white Keenebec’s.  I was relieved to discover that this box was not a total failure.  I found one tiny little potato, smaller than a ping pong ball.  So, I am calling both boxes failures. 

I don’t yet know what went wrong.  I followed the instructions that I found on the web very carefully.  I spent quite a bit of time, effort and money on this and it was a complete and total disaster.  I will be doing some research to see if I can get to the bottom of this mystery.

Everything looked so good in April. I really cannot figure out what went wrong.

I just cannot yet accept that this is a bad method for growing potatoes.  There are just too many magazine articles and web posts about it for it to be an unsound method.  Right now, I am going to write this off to a bad year.  My friend Cynthia Mueller tried to grow several varieies of potatoes in her BCS garden and she had dismal luck as well.  As I have talked to other gardeners I have found that this was a hit and miss year for potatoes in general.  Some folks did well, but many folks that I have talked to have not had any luck either.

I am not a quitter.  I will try this experiment again in the fall. Fall potatoes are a bit trickier than spring potatoes but I am going to try nonetheless.

Save Money On Perennials Now!

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Lovely vitex that I got for $17 at Wal-Mart's summer close out. This tree was marked $69.99. It was very root bound so I did a lot of root spreading and trimming. Also trimmed back the top. You can see, it was well worth the $17 and the extra effort.

This may sound funny, but I hate buying plants.  You see, I am cheap and plants are expensive.  Even though I love getting new plants for the garden, I just cannot bring myself to pay what most nurseries want for their plants.  Don’t get me wrong.  I know a lot about the horticultural world and I know very well how much it costs to grow, market and ship a plant.  The horticultural world has done a great job at keeping the prices for their products down.  In fact, when you adjust for inflation, there has been no real growth in the price of bedding plants in the last ten years.  However, I still hate paying full price.  So, I don’t.  I am constantly on the look-out for ways to increase my garden without depleting my checking account. 

A $5 ornamental plum. My wife got two of these at Wal-mart during their end of season.

In the last month, I have purchased a lovely 7’ foot tall, three trunked Vitex (Vitex agnus-castus), two 7’ ornamental plum trees (Prunus cerasifera), two huge Southern wax myrtles (Myrica cerifera), three one gallon pots of variegated New Zealand flax (Phormium “Rainbow Queen”), three one gallon Purple Fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum “Rubrum”) and a one gallon Broom plant (Genista racemosa).  While the list may or may not be impressive to you, what I paid for it should be.  I got all of these plants from the big boxes and I paid just $56!  That is not a typo.  I got five large trees and several large bedding plants for just $56.  That averages out to just $5.10 per plant.  How can that be?

I wish I could say that I was a master negotiator and I talked the owners of Wal-Mart and Lowe’s into selling me these fabulous plants for this ridiculously low price.  However, that would be a lie.  What really happened is this: Lowe’s and Wal-Mart are closing out their overstock from their spring buying.  I just happened to be in the stores when this was happening.

Plants I bought this weekend at the Lowe's summer close out. Total cost of plants shown: $10.34

Post season close outs happen twice a year at every nursery in America.  If you want to get the good deals, then you need to pay attention to when the stores receive their new stock — and then buy at another time.  In most of Texas, spring stock usually arrives around late February or early March and the fall shipments start coming by late August.  Armed with this knowledge, you can save a lot of money by purchasing your plants off peak. 

If you buy off-season, you need to keep a few things in mind.  First, you can realistically only buy perennials off-season.  Annuals (which usually mean Spring and Fall color) are only good for a short season.  It will not do you any good to buy pansies in July or mums in January.  However, if you want a good deal on loropetalum or New Zealand flax, then you can buy and plant them anytime of the year.  With a little care, you can plant perennials after their off-peak selling season and they will become beautiful, well established plantings in next year’s garden.

Look at the size of that Southern Wax Myrtle. I got two of these for $10 each.

If you buy off-season, you will have limited availability.  If there is a particular plant that you want and it absolutely has to be that plant, then you probably shouldn’t gamble that it will still be there at the end of the season.  Go ahead and buy it.  I have done it and there is no shame in paying retail.  However, if you garden more by form and color than by specific plant, there is a good chance you will find many things left in the nursery at the end of the season that will work somewhere in your garden.

One of my beds has wound up with a lot of purples in it: fall asters, liatrus and castor bean.  So I needed some yellow to compliment and break up all of that purple.  That is why I bought the variegated New Zealand flax.  The light green and yellow foliage and the upright, grass like form will be a great contrast to the mounding asters and the spiky liatrus.  This flax was $7.99 in March.  I got it $2 in June.

Another problem with off-season plants is the fact that they have been in the pot for so long.  When you remove these plants from their pot, many will be completely root bound.  That is no problem to the experienced gardener.  If you buy a root bound plant, simply unwind what you can and trim off the rest.  The plant will actually thank you for this.  Also remember that the top of the plant should be in balance with the bottom.  If you cut many of the roots you will need to prune the top as well.

Finally, if you buy off-season you are going to have to give these plants a little extra TLC once they are planted.  Once they are in the ground, make sure they receive enough water to keep them from going into stress.  If you give them a little extra care, they will grow and thrive just like the plants that your neighbors bought in season and paid full retail for.

There are many, many beautiful things to buy in the nursery.  I wish I could afford them all.  Since I can’t, I buy what I can off-season.  If you are willing to wait, are flexible in your design and willing to give your off-season purchases a little extra TLC then you can have a very full and beautiful garden that didn’t drain your bank account!

Daikon

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The other day I was at lunch in BCS (that is Bryan-College Station for all you non-Aggies out there) with several Masters of Horticulture.  We were talking about our gardens and I mentioned that my daikon were doing really well.  To my surprise, not a single one of these PhD Horticulturists knew what a daikon was.  I found this somewhat amusing but I guess if you do not eat a lot of Asian food, then you would have no reason to know about daikon. 

Sydney Pickle, Hannah Michna and Lindsey Pickle pull the first daikon of the year from the yupneck's garden

If you are not familiar with daikon, here is a little background.  They are a root crop much like carrots or parsnips.  In fact, the Japanese translation of their name means “large root”.  Daikon is a radish and it is a staple of Japanese food.  They cook it, pickle it, stir fry it, stew it and eat it raw.  The Chinese, Koreans and Indians also eat a lot of this spicy root.  The greens are also edible.  One reason it is so popular in the Far East is it’s storage capabilities.  Unbruised daikon can stay fresh for three months in a root cellar.  When dried, they can last much longer.  This allows the Japanese to have a ready supply of a vitamin C throughout the long winters.  There are more acres of daikon in production in Japan than any other vegetable.

There are two varieties of daikon.  One looks like a big turnip and can grow to 100 pounds.  However, the one that I grow is much more common.  Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus is a long white root that resembles a carrot.  It has white flesh and skin.  It can grow to lengths of 36” but is most often harvested when it is between 12” to 18” long and the diameter is between “1” and 2”.  Summer diakon have a sharper and spicier flavor than fall diakon.  Also, the taste of the daikon changes as you progress up the stalk.  The hottest (and most radish-ey tasting) part is near the tip.  The flavor becomes milder as you move up the root toward the greens. 

Daikon, Chinese cucmbers and volunteer zinnias in the potager

Daikon are very easy to grow.  They like rich, loose soil and full sun.  Plant at the same time as you plant other root crops.  They actually work best as a fall vegetable but do quite well in the spring.  Since they produce roots that weigh over a pound, a small amount of space will provide you with lots of radish. 

I work with several Indian and Chinese ex-pats so I grow enough to share.  This year, one of my friends took some home and had his wife make me pickles.  They are AWESOME!!!!  I have enjoyed these pickles so much that I am including the recipe here.  It is a simple and delicious recipe that will make a perfect side for all of your outdoor summer grilling.  Hope you enjoy!

Debbie Kwan’s Daikon Pickles

Slice the daikon and sprinkle with about 1 tsp of salt. Use your hands to knead the vegetables for about 3 minutes.  Place in fridge and wait about 15-30min until water has been expelled.  Drain in a colander and rinse under cold running water, then press gently to expel extra water.

 Combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup rice vinegar and 1/2 cup of water in a pot on low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Let cool then pour over the daikon. The brine should cover the daikon. Add peppers of your choice to make it spicy.  Let it marinate in the brine for at least 1 day before eating. They will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 weeks.

Daylilies-A Month of Blooms

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One of the daylilies that was passed along to me from my wife's grandmother

Very few plants in my garden give me as much enjoyment as my daylilies.  Early in April, I start watching them.  I am looking for that first sign of stalks. When I see these I know that soon, the green border around my potager will be covered in bright yellow flowers.

A masss of Nana's daylilies border my potager

My daylilies were passed to me by my wife’s grandmother.  Not directly, though.  A few years after she passed, we dug them up from her home place in the sandy loam of East Texas and moved them to the black clay of Washington County.  This sentence should tell you a lot about daylilies.  First, they lived at Nana’s for several years with absolutely no care.  So, daylilies are tough.  They also survived being dug out of a beautiful loamy soil and moved to a not so wonderful black clay.  So, daylilies are adaptable.  Throw in the fact that they are absolutely reliable, pest free and beautiful and you begin to understand why so many people love them.

A lovely daylily bred by Chris von Kohn. You can buy this and others from him. All of his contact info is at the bottom of the post.

History – Daylilies originated in China, Korea and Japan.  They found their way to the Americas by the 1700s.  The Tawny Daylily was one of the first.  It quickly escaped cultivation and is now so common on the east coast that many think it is a native wildflower.  This flower was often planted close to outhouses and so it derived the very unfortunate common name of “Outhouse Lily”.  Daylilies began to lose their popularity in the US in the 1800s.  In 1920, the “Hyperion” daylily was introduced.  This began the resurrection of the flower as a major bedding plant in American gardens.

Despite their name, they are not true lilies.  Daylilies belong to the genus Hemerocallis and there are over 60,000 registered cultivars.  Their name is derived from Greek and literally means “beautiful day”.  Since the 1950s, the US has been the world leader in daylily hybridization.  I have a young friend at A&M named Chris von Kohn.  He has already created over 1000 daylily hybrids.  He hasn’t gotten one named yet, but he is only 22!  Chris is an up and coming Master of Horticulture and I am betting that we are going to be hearing a lot more about him in the years to come.  Thanks to the efforts of people like Chris, you can now own daylilies in every color except blue.  Some have  a strong fragrance and others have none.  There are daylilies with ruffled petals and multi-colored petals.  Some have “eyes” and still other sparkle with “diamond dust”. 

Another lovely daylily bred by Chris von Kohn. He is about to start grad school so he will greatly appreciate every order. All of his contact info is at the bottom of the post.

Planting – Daylilies are incredibly easy to grow.  Plant them in direct sun (or dappled shade) in well worked soil.  Dig a hole about 8” deep and make a small mound in the center of the base.  Spread the roots of the plant over this mound and backfill to a point where there is no more than 1” of soil over the crown.  If the roots of the plant are too big for the hole, trim them.  Water them in and then apply mulch (but not around the crown).  Water regularly for the first year.  After that, the daylily should be able to survive with minimal amounts of supplemental water.

Dividing – Daylilies reproduce rapidly.  If their clumps become too dense, they will begin to flower less and less.  Because of this, you need to divide them every two or three years.  This is best done in late summer or early fall.  Also, it is a good idea to give your plants a good watering the day before you do your dividing and transplanting. 

There are two ways to divide your plants.  The easiest is to just stick your shovel in the middle of the clump and remove half of the plant.  Since they have an extensive root system you may need to push your shovel all the way into the soil.  Use the shovel to work around the new clump and remove.  Replant in a prepared hole at the same depth as the original plant and water.  Place them about two feet apart.

Another creation of Chris von Kohn. You can buy this and others from him. All of his contact info is at the bottom of the post.

If you want to get individual plants, you can use a sharp knife to divide your clump into fourths.  Once this done, you can begin to remove individual fans.  Replant these fans like previously described.

Very few beautiful plants are as hardy or as easy to grow as Daylilies.  There are varieties that are hardy from zones 1 to 11.  Once established, they have a low water requirement and they are relatively pest free.  On top of all of that, they are incredibly diverse in color and form.  With so much to offer there is no reason for you not to grow daylilies in your own garden.

Buy Your Daylilies Here – Chris von Kohn will be selling some of his creations this fall.  They are incredible!  He is currently taking orders.  They are in bloom now so if you live in the Arlington/DFW area you can go by and pick your favorite.  He will mark it and save it for you and you can pick it up in the fall.  You can reach Chris at cvk007@earthlink.net or you can give him a call at either 817-269-7474 or 817-483-5146.   If you don’t live in the DFW area, just drop him an e-mail and he will be happy to send you pictures and then ship your plants when they are ready.

The yupneck with Chris von Kohn. He has just been awarded the outstanding senior agriculture student for horticulture by Gamma Sigma Delta, The Honor Society of Agriculture.

Love-Lies-Bleeding

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For me, growing new things is a big part of the fun in gardening.  Each year, I like to try at least one new vegetable and one new flower.  Sometimes the new things work out and sometimes they don’t.  This year, one of my flower experiments has yielded a keeper: Love-Lies-Bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus).

Love-Lies-Bleeding flower heads just beginning to form

Love-Lies-Bleeding (and all amaranths for that matter) is easy to grow, tolerant of poor soils and incredible to look at.  In less than three months, mine have gone from seed to eye catching three foot tall plants covered in long red inflorescence that cascade almost down to the ground.  These plants have been grown for ornamental purposes for a very long time.  A. caudatus was included in a plant survey found in Colonial Williamsburg and it was very popular in Victorian English gardens.

Love-Lies-Bleeding is member of the amaranth family.  Amaranths are a diverse species with plants whose foliage and inflorescence range from yellow to red to deep purple.  In addition to producing very showy inflorescence, amaranths are edible.  Both the leaves and the seeds are harvested as food all over the world.  The leaves are used much like spinach and the seeds are used as grains.  However, since amaranths are not in the grass family, their seeds are gluten free.  Amaranth was a very important crop for both the Aztecs and the Inca.  To this day, the seeds are still “popped” like popcorn, mixed with honey, molasses or chocolate and sold as snacks on the streets of Mexico.

Up close on the developing flower head

The botanical name of Love-Lies-Bleeding derives from Greek and means “unfading flower”.  This is an accurate description as the flowers are very long lasting cut flowers and they can be easily dried  to extend the amount of time that you get to enjoy them.  For fresh flower arrangements, cut amaranths when ¾ of the flowers are open on the stem.  They will last 7-10 days in a vase.  If you want to dry them, harvest when the seed begin to set and the flowers are firm to the touch.  Cut and hang upside down for at least 10 days.  This is great for Texas as high heat during the drying process allows the flowers to better retain their color.

Love-Lies-Bleeding is easy to grow and extremely well suited for our hot Texas climate.  Plant seeds when the soil is around 70 degrees.  It is tolerant of both drought and poor soils.  In fact, too much nitrogen and the flowers will not be as bright.  Give it too much water and the plants may break.  Water deeply but infrequently.  It does not like wet feet.  Once it sprouts, thin to about 18” since it is not uncommon for these plants to reach five feet in height and spread to over two feet.

This is what the flower head looks like two weeks after the first picture was taken. Notice how the flower color has begun to fade. The soil in my potager has too much nitrogen for this plant that loves marginal soils.

Like all things that are easy to grow, Love-Lies-Bleeding does have its problems.  Since each plant can produce over 100,000 seeds, it can be a bit invasive (it is in the same family as pigweed).  However, when young, the plants have a shallow root system and are very easy to pull.  And, since I know I am going to have to pull weeds anyway, I might as well pull something that will grow into a beautiful plant if I miss it!

Heirloom Gardening in the South – Yesterday’s Plants for Today’s Gardens

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Bill Welch and Greg Grant are the premier “Masters of Horticulture” in the country.  Both of them have ample credentials to back up my claim.  However, what really sets them apart is their deep knowledge and sincere love of the plants and gardening traditions of the South.  They have worked for years to document, preserve and re-introduce “time tested plants” that have helped to color the fabric of the southern landscape tradition.  These true southern gentlemen share a common, and almost evangelical zeal to share that knowledge (which is another southern tradition). 

Heirlooms, a whirligig and a tire planter in a Louisiana garden. You can learn all about the origins of these southern garden accesories in this book.

Their latest book, “Heirloom Gardening in the South – Yesterday’s Plants for Today’s Gardens” is a masterful compilation of their many years of saving, growing and educating others on the value of heirloom plants.  Combining equal parts history, plant catalogue and how to information, this book is the perfect resource for all of us that garden in the South. 

The book is easy to read and full of eye catching photographs that document everything from stunning gardens to geranium cuttings.  The book is divided into five sections that tell you the history of the southern garden tradition, how to find and propagate these living antiques, where to plant them, and how to use them.  It also includes an exhaustive inventory of the heirloom plants that grow here.  Each plant in the inventory includes an in depth discussion of its history and habits.  This section alone would be worth far more than the cover price.

Byzantine gladiolus and a bottle tree in an East Texas garden

As an avid reader of gardening books, I have come to realize that most of them fall into two distinct categories: picture books and books that tell you how to grow things.  Rare is this book that combines these two elements.  “Heirloom Gardening in the South – Yesterday’s Plants for Today’s Gardens” is just such a book.  If you are serious about growing heirlooms in the south, then this book has to find its way to your bookshelf!

How to Harvest and Cure Onions

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This past weekend, I pulled up 52 pounds of 10/15 onions.  Definitely my best onion harvest ever.  Now the question is, “What do I do with 52 lbs of onions”?  Since my wife and I are empty nesters, it is going to take us a while to eat all of those onions.  Especially when you take into account the fact that I just harvested an apple box full of shallots and I am still growing Egyptian Walking Onions.  I am sure we will be sharing with our kids and neighbors, but we are still going to have to preserve a large number of these onions.  Here’s how we preserve our onion crop:

10/15 onions in the potager two weeks ago

First, if you are new to gardening, you may wonder when to harvest or pull your onions.  The general rule is “Pull when the tops fall over”.  Below is a picture of what that looks like.  I believe in letting nature take its course.  I do not pull until 75% or more of the tops have fallen.  Once they fall, you can leave them in the ground for a week to ten days.  This starts the natural curing process.  However, do not leave them in the ground much more than ten days as that makes them susceptible to soil borne pathogens that can cause mold and rot in storage.  Just a little note,  I have heard several people say you have to cure onions before you can eat them.  This is not true.  Onions can be eaten at any time in their growth cycle (tops and all).  You only have to cure onions that you want to preserve.

The same onions from the first photo after their tops have fallen over

Once you have pulled your onions, spread them out in the sun.  Make sure they have room between them for air circulation.  I put mine on an old screen door up on saw horses.  The length of time varies.  If you pull them on a dry, hot day in Texas, then a few hours should be sufficient.  If it has rained recently, the onions moisture content will be higher and you will need to leave them out until the roots become noticeably harder than when they were harvested. 

Once they have completed this initial drying period, place them in a dry, shady place to allow them to complete the curing process.  Many people put them on their porch.  If you do not have room on your porch or in your garage, put them outside on a board or screen door to keep them off of the ground.  Place a sheet over them for shade.  Do not use plastic or canvas as this traps moisture.  You can cut the tops off at this time if you wish but if you do, leave about one inch of top on the onion.

Placing the onions on an old screen door. Allow plenty of space around them so they will cure properly.

While they are drying, turn them every few days to make sure they are drying evenly.  This part of the process can take two or three weeks.  You will know they are ready when the outer skins are papery and the roots are dry and brittle. 

Once your onion’s have cured, you can place them in mesh bags (or braid their tops together) and hang them in the garage for a little more drying.  If you are going to put them in a root cellar where humidity is high, you want to make sure they are as dry as possible.  Properly cured onions can keep for several months.  Check them often and discard any that are becoming soft.  If you see any sign of sprouting, eat them immediately, replant, or discard.

Surviving the 2011 Drought

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Right now it is so dry at my house that when I went fishing the other day I had to throw everything I caught back because all the fish were infested with ticks!  Now that ‘s dry!  Seriously though, it is dry at my house.  In fact, according to the US Drought Monitor (http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html) it is EXCEPTIONALLY dry at my house.  Exceptional is the highest drought rating assigned by the US Drought Monitor.  If you look closely at the map below you will note that Washington County and half of Harris County are experiencing an exceptional drought.  The last time it was this dry was the drought of 1917-1918.  While this is extremely bad news for farmers and ranchers, it is pretty bad news for us gardens and yardners as well.  Hello high water bills!  If I were a betting man, I would be willing to bet that forced water reductions are on the way for many of us in Central Texas.  Since it is so dry, I thought this would be a good time to review some watering best practices.

 

How Much

As a general rule, most vegetables and flowers (and your yard too) need about an inch of water per week.  How do you know if you are putting out an inch of water?  The best way is to measure.  If using a sprinkler, put several cans out in various places under the sprinkler’s pattern.  Let it run for 15 minutes and measure the water in the cans.  Average those numbers.  If those cans averaged ¼” of water in 15 minutes then you will need to run that sprinkler for one hour. When measuring flow for soaker hoses or drip lines it is better to use tuna cans.  Also, if using soaker hoses do not use more than 100 foot runs.  The average garden faucet can push water through 600’ of hose.  However, at distances of greater than 100’ pressure drops drastically beyond that 100’ point.

When to Water

Most experts suggest watering in the early morning.  Especially if using sprinklers.  Winds are lower in the morning, humidity is high and temperatures are low.  This is the ideal time to maximize water usage and minimize loss to evaporation.  Also, many plants are prone to disease if their foliage stays wet.  Watering in the morning will let the foliage dry up rapidly as the day warms up.

Mulch

You know the yupneck loves his mulch.  In addition to reducing evaporation and keeping the soil cool, mulch suppresses those pesky weeds that compete for your plants water.  One thing to remember, mulch not only helps keep water in, it can keep it out too.  A deep layer of mulch can trap alot water if it is applied from above.

Mulch and soaker hoses in the yupneck’s 2010 fall garden

Soaker Hoses and Drip Irrigation

I love soaker hoses.  They are cheap, easy to use and they put the water where it is needed.  If you use soaker hoses, you can water anytime you want since you are not going to be wetting the plants foliage.  Place your soaker hoses under a good layer of mulch and you will be doubling the benefit.  Drip irrigation works the same way.  The only thing I don’t like about drip systems is the cost and maintenance.  That is a personal thing though.  I know lots of folks that swear by their drip systems.

Trees and shrubs

Watering trees is considerably different than watering veggies or flowers.  While most garden plants need one inch of water per week, most trees need gallons of water.  A mid-sized fig tree needs at least five gallons of water per week.  Also, you shouldn’t water a mature tree at the trunk.  Use a sprinkler or drip hoses to saturate the area under the trees drip line.  Water to runoff and quit.  This deep watering should get the tree through about 10 days.  If the ground around a tree stays too wet for too long you can kill young roots.

Newly planted trees and shrubs should be watered differently than mature ones.  While trying to get these plants established it is alright to water right at the trunk.  Water to run off every five days.  Here is a trick I learned from my wife’s very frugal and very Czech grandmother who believed in wasting nothing (especially not water).  Take an empty 5 gallon bucket and drill a hole in the side right above the bottom of the bucket.  After planting the tree, put this bucket beside the tree so that the hole is pointing toward the base of the tree.  Now, simply fill the bucket once a week during the hottest part of the year.  As the bucket drains it will give exactly 5 gallons of water to the new tree.